Physiological Arousal and its Effects on Females interpretations of physical attractiveness

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                Psychology Coursework




Aim:

I aim to find out if males aged over 18 are affected by physiological arousal when rating a randomly selected group of females, aged 18 to 25.

Procedure:

  • Get 2 boards of pictures, each with 6 pictures of males of varied attractiveness
  • Get 20 females volunteers, aged 16 and over
  • Randomly allocate to 2 groups
  • Take pulse rate for 30 seconds
  • Group 1 rate board one, group 2 rate board 2
  • Do an hour’s worth of physical exercise, in a Physical Education class
  • As soon as finished, Group 2 rate board one, group 1 rate board two
  • Take pulse rate for 30 seconds

Findings:

Nearly all of the average ratings for each picture went down after physical exercise.  

Conclusion:

        Any change was due to chance, therefore accept H0


“Effect of Vitamin Injections on Visual Skills” by Schachter and Singer (1962)

In 1962, Schachter and Singer conducted a study using misattribution of arousal. In this experiment, participants were told that the experimenters were researching the “effect of vitamin injections on visual skills” and gave participants an injection of either adrenaline or saline (saline being used on the control group). Participants who received the shot of adrenaline were either informed about the side effects of the injection, or not informed, and then all participants were exposed to either a happy or an angry confederate. Schachter and Singer hypothesized that participants would express the same emotion as the confederates. As a result, they found that the participants who received the adrenaline shot but were not informed about getting it were more likely to express the same emotional state as the confederate they were exposed to. Their findings show that because the people were aroused by adrenaline, but had no explanation or label for it, they attributed their arousal to a feeling that they saw another person expressing.

“The Three Factor Theory of Love” by Hatfield and Walster (1982)

This is based on work done by Schachter and Singer (1981) called the Attributional Model of Physiological Arousal. Schachter and Singer said that if we monitor our internal arousal state (e.g. heart rate, adrenalin levels, breathing rate), and take note of when it is at its highest. When it is at its highest, you would have to look around your life and see what is happening to you at the time when your internal arousal state is higher than normal, you would label this high arousal level as a specific mood depending on your external circumstances.

For example, if you have a high arousal state (heart rate and breathing rate and adrenaline level high, and an agitated psychological state), and you look around your life and you have exams coming up and lots of coursework deadlines. You would label this state as STRESSED.

Another example, could be if you have a high arousal state, and you are about to leave to go to University or on holiday, you could label the arousal state as EXCITED.

Hatfield and Walster apply this idea to LOVE. They said that in order for this to work, you need three factors to be present:

  • Physiological Arousal
  • An suitable love object
  • Cultural exposure to the idea of love

The first of these factors provides the stimulus to think “What’s going on?” and “What am I feeling?” The second two factors permit us to put the label ‘love’ on to the feeling.

UP

  • Heart rate
  • Breathing rate
  • Blood pressure

  • Agitated psychological state

LOOK AROUND LIFE; ARE THERE ANY REASONS FOR THIS ACTIVATION OF YOUR INTERNAL AROUSAL??

  • EXAMS???
  • HOLIDAY???
  • LEAVING FOR UNIVERSITY???

STIMULUS FROM THE ENVIRONMENT

E.G. HANDSOME MALE

THIS PROVIDES THE LABEL “LOVE” ON THE FEELINGS

LEARNED KNOWLEDGE/BELIEF THAT ROMANTIC LOVE EXISTS AND THAT IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU. ALLOWS YOU TO INTERPRET THE OTHER PERSON AS AN APPROPRIATE LOVE OBJECT. ALLOWS LABELLING OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL FEELINGS AS ‘LOVE’

Evaluation

This theory is intuitively correct. We know that we get these feelings when someone we like is near or we are thinking about them. It is also a nice scientific explanation of the mechanisms behind the feelings involved in falling in love. It brings together physiological (nature) and cultural (nurture) factors in the explanation. It also explains cultural differences in the experience of love, as it takes into account the factor of cultural exposure.

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Although, if you follow this model completely, all you need to do is to dress up & get your ‘beloved’ into a potentially exciting situation (e.g. on a roller coaster) and (as long as they are Western) they should immediately fall in love with you, which doesn’t generally happen. Therefore, when you think of that the theory doesn’t seem to work that well. There must be other factors involved, so this is not a complete explanation. Another criticism of the theory comes from the idea of an ‘appropriate love object’. Culture tells us who is ‘appropriate’ i.e. similar age, opposite ...

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