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Motivation and Emotion: 8B—
Emotions, Stress, and Health
OUTLINE OF RESOURCES
I. Introducing Emotions, Stress, and Health
Introductory Exercise: Fact or Falsehood? (p. 3) Classroom Exercise: Need for Affect Scale (p. 3)
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Would You Like Never to Be Sad Again, Etc.? (p. 4) Videos: The Brain, 2nd ed.,
Module 21: Emotions, Stress, and Health*
II. Theories of Emotion
Classroom Exercises: Facial Feedback and the James-Lange Theory of Emotion
(p. 4) A Process Model of Emotion Regulation (p. 4)
Psychology Video Tool Kit: Emotion = Arousal Plus
Interpretation*
III. Embodied Emotion
A. Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System
Classroom Exercise: Sensation-Seeking Scale (p. 5) Video: Psychology: The Human Experience, Module
20: The Physiology of Emotions*
B. Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions
C. Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions
Lecture/Discussion Topics: Oxytocin and Trust (p. 7) The Brain and Emotion (p. 7) Government
Confidence in the Polygraph (p. 8) Interviewing for Integrity (p. 9)
Classroom Exercise: Estimating the Effects of Test Error (p. 9) Student Project: Assessing Brain
Asymmetry (p. 8) Psychology Video Tool Kit: Brain Fingerprinting: Memory, Recognition, and Lie
Detection*
D. Cognition and Emotion
Lecture/Discussion Topics: Cognitive Appraisals and Emotion (p. 11) Public and Private SelfConsciousness (p. 11)
IV. Expressed Emotion
Classroom Exercises: The Mood Awareness Scale (p. 12) Emotional Expressivity Scale (p. 12)
A. Detecting Emotion
Classroom Exercises: Nonverbal Communication (p. 13) “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test: Sample
Items (p. 13) Difficulty in Detecting Deception (p. 14)
*Video, ActivePsych, and Psychology Video Tool Kit titles followed by an asterisk are not repeated within the core
resource unit. They are listed, with running times, in the Preface of these resources and described in detail in their
Faculty Guides, which are available at www.worthpublishers.com/mediaroom.
Classroom Exercise/Student Project: The Affective Communication Test (p. 13) Video: Digital Media Archive:
Psychology, 1st ed., Video Clip 27: Reading Nonverbal Communication* PsychSim 5: Catching Liars (p. 13)
ActivePsych: Digital Media Archive, 2nd ed.: Ekman’s Facial Expression Research: Detecting
“Microexpressions”*
B. Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior
C. Culture and Emotional Expression
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Cultural Differences in Emotional Expression (p. 14) Video: Digital Media Archive:
Psychology, 1st ed., Video Clip 28: Ekman’s Studies on Facial Expressions of Emotion* PsychSim 5: Expressing
Emotion (p. 14)
D. The Effects of Facial Expressions
Lecture/Discussion Topics: Freezing Frowns With Botox (p. 15) “Catch the Feeling” (p. 15) Psychology Video Tool
Kit: Emotions and Facial Expression*
V. Experienced Emotion
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Elevation—A New Positive Emotion (p. 20) Classroom Exercises: The Affect Grid (p. 16)
Brief Measures of Positive and Negative Affect—The PANAS Scales (p. 17) Individual Differences in Emotional
Complexity (p. 17) The Disgust Scale (p. 18) Envy and Jealousy (p. 20) Classroom Exercise/Student Project: The
Affect Intensity Measure (p. 16) Student Project: The Relationship Between Affect and Personality Traits (p. 18)
Psychology Video Tool Kit: The Development of Disgust*
A. Fear
Lecture/Discussion Topics: The Amygdala and Fear (p. 22) Scared to Death (p. 22) Classroom Exercise: What Do
You Fear? (p. 21) Psychology Video Tool Kit: Do Body Smells Reveal Fear and Happiness?*
B. Anger
Lecture/Discussion Topics: Angry Driving (p. 24) Do We Need to Vent Our Rage? (p. 26) Classroom Exercise: The
Anger Discomfort Scale (p. 25) Feature Film: Fried Green Tomatoes and Expressing Anger (p. 23) Classroom
Exercise/Student Project: The Multidimensional Anger Inventory (p. 24) Student Project: Monitoring Anger (p. 24)
Psychology Video Tool Kit: Rage: One Man’s Story and Treatment* Rage: One Woman’s Story and Treatment*
C. Happiness
Lecture/Discussion Topics: Two Dimensions of Positive Affect (p. 27) Money and Happiness (p. 29) Rising
Happiness and Freedom of Choice (p. 29) Laughter (p. 31) Classroom Exercises: What Is Satisfying About
Satisfying Events? (p. 27) Happiness Measures (p. 28) Orientations to Happiness and Life Satisfaction (p. 28)
Adaptation Level (p. 30) Relative Deprivation (p. 30) Psychology Video Tool Kit: A Happiness Trait?* The Search
for Happiness*
VI. Stress and Health
Videos: Digital Media Archive: Psychology, 1st ed., Video Clip 38: Stress on the Job, and 39: Selye’s Stress
Response Studies* Psychology: The Human Experience, Module 35: What Is Stress?*
Student Project: Constructing a Family Health History (p. 32)
A. Stress and Illness
Lecture/Discussion Topics: Tend and Befriend (p. 34) Hassles and Uplifts (p. 34)
Classroom Exercises: Stress Level and Vulnerability to Stress (p. 33) Stress Symptoms (p. 33) The Stress
Appraisal Measure (p. 33)
PsychSim 5: All Stressed Out (p. 32)
Psychology Video Tool Kit: Measuring
Stress While Running With the Bulls* The
Stress Response*
B. Stress and the Heart
Lecture/Discussion Topics: Broken Heart Syndrome (p. 36) Type D Personality (p. 37) Classroom Exercise:
Hostility and Its Alleviation (p. 36)
C. Stress and Susceptibility to Disease
Video: The Mind, 2nd ed., Module 4: Cognition and the Immune System:
Mind/Body Interaction* Psychology Video Tool Kit: Stress and the Immune
System: Caretakers and Risk* Fighting Cancer: Mobilizing the Immune
System*
UNIT OUTLINE
I. Introducing Emotions, Stress, and Health
(p. 366)
Introductory Exercise: Fact or Falsehood?
The correct answers to Handout 8B–1, as shown below, can be confirmed on the listed text pages.
1
2
3
4
5
F (p. 372) 6. T (p. 390)
T (p. 376) 7. T (pp. 402–403)
T (p. 378) 8. F (p. 403)
T (p. 381) 9. F (p. 405)
F (p. 388) 10. T (p. 406)
Classroom Exercise: Need for Affect Scale
A good way to introduce your discussion of emotion is to note that some people tend to avoid emotional experiences
while others deliberately seek them out. Gregory Maio and Victoria Esses cite the Star Trek characters Mr. Spock
and Dr. McCoy as representing the two ends of this continuum. Spock is uncomfortable with emotions and prefers
to engage in analytical thinking, whereas McCoy is passionate and eagerly embraces emotions. Handout 8B–2,
designed by Maio and Esses, attempts to assess individual differences in the need for affect.
Separate subscales measure the need to approach and the need to avoid emotion because the researchers
recognize that approach and avoidance motivations are at least somewhat distinct. Need to approach is assessed
with items 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, and
26. Need to avoid is measured with items 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 21, 22, 23, and 25. To score each subscale,
students should add the numbers in front of each set of 13 items, thus obtaining two separate scores. The subscale
scores can range from –39 to +39, with higher scores reflecting greater emotional approach and greater emotional
avoidance. Mean scores for 252 psychology undergraduates were 15.85 and –9.24 on the approach and avoidance
scales, respectively. The correlation between scores on the two scales was –0.36. An overall score assessing need for
affect is defined as emotion approach minus emotion avoidance. Thus, total scores can range from –78 to +78, with
higher scores reflecting greater need for affect.
The researchers report that the need for affect was positively associated with extraversion, agreeableness, and
openness to experience and negatively associated with neuroticism. No relationship was found between need for
affect and conscientiousness. (See Unit 10 on Personality for a discussion of these traits.) Moreover, the need for
affect was positively related to the reported intensity of emotional experiences. The results suggested that those high
in need for affect are more aware of emotions and thus are likely more adept at understanding and utilizing their
emotions.
Of particular note is that the need for affect was positively linked with the need for cognition, which indicates that,
contrary to conventional wisdom, those who seek emotional experience also tend to seek and enjoy effortful
cognitive endeavors. They also seem more open to uncertainty and are more tolerant of a lack of structure. Finally,
those high in need for affect seemed to possess attitudes that are more extreme, are more willing to view emotional
films, and reported a greater number of emotions in response to the death of Princess Diana.
Maio, G. R., & Esses, V. M. (2001). The need for affect: Individual differences in the motivation to approach or avoid
emotions. Journal of Personality, 69, 583–615.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Would You Like Never to Be
Sad Again, Etc.? In his intriguing little book When You Can Live Twice as Long, What Will You Do? Charles Platt
poses 100 probing questions that are wonderful discussion starters. All of them raise questions regarding the impact
of scientific advances and accompanying technological developments on everyday life. They range from dilemmas
that concern us right now to hypothetical situations that may not occur for decades. Several of the questions are
relevant to the research on emotion. For example, “Would you like never to be sad again?” raises the issue of the
function of negative emotions as well as their relationship to positive emotions. Another question, “Will the ultimate
lie detector be a bane or a blessing?” asks whether the elimination of all deception would improve relationships and
make life easier. Other provocative discussion starters relevant to this unit include “Would you share another
person’s total life experience?” “How would you act if you felt the pain of others?” and “Do you want to measure
your pleasure?” Highly recommended for lively classroom discussions.
Platt, C. (1989). When you can live twice as long, what will you do? New York: William Morrow.
II. Theories of Emotion (pp. 366–368)
Classroom Exercise: Facial Feedback and the James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Charles Schallhorn and Jeff Lunde provide a classroom exercise primarily intended to introduce the James-Lange
theory of emotion. The demonstration replicates research mentioned in the text under “The Effects of Facial
Expressions,” so you will want to use the demonstration before your students have read that section of the text.
Before class you need to prepare a packet of 10 newspaper cartoons and make enough copies for each student
in class. Distribute the cartoons and Handout 8B–3, Schallhorn and Lunde’s rating sheet, to each student. Instruct
your students to keep the materials turned over on their desks until you give the signal to begin. Divide the class in
half (left and right halves work well). For one group, have students hold a pencil or pen in their mouth just behind
the front teeth (and thereby to smile). Tell them the need to keep their lips apart, not allowing them to touch the
pen/pencil. Have the second group hold a pencil or pen between the upper lip and nose (and thereby to frown).
Don’t specifically tell them they are smiling or frowning. Once both groups are clear on how to hold the
pen/pencil, have them read the cartoons and evaluate how funny each is on the rating scale. Finally, ask each
student to find his or her mean rating for the entire cartoon packet and write it on the bottom of the rating sheet.
Collect the ratings and have an assistant tally the ratings for each group. If your class is not too large, you can have
students report their overall mean ratings orally as you write them on the chalkboard. Compute the mean for each
group. Students induced to smile will rate the cartoons as funnier than those induced to frown.
Ask students to explain the difference in group ratings. Do we smile because we are happy or are we happy because
we smile? The results suggest that facial expressions help determine emotional reactions. The finding is consistent
with the James-Lange theory of emotion. William James suggested, “We feel sorry because we cry, angry because
we strike, afraid because we tremble.” Research confirms this by showing that when people have been instructed to
mold their faces in ways that mimic expressions of the basic emotions, including happiness, anger, fear, disgust, and
sadness, they also experience those emotions. Just activating the smiling muscles by holding a pen in the teeth
(rather than with the lips which activates frowning muscles) is enough to make cartoons seem more amusing.
Schallhorn, C., & Lunde, J. (1999). The facial feedback hypothesis: Are emotions really related to the faces we make? In
L. T. Benjamin, B. F. Nodine, R. M. Ernst, &
C. B. Broeker (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology, Vol. 4. Washington, DC: American
Psychological Association.
Classroom Exercise: A Process Model of Emotion Regulation
James Gross has argued that emotions are not merely passions that come and go more or less of their own accord.
His process model of emotional regulation assumes that we exert considerable control over them. We use a variety
of strategies to influence which emotions we have and when we have them. According to Gross, emotion regulation
includes all the conscious and nonconscious strategies we use to increase, maintain, or decrease one or more of the
components (feelings, behaviors, and physiological responses) that make up an emotion. To complement the
theories of emotion presented in the text, you might present his model in class.
The model identifies five points at which emotion may be regulated in the emotion generative process. First is our
selection of the situation. We may choose to have dinner with a friend the night before an important test rather than
to attend a last-minute study session with other anxious students (situation selection). Second, after the situation is
selected, we may modify its emotional impact. When our friend asks whether we are prepared for the exam, we
may make it clear that we would rather talk about something else (situation modification). Third, we may select
which aspect of the situation we focus on. We may distract ourselves from a conversation that has taken an
upsetting turn by counting ceiling tiles (attentional deployment). Fourth, once we have focused on some specific
aspect of the situation, we may select which of many possible meanings it has for us. If the test is mentioned during
the dinner conversation, we may remind ourselves that it is “only a test” rather than a measure of our value as a
human being (cognitive change). Finally, we may attempt to influence our own responses once they have been
elicited. In the testing example, we may hide our embarrassment after bombing the exam (response modulation).
Handout 8B–4 is Gross’ Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, which assesses two different strategies.
Reappraisal is an antecedent-focus strategy; it is something we do before emotion-response tendencies have been
fully activated and have changed our behavior and peripheral physiological functioning. To score, respondents
simply add the numbers they gave in response to items 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 10 and then calculate the mean. The mean
scores for undergraduate males and females were 4.60 and 4.61, respectively (obviously not a significant
difference). Suppression is a response-focused strategy; it is something we do late in the emotion-generative process
and primarily affects the behavioral aspect of emotion. To score, respondents simply add the numbers they gave in
response to items 2, 4, 6, and 9, and then again calculate the mean. The mean scores for undergraduate males and
females were 3.64 and 3.11, respectively, with males scoring significantly higher than females. Reappraisal and
suppression scale scores are independent.
In a series of studies, Gross and Oliver John found that reappraisers experience and express greater positive
emotion and less negative emotion. On the other hand, suppressors experience and express less positive emotion and
experience more negative emotion. Reappraisal also tends to be linked to better interpersonal functioning, while
using suppression is related to worse interpersonal functioning. Finally using reappraisal is related positively to
well-being while using suppression is negatively related.
Gross and Oliver conclude that while reappraisal seems to have more to recommend it than suppression, there may
be times when suppression is the best and only option. For example, in some cases there may simply not be time to
cognitively reevaluate a rapidly developing situation. The researchers also emphasize that their findings relate only
to the regulation of emotion and not the regulation of aggressive or sexual impulses. In fact, emotion regulation
scores are not correlated with impulse control.
Gross, J. J. (2001). Emotion regulation in adulthood: Timing is everything. Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 10, 214–219.
Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect,
relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348–362.
III. Embodied Emotion (pp. 369–377)
A. Emotions and the Autonomic Nervous System
(pp. 500–501)
Classroom Exercise: Sensation-Seeking Scale
Most research indicates that moderate levels of arousal are adaptive. Either too low or too high a level is disruptive.
It’s not surprising then that most people seek a moderate level of arousal by controlling the amount of external
stimulation. Too much stimulation and they retreat to a quiet place. Too little and they seek greater activity.
Marvin Zuckerman has argued that individuals differ in the amount of stimulation they need or want, and hence in
“sensation-seeking.” Handout 8B–5 provides a measure of sensation-seeking. The 10 items are drawn from the
Impulsive Sensation-Seeking Scale of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ). Although this
questionnaire contains 19 items to measure impulsive sensation-seeking, Anton Aluja, Jerome Rossier, Luis F.
Garcia, Alis Anglemitner, Michael Kulman, and Zuckerman have developed a shortened form of the ZKPQ that uses
the 10 items in Handout 8B–5 to measure the critical tendency. Students score their scales by counting the number
of times they circled “T.” Thus, scores can range from 0 to 10, with higher scores reflecting a greater tendency
toward sensation-seeking. Scores of 0 to 2 would reflect low sensation-seeking; 4 to 7, moderate sensation-seeking;
and 8 to 10, high sensation-seeking.
Zuckerman and other researchers have identified four forms of sensation-seeking.
Thrill-and-Adventure-Seeking: Some people may seek excitement in risky but socially acceptable activities such as
parachute jumping, sky diving, and race-car driving. Whether or not those who have taken the test have had an
opportunity to engage in these activities, their expression of a desire to do so is highly predictive of their behavior in
many other areas.
Experience-Seeking: This represents the desire to seek sensation through the mind, the senses, and a nonconforming
lifestyle. Some people reject the conventional middleclass lifestyle and seek a freer existence with unusual friends,
frequent travel, or artistic expression.
Disinhibition: Those who have chosen the middleclass lifestyle but find it boring may seek escape in social drinking
and partying. Zuckerman calls this a kind of “extraverted sensation-seeking”— some of us need other people as
sources of stimulation.
Boredom Susceptibility: This is not so much another form of sensation-seeking as it is a low tolerance for experience
that is repetitious or constant. While not all sensation-seekers are incapable of facing long periods with little external
stimulation, the boredom-susceptible person gets extremely restless under such conditions.
Research on sensation-seeking suggests that this personality trait can affect many different aspects of people’s
lives, including their job choices, engagement in sports, satisfaction in marriage, driving habits, and even tastes in
food, music, and art. Compared with their counterparts, high sensation-seekers are more likely to smoke and abuse
drugs and are more attracted to high-stress careers. Zuckerman argues that high sensation-seeking is a normal
personality trait and that, despite its association with risky behavior, it can bring people into prosocial occupations
such as law enforcement, fire-fighting, and emergency room medicine. Sensation-seeking is higher in men than in
women, peaks in the late teens and early twenties, and then gradually decreases with age.
Psychologist Frank Farley has applied the term “Type T personality” (for thrill-seeking) to those who seem to
need a life of constant stimulation and risk-taking. Type Ts, observes Farley, are invariably high-energy people.
Some, such as Nobel prize–winning biologist Francis Crick, find excitement in mental exercise. Crick, at one time
a successful physicist, switched in midcareer to biology where he won honors for his work with DNA. Sometimes,
however, the energy goes awry. John Belushi was a successful, creative entertainer who sought stimulation in
drugs.
Farley’s model of thrill-seeking distinguishes between the Big T “positive” personality and the Big T
“negative” personality. The former accounts for involvement in entrepreneurship, extreme sports such as
parachuting and hang-gliding, or creative science and art. The latter may turn to crime, violence, or terrorism for the
sheer thrill of it.
Whereas Type A personalities are dangerous to themselves, “Type T,” says Farley, “are potentially doubly
dangerous—to themselves and to others.” For example, he reports that some even make a point of driving while
drunk for the added excitement and risk. He further argues that Type Ts can be identified during childhood and
should be pushed away from the destructive and toward the creative. Researchers Louise Masse and Richard
Tremblay of the University of London reported that 6-year-old boys who are most inclined to seek new thrills and
least fearful of possibly dangerous situations are at greatest risk of starting to use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs between
ages 10 and 15.
Both Farley and Zuckerman reject the notion that sensation- or thrill-seekers have a neurotic need or desire to solve
a psychological problem. Rather, these people have a distinctly different brain chemistry. “Some people have
brains that keep pace with stimulation intensities,” writes Zuckerman. “The stronger the stimulus the more the
brain responds. Other persons have some kind of inhibition that actually diminishes their response at high
intensities.” High-sensation seekers tend to be the former.
Zuckerman reports that, compared to low sensation-seekers, high sensation-seekers show lower amounts of
monoamine oxidase (MAO), an enzyme responsible for maintaining the proper levels of neurotransmitters in the
nerve cells. Too little MAO means more neurotransmitter availability and less inhibition in the nervous system.
Because of weak biochemical brakes in the synapse, high sensation-seekers may have less control over their
behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
Twin studies (comparisons of identical and fraternal twins in which both siblings were raised in the same families
and comparisons of identical and fraternal twins separated at birth and adopted into different families) indicate that
sensation-seeking is about 60 percent genetic. That is a high degree of heritability, because heritability typically
ranges from 30 percent to 50 percent for most personality traits. Research also suggests that the environmental
contribution to sensation-seeking is due not to the family environment but to the environment outside the home,
such as friends and accidental life experiences.
Bowman, L. (1997, February 5). Even at 6, it’s not too soon to predict boys’ teen vices. Grand Rapids Press,
p. 1A.
Masse, L. C., & Tremblay, R. E. (1997). Behavior of boys in kindergarten and the onset of substance use during
adolescence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 54, 62–68.
Munsey, C. (2006, July/August). Frisky, but more risky. Monitor on Psychology, 40–42.
Looking for a life of thrills. (1985, April 15). Time, 91–93.
Zuckerman, M. (1991). Sensation-seeking trait. Encyclopedia of Human Biology, 6, 809–817.
Zuckerman, M. (2002). Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ): An alternative five-factorial model. In B.
De Raad & M. Perugini (Eds.), Big five assessment (pp. 377–396). Seattle, WA: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.
Zuckerman, M. (2000). Are you a risk-taker? Psychology Today, 52–57.
Zuckerman, M. (2005). Psychobiology of personality (2nd ed.). New York: Cambridge University Press.
B. Physiological Similarities Among Specific Emotions (p. 370)
C. Physiological Differences Among Specific Emotions (pp. 370–372)
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Oxytocin and Trust
The text discussion of the role of hormone secretions in emotion can be extended with Michael Cosfield’s
fascinating research finding that oxytocin fosters individuals’ willingness to trust others in financial transactions.
In the study, men who inhaled a nasal spray spiked with oxytocin gave more money to partners in a risky
investment game than did men who sniffed a spray containing no active ingredient. More specifically, each of 58
male college students was paid $64 to participate in the experiment. They were paired off, with one man randomly
assigned the role of an investor and the other the role of a trustee. Each participant received 12 tokens, valued at 32
cents each, redeemable at the end of the study. The investor in each pair had to decide how many tokens to give to
the trustee. Both participants, sitting face-to-face, knew that the researchers would quadruple that investment. The
trustee then determined whether to keep the entire, enhanced pot or give some portion of the proceeds—whatever
seemed fair—to the investor.
Results indicated that among those who inhaled oxytocin, about half gave all their tokens to trustees, and most
of the rest contributed a majority of their tokens. However, only one-fifth of investors who had inhaled a placebo
gave all their tokens, and another one-third offered a majority. The oxytocin influenced only investors; that is,
trustees returned comparable amounts of money after inhaling either spray. Interestingly, trustee responses were
generous when the investors offered most of their tokens but were stingy when they offered few. Also, replacing the
trustee with a computer issuing random payoffs dropped the volunteers’ investment rates back to normal and
suggested, argued the researchers, that trust, not risk taking, is the emotional factor influenced by the hormone.
The influence of oxytocin, suggests neuroscientist Antonio Damasio (in an accompanying editorial in the
journal Nature), “is a remarkable finding.” He had previously argued that the hormone acts to promote love. “It
adds trust to the mix,” concluded Damasio, “for there is no love without trust.” Political scientist Amitai Etzioni
urged caution in interpreting the findings: “A chemical may move us over a bit in one direction or another, but the
notion that it will make us trust someone we otherwise would not is way beyond what the study shows or can be
expected.”
In future research, Kosfield and his colleagues hope to determine whether oxytocin may combat social phobia and
other psychological disorders that result in social avoidance.
Kosfield, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P., Fischbacher, U., & Fehr, E. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature, 435,
673–676.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: The Brain and Emotion
The text notes that people with positive personalities show more activity in the left frontal lobe than in the right.
Psychologist Richard Davidson has collaborated with Tenzin Gyatso, also known as the fourteenth Dalai Lama and
winner of a Nobel peace prize. In March 2000, they met in Dharamasala, India, to measure the brain waves of one
senior Tibetan monk. He proved to have the most left-sided asymmetry ever recorded.
To assess whether this reflected the effect of training, Davidson joined with Jon Kabat-Zinn, who uses a form of
mindfulness meditation (rooted in Buddhist strategies) to teach stress reduction. Their research participants were
drawn from workers employed in high-stress jobs in the biotechnology industry. A total of 41 were taught
mindfulness meditation and practiced it for eight weeks. Their brainwave patterns and those of control participants
who did not receive the training were assessed before and after the eight-week period.
Before training, all the participants tended toward a right-sided asymmetry, consistent with the experience of chronic
stress. Compared with the control participants, those who learned and practiced the new meditation strategy showed
a significant shift toward left-sided asymmetry. They reported feeling more energized and less anxious.
Interestingly, the meditators also showed a more robust immune response to a flu shot. In short, practicing
mindfulness meditation appears to alter human biology, and these changes seem to foster more positive emotional
traits.
Writing in the New York Times, the Dalai Lama suggested that mindfulness meditation is a nonsectarian
strategy involving “a state of alertness in which the mind does not get caught up in thoughts or sensations, but lets
them come and go, much like watching a river flow by . . . these methods are not just useful but inexpensive. You
don’t need a drug or injection. You don’t have to become a Buddhist, or adopt any particular religion. Everyone has
the potential of leading a peaceful, meaningful life.”
Davidson, R. J., et al. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic
Medicine, 65, 564–570.
Gyatso, T. (2003, April 26). A monk in the lab. The New York Times, p. A19.
Larsen, R. J., & Buss, D. M. (2008). Personality: Domains of knowledge about human nature (3rd ed.). New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Student Project: Assessing Brain Asymmetry
The text notes that EEG recordings suggest a tendency for negative emotions to be linked to the right hemisphere
and positive emotions to the left. Furthermore, depression-prone people, and those having a generally negative
personality, show more right frontal lobe activity. People with positive personalities show more activity in the left
frontal lobe. On the basis of the research findings, Randy Larsen and David Buss suggest that individual differences
in frontal brain asymmetry demonstrate enough stability and consistency to be indicative of an underlying biological
disposition or trait.
According to Larsen and Buss, research also suggests that a person’s characteristic level of left- or right-sided
activation may be indicated by the direction their eyes drift as they concentrate on answering a difficult question.
For example, in response to “Make up a sentence using the words rhapsody and pleasure,” people’s eyes typically
drift to the left or right. Among right-handed persons, eyes drifting to the right signify left-side activation and eyes
drifting to the left signify right-sided activation. Of course, only one question does not provide a definitive answer to
a person’s characteristic level of left- or right-side activation. However, several difficult questions—for example,
“How many turns do you make from your house or apartment to the nearest store?”—provide a rough estimate of
whether a person is left- or right-symmetric.
Challenge your students to try this exercise with a few friends or acquaintances, asking them several difficult
questions and observing which way they move their eyes as they reflect on the answers. Few participants will be
completely consistent in their eye movements, so it is important to ask several questions to see which way they
usually move their eyes. Your students will also need to decide whether their participants are more prone to positive
or negative emotions. People who glance frequently to the right are more likely to be left-hemisphere dominant and
should be more prone to the pleasant emotions. Those who glance more frequently to the left are more likely to be
right-hemisphere dominant and should be more prone to negative emotions. Have students report their results back
to class. As Larsen and Buss emphasize, the characteristic pattern of brain activation is only one of many factors that
may influence our emotional lives.
Randy Larsen and David Buss. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY; DOMAINS OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HUMAN
NATURE, 3/E. Copyright 2008. Reprinted by permission of the McGraw-Hill Companies.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Government Confidence in the Polygraph
The text notes that various U.S. government agencies have spent millions of dollars administering the polygraph to
tens of thousands of employees. At Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, Wen Ho Lee was fired in
March 1999, after he failed an FBI administered polygraph test and refused to cooperate with the government’s
investigation of Chinese espionage at the nation’s premier nuclear weapons research facility. The FBI’s position
that Wen Ho Lee lied on a polygraph test in 1998 led to 59 charges, all but one of which were dropped in a plea
bargain two years later. The case led to a request for a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report on the validity
of the test.
Disagreements over the value of the polygraph have been so strong that the NAS deliberately sought members for its
review committee who had never taken a position regarding the utility of the test. “My primary qualification is I’ve
never worked on the topic,” stated committee chair Stephen Fienberg, who is a statistics expert at Carnegie Mellon
University. Several psychologists, including Paul Ekman, also served on the panel.
The NAS report issued in 2003 concluded that the federal government should not rely on polygraph examinations
for screening prospective or current employees to identify spies or other national security risks because the results
are too inaccurate. The summary stated:
Almost a century of research in scientific psychology and physiology provides little basis for the expectation that a
polygraph test could have extremely high accuracy. The physiological responses measured by the polygraph are not
uniquely related to deception. That is, the responses measured by the polygraph do not all reflect a single underlying
process: a variety of psychological and physiological processes, including some that can be consciously controlled, can
affect polygraph measures.
The report concludes that the polygraph’s accuracy is inadequate for security screening for two reasons. First,
accuracy is almost certainly lower when tests are used this way rather than in the investigation of specific incidents.
Second, the large groups of people being checked include only a tiny percentage of individuals who are guilty of the
targeted offenses. Tests sensitive enough to spot most violators will also erroneously mark large numbers of
innocent test-takers as guilty (see following class exercise).
“National security is too important to be left to such a blunt instrument,” said Fienberg, “the polygraph’s
serious limitations in employee security screening underscore the need to look more broadly for effective,
alternative methods.”
The committee called for a broad program of research that would provide the government with the most
scientifically sound methods for deterring and detecting major security risks as well as make authorities aware
of the strengths and weaknesses of their security strategies. The effort would support a variety of activities—
from basic research on discouraging and uncovering security threats to applied research on administering wellfounded screening techniques.
Nonetheless, the polygraph continues in government use. For example, in August 2008, the United States
Defense Intelligence Agency indicated that its 5700 prospective and current employees would undergo a polygraph
interrogation annually. Interestingly, a handheld lie detector is being deployed by the U.S. Defense Department for
use by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System (PCASS) uses less
physiological information than a polygraph. Moreover, rather than relying on the judgment of a polygraph examiner,
it employs an algorithm to reach a decision on whether the person is being deceptive. The law allows this system to
be used only on nonU.S. persons. One prominent scientist expressed concern that it may actually put
U.S. soldiers in harm’s way because they are likely to place too much trust in an unreliable technology.
Adelson, R. (2004, July/August). The polygraph in doubt. Monitor on Psychology, 71.
Dedman, B. (2008, April 9). New antiterror weapon: Handheld lie detector. MSNBC World News. Retrieved September
29, 2008 from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/ 23926278.
Johnson, K. (1999, April 5). Government agencies see truth in polygraphs. USA Today, p. 11A.
Moore, M. H., Petrie, C. V., & Braga, A. (Eds.). (2003). The polygraph and lie detection. Washington, DC: National
Academies Press.
(2008, August 23). Pentagon’s intelligence arm steps up lie detecting. CBS World News. Retrieved September 29, 2008
from http://article.wn.com/view/2008/08/23/ Pentagons_Intelligence_Arm_Steps_Up_Lie_ Detecting_2.
Vergano, D. (2002, September 10). Getting to the truth about the polygraph. USA Today, p. 5D.
Willing, R. (2003, September 5). Energy Department to cut use of lie detectors. USA Today, p. 5A.
Classroom Exercise: Estimating the Effects of Test Error
Although a 70 percent rate of accuracy for the polygraph may sound pretty good to students, the text shows that it is
not. For example, if 5 percent of 1000 employees are guilty of misconduct, and all are given the test, 285 innocent
employees will be wrongly accused. You may want to modify the base-rate fallacy exercise from Unit 7B of these
resources to show how a test with even greater accuracy can lead to serious injustice. For example, ask students to
assume that 1 in every 1000 employees of a government and its defense contractors is a spy. If a test to detect spies
has a 95 percent accuracy rate, what is the chance that a person who tests positively (is identified as a spy) is
actually a spy? The most common answer students are likely to give is 95 percent. The correct answer is 2 percent,
explained as follows:
We know that 1 in 1000 is a spy. However, when the test is given to the 999 who are not spies, the test will identify 50 as
spies. Thus, of the 51 employees testing positive, only one (approximately 2 percent) will actually be a spy. The base rate
for spying indicates that the overwhelming majority of employees are not spies. When combined with even a small falsepositive rate, we get a vast majority being falsely accused.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Interviewing for Integrity
Can job applicants be screened for honesty and integrity without using the polygraph? Organizational psychologist
William Byham not only believes that they can be but that they should be. “Organizations,” he argues, “must have
leaders and associates who share and live their ethical values, and extra care must be taken to ensure that these
individuals are the ones who are brought into the organization—and promoted.” According to Byham, interviewers
should save ethical questions until late in the interview after rapport has been established. Once they have asked an
ethical question, they should listen carefully to the applicant and respond with empathy.
Following are several of Byham’s suggested questions designed to elicit examples of the job candidates’ past
ethical behavior and provide important insight into their honesty and integrity. In each case, a “good” answer and a
“questionable” answer are included.
1. How would you describe the ethics of your company? In what areas do you feel comfortable and
uncomfortable with them? Why?
Good answer: My company is extremely ethical, and I’ve never, ever run into a situation in
which I disagreed with a decision made because of ethics. In fact, we bend over backward in
the treatment of our customers—such as taking back out-of-date products and providing free
service past warranty whenever there is any question about our products and services.
Questionable answer: I’m not sure what the ethics of our company are. People seem to do what’s necessary to
get the job done.
2. Have you ever observed someone stretching the rules at work? What did you do about it?
Good answer: One of my fellow executives took a company car to use for a weekend vacation. I spoke to him,
and he agreed that it was not right and that he would not do it again.
Questionable answer: Everybody stretches the rules sometimes.
3. Tell me about an instance you have had to go against company guidelines or procedures in order to get
something done.
Good answer: Like any manager, I move budget money around in order to get projects done with the resources
that I have been allocated—for example, by reassigning people. That’s what managers are expected to do. You
can’t precisely follow detailed budget allocations that are made six or nine months in advance.
Questionable answer: My wife works for one of our suppliers and I actually buy things from her. This is
technically in violation of company rules, but it doesn’t hurt anything, and, frankly, it’s the best product.
4. We’ve all done things that we have regretted. Can you give me an example that falls into this category for you?
How would you handle it differently today?
Good answer: When I took over this job, I let seven people go without a whole lot of knowledge about their
skills and contributions. Later, I found that three of them were actually outstanding employees who should not
have been let go. My jumping to conclusions hurt them and the company’s operations. It took us several years to
replace their knowledge of our equipment.
Questionable answer: I’ve never regretted anything about business. It’s a game. I play the game to win.
5. Have you ever felt guilty about receiving credit for work that was mostly completed by others? If so, how did
you handle it?
Good answer: I frequently encounter this situation. By nature of being the boss, I get the credit for many of the
things that my people do. I try my best to redirect that credit to them. For example, I insist that everyone who
works on a proposal has her name on that proposal. We have celebrations when we win a contract at which we
particularly point out the contributions of various people.
Questionable answer: No, I’ve never felt guilty. The person at the top gets credit when things go well, and he
gets the blame when things go poorly. It’s the nature of the job.
6. Have you ever been in a situation in which you have had to make something seem better than it really was?
Good answer: That’s a big temptation in the high-tech field, particularly with new products. Often, you know
that there are errors in the program and that there are going to be some problems—what do you do? I try to be
as honest as I can and give people realistic expectations.
Questionable answer: Our product has a very long sales cycle, and very often when we come out with a new
release, it’s not really done. It’s “vaporware.” We talk about it and sell it as if it were really done, with the
expectation that by the time we make the sale and the client gets ready to have it installed, it will be ready. Most
of the time we meet the client’s deadlines, but we’ve had some really embarrassing situations when we didn’t.
Byham indicates that most interviewers are likely to use only two or three integrity questions. Once the candidate
provides an answer, the interviewer should follow up with “Can you give me another example?” This will tell
whether the dishonest or unethical behavior was a onetime event or reflects a more consistent pattern. It is also
vitally important for the interviewer to determine the specific circumstances of the behavior, so a fair judgment can
be made. Finally, when several people interview the same candidate, they should compare notes. By obtaining
multiple perspectives, one can better understand the importance of any questionable behavior in making a hiring
decision.
Skeptics might wonder whether a dishonest or unethical person will simply lie when asked such questions.
Byham’s answer is that dishonest people think that everyone else has the same degree, or an even lower level, of
integrity that they do. In short, they believe that their behavior is normal and that the interviewer will also see it as
such.
Do integrity tests have predictive validity? In reviewing the literature, Randy Larsen and David Buss suggest
that research supports their use. For example, questionnaire integrity tests do predict theft behavior. Their scores
predict applicants who get caught stealing once hired, applicants who have a criminal history, and supervisors’
ratings of employees’ dishonesty. In one investigation, several convenience stores that started using integrity tests
to select employees experienced a 50 percent reduction in inventory shrinkage caused by theft. Integrity tests
appear to be a useful addition to other measures used in employee selection, such as background checks and letters
of reference.
Byham, W. C. (2004, March/April). Can you interview for integrity? Across the Board, 35–38.
Larsen, R. J., & Buss, D. M. (2008). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature (3rd ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
D. Cognition and Emotion (pp. 372–377)
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Cognitive Appraisals and Emotion
The text indicates that emotion researcher Richard Lazarus has emphasized the importance of cognitive appraisal in
emotion. You can extend the text discussion by presenting his influential theory of emotion in class.
According to Lazarus, the first step in an emotional sequence is a cognitive appraisal of the situation. In the
process of primary appraisal, people attempt to determine the consequences of impending events on their welfare. Is
the shadowy figure approaching them likely to be benign-positive (perhaps a close friend), irrelevant (just another
jogger), or stressful, involving possible harm or loss (a member of a violent gang)? After this initial assessment,
people proceed to a secondary appraisal in which they decide what they can and should do about the situation. Do
they have the skills to handle what good or ill may befall them? After perceiving and reacting to the situation, the
environment counter-reacts. People must in turn appraise these reactions. This process of reappraisal highlights the
interactive nature of people’s encounters with their environments.
Lazarus further notes that people’s appraisals determine which emotions they feel—for example, joy, anxiety,
guilt—and how intensely they feel them. Lazarus describes emotions as “complex disturbances.” They interrupt
ongoing activity, produce a disturbed state of arousal, and mobilize coping behaviors to the exclusion of everything
else. Although we can detect such emotional disturbances by asking people about their experience (“Are you
angry?”), from physiological indicators (Is her face red?), or by observing behaviors (Did he punch his opponent?),
Lazarus is quick to point out that these three aspects of emotion are not always in synchrony: “[T]he three
components correlate poorly with each other: an individual might report no distress, yet exhibit strong physiological
reactions, or the behavioral responses signifying anger or fear might be inhibited as a result of social or internal
pressures.” For example, a motorist stopped by a policeman may experience anger, have a flushed face, but at the
same time fearfully and submissively accede to all requests.
Finally, Lazarus argues that coping processes are a “central feature of the emotional state.” Those who are
“emotionally disturbed” when confronted with a challenging opportunity or threat use one of two coping strategies.
They can change their feelings about the situation or they can change the situation itself. In palliation, people
attempt to change their own reactions to environmental events. Intra-psychic palliation involves the use of various
defense mechanisms much like those described by Freud (e.g., repression, denial, projection). Lazarus writes, “We
have long recognized a large variety of such modes of coping; denial, intellectualized detachment, and attention
deployment (trying not to think of the threat or focusing attention on nonthreatening features or tasks) are among the
most common.” In somatic palliation, people attempt to modify their physiological reactions to emotional events.
For example, they may jog, drink, meditate, or take tranquilizers. Palliative forms of coping sometimes help one
survive. Other times, their use can be inappropriate, even dangerous. Direct action represents the second form of
coping. People can shape their own lives. As Lazarus argues, they can choose, plan, postpone, avoid, escape, or
demolish. People can also, to some degree, select their own environments. For example, those who dislike
confrontation can choose friends who are passive, timid, and agreeable. Clearly, in direct action, people try to
regulate their emotions not by changing themselves but by changing their circumstances.
Carlson, J., & Hatfield, E. (1992). Psychology of emotion. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Public and Private Self-Consciousness
The text indicates that cognition is an important element in emotion. You may want to extend this principle by
discussing individual differences in self-consciousness, specifically the distinction between private and public
aspects of self-consciousness. Self-consciousness can be defined as a disposition to focus inward on the self. Private
self-consciousness refers to a focus on personal aspects of the self, such as bodily sensations, beliefs, moods, and
feelings. Public self-consciousness involves a more outward concern, particularly an awareness of how one is seen
by others.
Research suggests that people who score high on measures of private self-consciousness are more aware of their
internal feelings and are more likely to make self-descriptive statements. Because they recognize their true feelings,
they and their close friends tend to agree on what they are really like. In addition, they tend to recognize changes in
their internal bodily states more readily. For example, they seem to be more aware of stress to their body and thus
may take action before it becomes physically damaging. Typical questionnaire items that reflect private selfconsciousness’ are: “I’m always trying to figure myself out,” “I reflect about myself a lot,” and “I’m generally
attentive to my inner feelings.”
Those who are high in public self-consciousness tend to have a more outward focus. They are more sensitive to
social rejection and are likely to agree with questionnaire items such as the following: “I’m concerned about what
other people think of me,” “I’m self-conscious about the way I look,” and “I’m concerned about my style of doing
things.”
In a simple yet interesting exercise for assessing public self-consciousness, have students draw a capital E on
their forehead using their dominant hand. What direction does the “E” face? If it is oriented so that someone looking
at the student would have seen it in the correct position, it is likely that the student is high in public selfconsciousness. According to a study by R. Glen Hass, people who are low in public self-consciousness are more
likely to draw an E from an internal perspective.
Deaux, K., Dane, F., & Wrightsman, L. (1993). Social psychology in the 90s (6th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
IV. Expressed Emotion (pp. 377–384)
Classroom Exercise: The Mood Awareness Scale
You can extend the text discussion of the expression of emotion with Handout 8B–6, the Mood Awareness Scale
(MAS), designed by Alan Swinkels and Traci Giuliano to assess people’s attention toward their own mood. Items 3,
4, 6, 8, and 10 measure mood monitoring. In scoring, students should reverse the number given in response to item
10 (1 = 6, 2 = 5, 3 = 4, 4 = 3, 5 = 2, 6 = 1) and then total the numbers in front of all five items. Higher scores reflect
greater mood monitoring, that is, the tendency to scrutinize and focus on one’s moods. Items 1, 2, 5, 7, and 9
measure mood labeling. In scoring, students should reverse the numbers given in response to 1, 5, and 9 (1 = 6, 2 =
5, 3 = 4, 4 = 3, 5 = 2, 6 = 1) and then total the numbers in front of all five items. Higher scores reflect greater mood
labeling, that is, the ability to identify and categorize one’s moods.
Swinkels and Giuliano note that while there is no universally accepted statement on the definition of mood
(especially in distinguishing it from affect, emotion, or feeling), most researchers regard moods as affective states
that are nonspecific, pervasive, and capable of widely influencing cognition and behavior.
Ask your students why mood awareness might be important. What might be the consequences of scrutinizing and
focusing on one’s mood across situations? Similarly, what might be the consequences of being able to identify and
categorize one’s moods?
Research findings suggest that, compared with low mood monitors, high mood monitors show greater selfconsciousness, are more neurotic, have lower self-esteem, and experience greater negative affect. Compared with
low mood labelers, high mood labelers tend to be less socially anxious, less neurotic, more extraverted, and more
nonverbally expressive, and to experience greater positive affect.
Swinkels, A., & Giuliano, T. (1995). The measurement and conceptualization of mood awareness: Monitoring and
labeling one’s mood states. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 934–949.
Classroom Exercise: Emotional Expressivity Scale
Handout 8B–7, the Emotional Expressivity Scale (EES) designed by Ann M. Kring, David A. Smith, and John
M. Neale, assesses the extent to which people outwardly display their emotions. Students should reverse the
numbers they place in front of items 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, and 17 (1 = 6, 2 = 5, 3 = 4, 4 = 3, 5 = 2, 6 = 1)
and then add the numbers in front of all the items to obtain a final score. Scores can range from 17 to 102, with
higher scores reflecting greater emotional expressiveness, regardless of valence (positive or negative emotion) or
channel (facial, vocal, or gestural). A total of 237 female and 136 male students in an introductory psychology
course obtained means of 66.60 and 61.15, respectively. The gender difference replicated across several samples.
You might begin a classroom discussion of expressiveness by noting this gender difference and asking students why
they think it exists. This will inevitably lead to a more general discussion of differences in emotional expressiveness
and what they might mean. For example, are there age and ethnic differences as well? What might be the advantages
or disadvantages of being emotionally expressive? Emotional expressivity seems to be associated with stronger
interpersonal relationships. More specifically, research suggests that this degree of expressiveness may predict how
well we get along with others. For example, the more people express their emotions, the fewer problems they tend to
have in romantic relationships. Understanding what another is feeling fosters intimacy and strengthens social bonds.
Findings suggest that people who express their emotions freely also tend to be better at reading others’ emotions.
Research using the EES has found that scores correlated positively with the personality attributes of both
extraversion and neuroticism. This suggests that expressive people report being more social but also more excitable
and anxious. Interestingly, EES scores also were positively related to subjective wellbeing. EES scores were not
related to depression, self-esteem, or the other three Big Five personality factors, namely, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, and openness to experience.
Cordova, J. V., Gee, C. G., & Warren, L. Z. (2005). Emotional skillfulness in marriage: Intimacy as a mediator of the
relationship between emotional skillfulness and marital satisfaction. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 218–235.
Kring, A. M., Smith, D. A., & Neale, J. M. (1994). Individual differences in dispositional expressiveness: Development and
validation of the emotional expressivity scale. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 934–949.
Lavee, Y. & BenAri, A. (2004). Emotional expressiveness and neuroticism: Do they predict marital quality? Journal of
Family Psychology, 18, 620–627.
A. Detecting Emotion (pp. 377–379)
Classroom Exercise: Nonverbal Communication
An exercise in nonverbal communication frequently used in therapeutic settings also works well in the classroom.
Divide the class into groups of four to six students and give each group a few dozen straws and some rolls of Scotch
tape. Tell them to build a straw tower using only what they have been given with the added stipulation that they may
not speak to each other. You might appoint one person in each group to simply observe and record what happens.
Give the groups a time limit of 12 to 15 minutes and then, beginning with the observer’s report, discuss what
happened. The exercise effectively demonstrates the point that we communicate in a variety of nonverbal ways.
Classroom Exercise: “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test: Sample Items
The text notes that women are superior to men at decoding emotions. Unit 9 of these resources includes sample
items from Simon BaronCohen and his colleagues’ “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test. As indicated in Unit 9,
women tend to outperform men on this test. If you did not use the exercise earlier, you may want to do so now in
connection with your class discussion of gender, emotion, and nonverbal behavior. The test also provides a good
introduction to the next text section, which includes Paul Ekman’s classic work on facial expressions of emotion.
Classroom Exercise/Student Project: The Affective Communication Test
Howard Friedman and his colleagues note that much of the research on the nonverbal expression of emotion focuses
on issues of recognition. Much less research has been done on the complementary process of nonverbal
expressiveness. To measure individual differences in expressiveness, Friedman designed the Affective
Communication Test (ACT), Handout 8B–8. The ACT is scored by adding five points to each item (to eliminate
negative numbers) and reversing the scores for the six items worded in the opposite direction (items 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, and
11). For these items, 1 changes to 9, 2 to 8, 3 to 7, 4 to 6, 6 to 4, 7 to 3, 8 to 2, and 9 to 1.A total score is obtained by
adding all the scores. The mean score obtained for college students was 71.25.
ACT scores correlated positively with the independent ratings of people’s emotional expressiveness provided by
friends. The authors found that people who are more emotionally expressive, as assessed by the ACT, had more
interest and experience in stage acting, were more likely to have employment that involved working with and
influencing people, and were more likely to have been elected to a leadership position in an organization.
Sex differences in ACT scores were also found, with the mean scores for males and females being 69.8 and 72.6,
respectively. Thus, females are not only more accurate in reading nonverbal expressions (as the text indicates), they
also tend to be slightly more expressive. Those with higher ACT scores have higher exhibition scores and tend to be
affiliative, dominant, and somewhat achieving. They also tend to be internal and higher in self-esteem. No
relationship was found, however, between ACT scores and Machiavellianism. Friedman and his colleagues
concluded that, in general, expressive people tend to express their feelings comfortably, effectively, and without
regard for social conventions.
Friedman, H., Prince, L., Riggio, R., and DiMatteo, R. (1980). Understanding and assessing nonverbal expressiveness: The
Affective Communication Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 333–351.
PsychSim 5: Catching Liars
This activity is designed to explain the relationship between emotional states and physiological
arousal, as revealed by nonverbal cues, facial expressions, and polygraph recordings. The
student explores some of the methods used to detect deception.
Classroom Exercise: Difficulty in Detecting Deception
Kathryn Morris designed the questions in Handout 8B–9 for a classroom exercise that demonstrates people’s
difficulty in detecting deception.
Randomly assign your students to pairs and provide each student with a copy of the handout. One participant in
each pair prepares answers for the questions in list 1 and asks his or her partner the questions in list 2; the other
participant in each pair prepares answers for the questions in list 2 and asks the partner the questions in list 1.
Carefully instruct students to prepare lies for their answers to at least three, but not more than five, of the
questions. When they have decided how to answer the questions, students in each pair should take turns asking each
other the questions. Immediately after hearing their partners’ response, students should write down whether they
believe the answer was truthful or a lie. Also have them indicate their degree of confidence—from 0 to 100
percent—in their judgment. The exercise takes about 15 minutes. To score their judgments, partners should reveal to
each other when they told the truth and when they lied. You can have students indicate how many correct judgments
they made by a show of hands or, as Morris chooses, analyze the data between classes and report the results at your
next class session.
Because the probability of correctly guessing each answer is .5, Morris notes that a binomial probabilities
distribution indicates that an individual must make seven (p < .05) or eight (p < .01) correct judgments to perform
significantly better than chance. Of the 82 students in Morris’ class, only 7 students met this criterion (two
participants should have detected lies better than chance just by chance alone).
To determine whether each class as a group detected lies better than chance, Morris compared the average
number of correct judgments to four (four out of eight judgments should be correct by chance alone) using a t test.
Class accuracy in detecting lies never exceeded chance (ps > .05). To determine whether each class was
overconfident in its ability to detect lies, she compared the average confidence score to 50 percent (the likelihood of
correctly guessing each answer) using a t test. Class levels of confidence were always significantly greater than 50
percent (ps < .5). To assess whether confidence and accuracy in lie detection were related, she correlated average
confidence levels with average number of correct judgments; these correlations never reached statistical
significance.
This replicates research indicating that most of us are not very good at detecting deception in others. Research
also indicates that there is little relationship between confidence and accuracy in detecting lies.
Morris, K. A. (2003). Teaching students about classic findings on the detection of deception. Teaching of Psychology,
30, 111–113.
B. Gender, Emotion, and Nonverbal Behavior
(pp. 379–380)
C. Culture and Emotional Expression (pp. 380–382)
PsychSim 5: Expressing Emotion
This tutorial on Paul Ekman’s research with universal facial expressions contains two segments in which students
manipulate facial features (on a schematic face and then on a more human face) in order to try to produce
emotional expressions.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Cultural Differences in Emotional Expression
Emotional life is shaped by its cultural context. In Asian and other cultures that emphasize interdependence, displays
of sympathy, respect, and shame are more common than in the West. The Japanese word amae literally means
“sweet dependency” and refers to the expectation of care by others—the confident presumption of security that a
happy child has in the presence of a loving mother. Although the feeling may be universal, other languages,
including English, have no equivalent word. The fact that the word is uniquely Japanese suggests not only that the
emotion is a pervasive one in that country, but also that Japanese culture is structured to encourage its expression. In
the bestseller The Anatomy of Dependence, Takeo Doi writes that amae is “a key concept for the understanding not
only of the psychological makeup of the individual but of the structure of Japanese society as a whole.”
In contrast to the Japanese, the Awlad Ali Bedouins of Egypt’s western desert value autonomy above all else and
thus project an image of invulnerable independence. Feelings of loss and hurt are not expressed in public; instead,
the person displays indifference or anger, or assigns blame. Learning that her husband of 20 years had decided to
divorce her, a woman named Safiyya reported, “I never liked him.” At the same time, the Bedouins permit a second
more poetic expression of emotion with one’s intimates. Thus, in discussing her divorce with a few close friends in
the community, Safiyya recited a haiku-like poem—a ghinnawa, or “little song”—in which she expressed a very
different reaction: “Memories stirred by mention of the beloved: should I release, I’d find myself flooded. . . .”
Known for their calm friendliness, Tahitians of the Polynesian islands also display emotions
very differently from Westerners. In particular, the Tahitian language lacks terms for sadness,
longing, or loneliness. Instead, the islanders interpret such sensations as a kind of sickness. This
view probably reflects their awareness of how disturbing expressions of extreme sadness could
be to their tightly bound community. On the other hand, Tahitians can express one category of
emotions that is rarely found in the industrialized world—mahameha, eerie sensations felt in the
presence of the supernatural. They also have many more words for anger and fear. For example,
they differentiate between the fear of something happening now and the fear of something that
might happen in the future. Despite the many descriptors for anger, however, the emotion is
rarely expressed in Tahiti. Sometimes it may be the case that the more clearly people can
articulate their feelings, the better they can manage them.
Somerville, R. (Ed.). (1994). Emotions: Journey through the mind and body. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books.
D. The Effects of Facial Expressions (pp. 383–384)
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Freezing Frowns With Botox
The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that looking happy may make us feel happy. In a pilot study, Eric Finzi and
Erik Wasserman attempted to apply this principle to the treatment of depression. They used the popular anti-wrinkle
treatment Botox to prevent the act of frowning. Botox was injected into the frown muscles around the forehead and
mouths of 10 female participants whose test scores had indicated the presence of clinical depression.
Findings after two months indicated that the treatments had eliminated symptoms of depression in nine of the
women and reduced symptoms in the tenth woman. Kathleen Delano, one of the participants in the study, described
the impact of the treatment. She stated, “It wasn’t like I had Botox one night, woke up the next day, and said
‘Hallelujah, I’m cured.’” Rather, over several weeks, she explained that she found herself talking to people more,
getting out more often, and smiling more. “I think Botox was the catalyst, the rope someone threw down the dark
well I was in. I started doing things like going to the gym, to the movies.”
The limits of the study should be obvious, but perhaps you should ask your students to see whether it really is
obvious. The study employed a very small sample and followed participants for only a short time. Critics suggest
that future research should involve a larger sample that follows people for a longer period. Studies should employ a
control group that receives a placebo treatment. In addition, research should utilize more thorough psychiatric
evaluations.
Finzi, E., & Wasserman, E. A. (2006). Treatment of depression with Botulinum Toxin A: A case series.
Dermatological Surgery, 32, 645–650.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: “Catch the Feeling”
The topic of emotional contagion can provide an interesting extension of the text discussion of the effects of facial
expressions. For a long time, researchers have observed that therapists tend to “catch” their client’s feelings; parents
communicate their feelings to their children, and vice versa; and friends resonate to each other’s moods. Similarly,
most of us perk up when those around us are elated or become depressed if they are unusually sad. Elaine Hatfield
and her colleagues have reviewed the possible mechanisms of emotional contagion.
Early investigators suggested that emotions were caught as a result of conscious reasoning, imagination, and
analysis. Adam Smith noted: “Though our brother is upon the rack . . . by the imagination we place ourselves in his
situation, we conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments, we enter as it were into his body, and become in
some measure the same person with him, and thus form some idea of his sensations, and even feel something which,
although weaker in degree, is not altogether unlike them.” Hatfield et al. note, however, that some forms of
emotional contagion are far more subtle and automatic than this analysis suggests. They suggest that we catch one
another’s emotions in another way, namely, by unconsciously engaging in motor mimicry. That is, we automatically
imitate other people’s facial expressions, gestures, and postures. As a result, we come to feel as well as look as
others do. Paul Ekman suggests that this may explain why smiling faces at a party or those of grief at a time of
mourning are infectious. “The perception of another face is not just an information transfer,” he argues, “but a very
literal means by which we feel the sensations that another feels.” What is perhaps most surprising is evidence on
how motor mimicry seems to occur almost instantaneously. For example, students will synchronize their movements
within 21 milliseconds (the time of one picture frame), clearly too quickly to be done consciously and deliberately.
Your class will surely identify with the example of adults opening their mouths when babies do. This seems to be an
unconscious reaction. Adam Smith also observed that “when we see a stroke aimed, and just ready to fall upon the
arm or leg of another person, we naturally shrink and draw back on our leg or our own arm.” Such imitation, Smith
thought, was “almost a reflex.”
Hatfield et al. conclude that awareness of the existence of emotional contagion may prove
useful in understanding and perhaps advancing communication between lovers, teachers and
students, parents and children, therapists and clients, and even between heads of state. It may
also increase understanding group behaviors that have shaped history, from Adolph Hitler
fanning hatred in his listeners to Martin Luther King, Jr., spreading his message of nonviolence
and love.
Hatfield, E., Caccioppo, J., & Rapson, R. (1993). Emotional contagion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2,
96–99.
V. Experienced Emotion (pp. 384–396)
Classroom Exercise: The Affect Grid
Handout 8B–10 is the Affect Grid, designed by James
Russell, Anna Weiss, and Gerald Mendelsohn. You can use it to introduce two important dimensions of emotion,
namely pleasant versus unpleasant and extreme arousal versus sleepiness. The authors designed it as a quick
measure of affect.
Simply working through the instructions with students and having them “rate their mood as it is right now”
provides a good introduction to the nature of emotion. Russell and his colleagues trace the dimension of pleasure as
an important dimension of emotion all the way back to Epicurus who in the fourth century B.C. described pleasure as
“the beginning and root of all good.” Maximizing pleasure and minimizing displeasure have long been held to be the
basic human motives. Early introspectionist psychologists such as Edward Titchener and Wilhelm Wundt thought of
pleasure as a fundamental component of emotion. Pleasure, evaluation, or positivity has also been shown to be the
primary factor in the meaning of concepts in general, and affective concepts in particular. The dimension of arousal
has had a shorter history, although it too can be traced back to Wundt’s introspections, which led him to propose the
dimension of tension-relaxation. The word arousal has also been used to refer to a dimension of physiological
arousal. In the Affect Grid, it refers only to a dimension of reported subjective feeling.
Are two dimensions enough? Brian Parkinson and his colleagues suggest that there seems to be more to certain
emotions such as restlessness, exuberance, or dismay than a simple combination of these two dimensions. Also
certain affective states that have distinct meanings may receive comparable ratings. For example, ask your students
where they would put feeling anxious and where they would put feeling irritable on the conflict grid. Both tend to
score similarly high on activation and low on pleasantness. Russell counter-argues that everyday expressions of
affect carry additional information relating to the causes and consequences of what is felt. Dimensions of control
and locus of causation depend on interpretations of the psychological situation surrounding the affect rather than
being part of the feeling itself. These extra components of meaning conveyed by affective concepts, he argues,
should be treated as extrinsic to the structure of affect itself.
Russell, J. A., Weiss, A., & Mendelsohn, G. A. (1989). Affect grid: A single-item scale of pleasure and arousal.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57,
493–502.
Parkinson, B., Totterdell, P., Briner, R. B., & Reynolds, S. (1996). Changing moods: The psychology of mood and mood
regulation. New York: Longman.
Classroom Exercise/Student Project: The Affect Intensity Measure
Handout 8B–11, the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM), was designed by Randy Larsen to assess differences in how
individuals experience their emotions. Some people consistently experience their emotions more strongly than
others. Students should first reverse the numbers before items 12, 16, 19, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 37, and 40; that is,
they should change 1 to 6, 2 to 5, 3 to 4, 4 to 3, 5 to 2, and 6 to 1. Then they should add the scores on all items and
divide by 40 to obtain a mean item score. Higher scores reflect greater affect intensity. In a survey of 109
undergraduates, those in the lower quartile had a mean AIM score of 3.22, and those in the upper quartile a mean
AIM score of 4.80.
In studying mood, Larsen’s research team had research participants record the best and the worst events of each day
over the course of nearly two months. Participants also rated how subjectively good or bad the events were for them.
Compared with those who scored low in affect intensity, those who scored high in emotional intensity rated both
good and bad events as having greater emotional impact. Compared with their counterparts, high affect intensity
persons also report more mood variability, that is, more frequent changes in their moods as well as shifts that are
larger in magnitude.
A number of factors influence the strength of our emotional responses. The intensity of the stimulus is one.
Another, suggests Larsen, is the “background excitability of the nervous system” such as hunger, caffeine taken in,
fatigue, etc. A third, and this is the primary focus of Larsen’s research, is the individual’s arousability, reactivity,
and excitation potential.
Larsen and Ed Diener have published a review of the research on affect intensity. The intensity of emotional
responsiveness, they note, generalizes across emotions so that individuals who experience their positive emotions
more strongly experience their negative emotions more strongly as well. That is, the higher people go when they are
“up,” the lower they go when they are “down.” Distinct age and gender differences have been found in affect
intensity. AIM scores decrease as age increases (from 16 to 68 years) with the most pronounced drop occurring
between young adulthood and middle age. Women score higher than men in each age category.
In addition, those individuals who are high in affect intensity tend to have more complex goals, that is, goals that are
independent of one another and even sometimes in conflict. Diener and Larsen suggest that they may seek out the
arousal that is provided by a complex life. Individuals with high scores also have higher levels of activity and report
more psychophysiological distress symptoms, such as headaches, irritability, and nervousness. They are at greater
risk for developing bipolar disorder. Although these people suffer certain negative physical and psychological
effects from their strong emotions, they are not particularly dissatisfied with their lives. Indeed, evidence suggests
that those high in affect intensity not only search out and prefer emotional stimulation but also perform better in
highly stimulating situations.
Larsen, R. J., & Buss, D. M. (2008). Personality psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature (3rd ed.). New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Larsen, R., & Diener, E. (1987). Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: A review. Journal of Research
in Personality, 21, 1–39.
Classroom Exercise: Brief Measures of Positive and Negative Affect—The PANAS Scales
Studies of affective structure have consistently shown that positive and negative affect are the two primary
dimensions of mood. For example, they appear as the first two factors in factor analysis of self-rated mood and as
the first two dimensions in multidimensional scalings of facial expressions. Handout 8B–12 contains David Watson,
Lee Clark, and Auke Tellegen’s brief measures of positive and negative affect. Ten of the listed items (interested,
excited, strong, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive, and active) form the positive affect scale,
and the other 10 (distressed, upset, guilty, scared, hostile, irritable, ashamed, nervous, jittery, and afraid) form the
negative affect scale. Scores for each scale are obtained by adding the numbers in front of each relevant item. A
large sample of undergraduates had means of 35.0 and 18.1 on the positive and negative scales, respectively.
Positive affect (PA) reflects the degree to which a person feels enthusiastic, active, and alert. High PA
constitutes a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, whereas low PA is marked by
sadness and lethargy. Negative affect (NA) is a general dimension of subjective distress that subsumes a variety of
aversive states, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness. Low NA is a state of calmness and
serenity.
Researchers continue to debate the relationship between PA and NA. Certain findings suggest there is no
relationship. That is, knowing one’s score on PA indicates nothing about that person’s score on NA. More recent
studies have found support for the more intuitive notion that positive and negative affect are negatively
correlated. It certainly seems reasonable that those who report being generally happy and content would be less
likely to report feeling generally angry or anxious. Furthermore, each of us also experiences ambivalent feelings,
for example, we have read stories and watched movies that makes us happy and sad at the same time.
High scores on NA seem predictive of psychological stress. People on the high end of the dimension report a
variety of emotional and physical problems. Whether they simply complain more or actually suffer more genuine
symptoms remains an open question. Some findings suggest both are true. People high in negative affect may have
greater difficulty managing stress. It is also possible that mood affects health-related behaviors such as eating and
exercise patterns.
Investigators have consistently found that people high in positive affect are more socially active. They tend to enjoy
their social connections more than those scoring low on this dimension. For example, compared with those low in
positive affect, those high on the dimension are both more likely to be involved in a romantic relationship and to be
more satisfied with their partners. High positive affect people seem to form friendships more easily, report fewer
conflicts with their friends, and are better at resolving conflicts when they do occur. Obviously, positive affect may
be both a cause and a result of stronger social connections.
Burger, J. (2007). Personality (7th ed). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Watson, D., Clark, L., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect:
The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070.
Classroom Exercise: Individual Differences in Emotional Complexity
To assess differences in emotional complexity, SunMee Kang and Philip Shaver designed the Range and
Differentiation of Emotional Experience Scale, Handout 8B–13. In scoring the scale, students should first reverse
the numbers they placed in response to items 1, 5, 9, and 11 (1 = 5, 2 = 4, 3 = 3, 4 = 2, 5 = 1), then add the numbers
in front of all 14 items. Finally, they should calculate the mean to obtain their final score. In one sample of
undergraduates, males and females obtained mean scores of 3.43 and 3.55, respectively.
The authors propose that emotional complexity consists of two correlated aspects: a broad
range of emotional experiences and a tendency to make subtle distinctions among similar
emotions. Early research with the scale suggests that, compared with those who are less
complex emotionally, individuals with varied and well-differentiated emotional experience:
•
•
•
•
•
are more attentive to their inner feelings and thoughts
are more open to experience
are more cognitively complex
show more empathic concern for others’ feelings
adapt more quickly in interpersonal situations
Kang and Shaver note that in an effort to explain how emotion helps people adjust in social situations, many
researchers have studied emotional expression and its role in communication. Few studies have explored the links
between emotional complexity and interpersonal behavior. The results of this study indicate that individual
differences in the range and differentiation of emotional experience do predict interpersonal adaptability. The
authors speculate that varied and differentiated emotional experience may be one of the components of ego maturity
that improves with age. They also suggest that varied and well-differentiated emotional experience may be an
important component of emotional intelligence.
Kang, S., & Shaver, P. (2004). Individual differences in emotional complexity: Their psychological implications. Journal
of Personality, 72, 687–722.
Student Project: The Relationship Between Affect and Personality Traits
To assess the content of a person’s emotional life, researchers have sometimes asked volunteers to keep a record of
their daily experiences over several weeks or even months. Handout 8B–14, the Daily Mood Form designed by
Randy Larsen and Ed Diener, provides a good example of this approach. Students can make copies of this form and
keep a record of their daily mood for several days.
Larsen and Diener’s statistical analysis of responses to this form indicates that a major content factor is positive
versus negative affect. To score their daily mood reports, students must compute a positive affect score by finding
the average of their ratings on “happy,” “joyful,” “pleased,” and “enjoyment,” and a negative affect score by
computing their average of the ratings on “depressed,” “unhappy,” “frustrated,” “angry,” and “worried.” The
negative affect score is then subtracted from the positive affect score for each day to give a global daily mood score.
If this score is greater than zero, the person reported more positive than negative affect; if it is less than zero, the
person reported more negative than positive affect that day. To compute a frequency of positive affect score, the
number of positive days is divided by the total number of days on which reports are made. This ratio represents the
proportion of days the person reports more positive than negative affect. The average frequency of positive affect
among students was 72 percent, with a range from 20 to 99 percent.
Diener and his colleagues report that frequency of positive affect scores was associated with a number of traits
reflecting psychological wellbeing and adjustment, including high self-esteem, self-confidence, satisfaction with
one’s life, and cheerfulness. Other studies have found that positive affect is strongly related to the personality trait of
extraversion. In contrast, negative affect is related to neuroticism, defined as the tendency to worry and become
easily upset. Interestingly, these relationships were found even when the mood measures were taken a decade after
the measures of personality. One explanation for this finding is that extraverts are more sensitive to rewarding
experiences, whereas neurotics are more sensitive to punishing experiences.
Diener, E., Larsen, R. J., Levine, S., & Emmons, R. A. (1985). Frequency and intensity: The underlying dimensions of
affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1253–1265.
Larsen, R. J., & Diener, E. (1987). Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: A review. Journal of
Research in Personality, 21, 1–39.
Classroom Exercise: The Disgust Scale
You can extend the text discussion of specific emotions with a consideration of the universal emotion of disgust.
Introduce the topic with Handout 8B–15, the Disgust Scale, designed by Jonathan Haidt, Clark McCauley, and Paul
Rozin. To score, students should add up their “false” responses to statements 2, 8, and 11 and their “true” responses
to the remaining items numbered from 1 to 14. Next, they should add up all their ratings on questions 15 to 28 and
divide that total by 2. Finally, scores for parts one and two should be totaled. Scores can range from 0 to 28, with
higher scores reflecting greater disgust sensitivity. The scale recognizes that disgust reflects repulsion toward certain
objects, behaviors, and people. Disgust has its own unique facial expression in which the nose wrinkles with a
constriction of the nostrils, and the mouth opens with the tongue pushed forward as if to force the offending
substance out. Interest in the study of disgust has grown in popularity as brain imaging research has uncovered that
certain parts of the brain are activated when people are disgusted. Investigators have also made the interesting
discovery that people with Huntington’s disease and those who carry its gene cannot recognize the typical facial
expressions associated with disgust.
Darwin recognized that many different things elicit disgust and that it is an emotion shared by radically diverse
cultures. However, what people consider disgusting can vary tremendously. From an evolutionary perspective,
disgust seems, first of all, to be a case of survival by aversion. It’s a fear of incorporating an aversive substance into
one’s body. Eating is the most direct way of incorporating such a substance and, as Steven Pinker notes, disgust gets
codified in food taboos everywhere. American pilots during World War II went hungry rather than eat the toads and
bugs that they had been taught were perfectly safe. Pinker cites the disgusting yet delightful camp song (sung to the
tune of “The Old Gray Mare”):
Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts, Mutilated monkey meat, Concentrated chicken feet, Jars and jars of petrified
porpoise pus, And me without my spoon!
Paul Rozin’s taste test demonstrates how the disgust response is very different from simple rejection of
unpleasant tastes, smells, and sights. To illustrate, consider your own responses to his test. Which of the following
glasses of water would you drink: one that contains an odorless, harmless chemical that is terribly bitter, one that is
laced with a lethal dose of arsenic, or one that is sterile and contains only pure water but previously held a sample of
dog feces. “Disgust,” explains Rozin, “involves rejection based not on sensory properties but on knowledge of the
nature of something.” And it is about something other than fear of injury or sickness. The second glass containing
poison elicits a different, less violent reaction than knowing what used to be in the third. Allison Leach concludes,
“If fear is our response to real or perceived harm to our physical selves, disgust is, in a sense, the reaction to actual
or imagined threats to our souls.”
Perhaps this explains how disgust can be irrational. We find a sterilized cockroach just as revolting as one fresh
from the cupboard. Even if it is briefly dunked into a beverage, we will refuse to drink it. People won’t eat soup if it
is served in a brand-new bedpan nor if they know it has been stirred with a new comb or flyswatter. Hospital
kitchens know they can stop employee theft of juice by storing it in brand-new urine bottles. People will not eat
fudge baked in the shape of dog feces or hold rubber vomit between their lips. We won’t even sip from a bowl of
soup into which we ourselves have just spat.
Cultural differences in what people find disgusting suggest that it is learned. People in the United States often
do not remove their shoes when walking into a house. In Japan, people would consider it disgusting to bring dirt
from the outside world into their house. Children younger than 2 put anything in their mouths.
Distaste is centered solely on foods that are bitter or sour. At some point between ages 4 and 8, Rozin suggests, we
develop an acquired sense of disgust that is different from an innate sense of distaste. Some researchers have
suggested that the process of toilet training may be the origin of disgust. The signals, particularly the facial
expressions of the parents, in the presence of the child’s feces convey their repugnance and offensiveness.
Some research has involved a search for “core disgust.” Rozin and April Fallon have identified three criteria for
membership in the “core disgust club.” It must be something you could eat, something that has or had a life of its
own, and something that has the power to make other things disgusting. “Disgust starts with food,” argues Jonathan
Haidt, “and then moves on to other things.” Disgusting things are most likely to be, or are perceived to be, of animal
origin, whether it is the animal itself or one of its body products. Finally, objects deemed offensive must be capable
of “contaminating” other objects. Rozin has argued that disgust has shifted from a reaction to avoid bodily harm to
one that wards off harm to the soul. Disgust has evolved from an instinctual distaste reflex to a culturally acquired
emotion elicited by interpersonal and moral events.
Research using the Disgust Scale finds that scores correlate positively with death fear and negatively with thrill
seeking. Interestingly, scores relate positively to neuroticism but negatively with psychoticism. Rozin has also
reported the surprising finding that ability to identify expressions of disgust is impaired in people with obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD). Given that OCD patients are often obsessed with cleanliness, one might expect just
the opposite.
Recently, Simone Schnall and her colleagues reported that the experience of disgust can affect moral judgment. In
four separate studies, participants made moral judgments while experiencing extraneous feelings of disgust.
Disgust was induced by exposure to a bad smell, by working in a filthy room, by recalling a physically disgusting
experience, or by watching a film clip. The participants were then shown short vignettes involving questionable
social behavior, say, from keeping cash found in a stranger’s lost wallet. The results indicated that the participants
who previously experienced disgust expressed more severe moral judgments relative to control participants.
Dittmann, M. (2003, October). Ewwww, gross! Monitor on Psychology, 32–33.
Haidt, J., McCauley, C., & Rozin, P. (1994). Individual differences in sensitivity to disgust: A scale sampling seven
domains of disgust elicitors. Personality and Individual Differences, 16, 701–713.
Leach, A. (1998, February). The mystery of disgust. Psychology Today, 40–45, 68–71, 74.
Pinker, S. (1997). How the mind works. New York: Norton.
Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L., & Jordan, J. L. (2008). Disgust as embodied moral judgment.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34,
1096–1109.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Elevation—A New Positive Emotion
As an extension of the text discussion of specific emotions, you might discuss Jonathan Haidt’s fascinating work on
“elevation.” Begin by asking students to recall, possibly even write about, a specific time when they saw a
manifestation of humanity’s “higher” or “better” nature. Elevation, suggests Haidt, is “a warm, uplifting feeling that
people experience when they see unexpected acts of human goodness, kindness, and compassion.”
Having conducted research on disgust, including social disgust—the emotional reaction people have to
witnessing others move down the moral ladder, exhibiting their lower, baser nature—Haidt wondered whether a
corresponding emotion might be triggered by observing people move up the moral ladder, demonstrating their
higher, better, more saintly nature. Preliminary evidence suggest that there is such an emotion. The most commonly
cited circumstances of elevation involve seeing someone give help or aid to another who is poor, sick, or stranded in
a difficult situation. Haidt illustrates with one powerful, detailed self report:
Myself and 3 guys from my church were going home from volunteering our services at the salvation army that morning. It
had been snowing since the night before and the snow was a thick blanket on the ground. As we were driving through a
neighborhood near where I lived I saw an elderly woman with a shovel in her driveway. I did not think much of it, when one
of the guys in the back asked the driver to let him off here. The driver had not been paying much attention so he ended up
circling back around towards the lady’s home. I had assumed this guy just wanted to save the driver some effort and walk
the short distance to his home (although I was clueless as to where he lived). But when I saw him jump out of the back seat
and approach the lady, my mouth dropped in shock as I realized that he was offering to shovel her walk for her.
Observers of unexpected goodness typically describe themselves as surprised, stunned, and emotionally moved.
Their experience often changes their views about humanity in a more optimistic way and triggers more prosocial
goals for themselves. Asked, “Did the feeling give you any inclination toward doing something?” the frequent
response was to describe a generalized desire to help others and to become a better person. Many also describe a
kind of openness and urge to be playful. For example, the woman who described
the snow shoveling episode stated: I felt like jumping out of the car and hugging this guy. I felt like singing and running
or skipping and laughing. Just being active. I felt like saying nice things about people. Writing a beautiful poem or love
song. Playing in the snow like a child. Telling everybody about his deed.
The experiences are potentially life altering. Moved when so many people came to visit and support his family while
his grandfather was dying, one research participant described how the feelings persisted seven years later and
influenced his decision to become a doctor.
In another study, Haidt compared the reactions of those who saw clips from a documentary of Mother Teresa’s life
with those who watched a comedy or an interesting but nonemotional documentary. Relative to the control research
participants, those seeing the actions of Mother Teresa reported feeling more loving and inspired, more strongly
wanting to perform prosocial actions, and were actually more likely to volunteer to work at a humanitarian
organization.
The feelings of elevation also seem to foster love, admiration, and a desire for closer affiliation with the performer
of the good deed. The woman in the snow shoveling incident continued:
My spirit was lifted even higher than it already was. I was joyous, happy, smiling, energized. I went home and gushed about
it to my suitemates, who clutched at their hearts. And, although I have never seen this guy as more than just a friend, I felt a
hint of romantic feeling for him at that moment.
Haidt concludes that witnessing good deeds changes the thought–action repertoire. It fosters love, admiration,
and affection for the altruist and makes affiliative behavior more likely.
Haidt, J. (2000, March). The positive emotion of elevation. Prevention and Treatment, 3. Retrieved from
http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume3/pre0030003c. html.
Classroom Exercise: Envy and Jealousy
Handout 8B–16 is Richard Smith and colleagues’ Dispositional Envy Scale (DES). To score, students simply add up
the numbers they placed in front of the eight items. Total scores can range from 8 to 40, with higher scores reflecting
a greater tendency to experience envy. In constructing the scale, the authors recognized that envy involves two
principal affective components, namely feelings of inferiority and feelings of ill will.
Smith and his colleagues note that envy is pervasive. Almost all cultures have a word for it and most
individuals are capable of feeling it. Envy is especially likely to be experienced when a person has suffered a recent
setback, when the advantaged person is similar on comparison related attributes, and when the domain of
comparison is important to the self. A key component of envy seems to be a sense of injustice that arises from the
idea that similar people ought to have similar outcomes. Research indicates that hostile reactions are particularly
likely when another person’s advantage is unalterable or uncontrollable.
Respondents with higher DES scores were more likely to have low self-esteem, feel depressed, experience
various forms of interpersonal hostility, and express unhappiness with their lives. DES scores were also positively
correlated with a measure of dispositional jealousy. The researchers conclude by noting that envy is only one of
several ways to respond to another’s advantage. Some people may respond not only with little envy but also feel
energized and challenged in a positive, nonhostile manner. Social comparison information may provide an
opportunity to see possibilities for oneself, to learn new skills, or simply enjoy excellence, beauty, or good luck
vicariously.
A number of investigators have suggested that jealousy and envy are rooted in low self-esteem or insecurities
about our self-worth. People with poor self-concept are more likely to fear that any existing relationship is
vulnerable to threat. Jealousy is also more likely to occur when people believe they are putting more into a
relationship than their partner is; they have serious doubts about their partner’s commitment. Clinical observations
also suggest that males and females may respond differently to feelings of jealousy. Males seem less likely to admit
that they feel jealous but are more likely to express anger with themselves or toward the rival; females are more
likely to react with depression and with attempts to make themselves more attractive to the partner.
Ask your students if they have ever engaged in the following jealous or envious behaviors, all of which Peter
Salovey and Judith Rodin found to be quite common: Have they ever called a girlfriend or boyfriend unexpectedly
just to see if he or she was there? extensively questioned a girlfriend or boyfriend about previous or present romantic
relationships? listened in on a telephone conversation of a girlfriend or boyfriend or secretly followed him or her?
taken advantage of unplanned opportunities to look through a girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s belongings for unfamiliar
names, phone numbers, etc.? Also ask whether they have ever made nasty comments about someone who is better
liked by friends . . . who had possessions they wished to have . . . who was more attractive . . . who was more
successful.
Salovey and Rodin report that people use three coping methods in dealing with jealousy and envy: self-reliance,
self-bolstering, and selective ignoring. The best way to reduce the intensity of our pain is through “self-reliance.”
“It’s a strategy where you say, ‘I’m just not going to let it get to me,’” says Salovey, “ ‘I’m just going to keep my
day-to-day activities going . . . I’m not going to sulk . . . I’m going to stay as committed to my goals as I’ve ever
been.’” Unfortunately, most of us resort to “self-bolstering.” In this strategy, we try to comfort ourselves with
special treats or by focusing on our good qualities. Although this may temporarily relieve anger, in the long run, it
doesn’t reduce feelings of jealousy and envy. The third approach, “selective ignoring,” involves placing less
emphasis and importance on whatever it is that makes us jealous or envious. Not as effective as self-reliance, it is
still more effective than self-bolstering in reducing jealousy.
Salovey, P., & Rodin, J. (1985, September). The heart of jealousy. Psychology Today, 22–29.
Smith, R. H., Parrott, W. G., Diener, E. F., Hoyle, R. H., & Kim, S. H. (1999). Dispositional envy scale.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25,
1007–1020.
A. Fear (pp. 385–387)
Classroom Exercise: What Do You Fear?
To introduce the emotion of fear, have students fill in Handout 8B–17, which is adapted from the Temple Fear
Survey Inventory. Collect the handouts and calculate the mean for each item before the next class. Students are
particularly eager to compare their responses with those of others. The scores of 435 introductory psychology
students at Temple University provides comparative data. Mean scores for the 35 items are given below for males
and females. For most items, females report greater fear than males do. Ask students how this difference should be
interpreted. Are females more fearful or simply more willing to admit their fears? Unit 12 of the text pays additional
attention to phobias.
Braun, P. R., & Reynolds, D. J. (1969). A factor analysis of a 100item fear survey inventory. Behavior Research and
Therapy, 7, 399– 402.
MF MF
1. 1.5 1.7 13. 1.5 2.0
2. 2.4 2.6 14. 1.8 1.9
3. 2.0 2.1 15. 2.0 2.8
4. 1.5 1.6 16. 1.6 1.8
5. 2.0 2.1 17. 2.5 2.7
6. 1.9 2.1 18. 1.7 2.1
7. 2.2 3.1 19. 1.6 1.8
8. 2.6 2.7 20. 2.0 2.1
9. 2.7 2.4 21. 2.5 2.6
10. 2.1 2.0 22. 2.3 2.3
11. 2.2 2.1 23. 1.5 1.7
12. 2.4 2.7 24. 1.6 1.7
Lecture/Discussion Topic: The Amygdala and Fear
The text indicates that the amygdala is involved in the learning of both animal and human fears. Ralph Adolphs
and his colleagues at the University of Iowa report the case of a 30yearold woman known as S.M., who seems to
know no fear and has trouble seeing it in others. A rare genetic disorder has destroyed the amygdala in this
otherwise healthy woman.
When Adolphs showed the woman dozens of photographs of common facial expressions, she could readily
identify pure happiness, disgust, and surprise. However, she had difficulty identifying mixed emotions. Fearful
expressions mystified her completely. Judging from the woman’s responses in conversation, Adolphs suspects
that the damage to her amygdala means that she not only fails to recognize fear but also does not feel it at a gut
level. He reports, “When she talks about instances when she ‘feels afraid,’ there isn’t the tension in her voice that
you or I have.” Rather, he says, S.M. seems adroit at recognizing rationally when she should be afraid based on
cues such as loud voices, dark alleys, or cars speeding at her, and thus manages to stay out of harm’s way.
Because everyday life is rich with such signals, the woman functions fairly normally and claims she does not feel
at all impaired. “She’s unconcerned,” says Adolphs, “though one could argue that’s a symptom of her problem.”
On the basis of his research on the amygdala, New York University’s Joseph LeDoux concludes that emotion
and cognition are separate but interacting mental functions mediated by separate but interacting brain systems. He
suggests that a visual stimulus such as the sight of a snake may travel to the amygdala in a few thousandths of a
second, triggering a physiological response, a process that he would describe as the “emotion” of fear. In his
mind, that is distinct from a conscious “feeling” of fear. Feelings, LeDoux argues, arise from a second, slower
pathway that travels through the amygdala to the higher cortex. Using information from different parts of the
brain, the cortex analyzes the frightening stimulus in detail and sends a message back
MF
25. 1.4 1.4
26. 1.3 1.5
27. 1.4 2.1
28. 1.6 1.7
29. 1.9 2.7
30. 1.1 1.1
31. 1.8 1.9
32. 1.1 1.4
33. 2.2 2.4
34. 2.3 2.3
35. 2.0 2.1
down to the amygdala. If the message is that it is a false alarm, the snake was really a stick, the cortex will try to
abort the amygdala’s alarm signal. The person may still experience a jolt because of the initial arousal of the
amygdala.
This double wiring sometimes creates problems. Neural connections from the cortex down to the amygdala are less
well developed than are connections from the amygdala back up to the cortex. Thus, the amygdala seems to exert a
greater influence on the cortex than vice versa. Once an emotion has been turned on, it is difficult to turn it off.
“This is why we have trouble controlling emotions,” concluded LeDoux. “They can really trip us up.”
The amygdala has 12 to 15 distinct regions, and only 2 have been clearly implicated in fear. Other emotions may
reside in similar circuits, but their anatomy has not been traced.
Adolphs, R., et al. (1994). Impaired recognition of emotion in facial expressions following bilateral damage to the human
amygdala. Nature, 372, 669–672.
Blakeslee, S. (1996, November 5). Using rats to trace anatomy of fear, biology of emotion. New York Times, pp. C1, C3.
Chen, I., Franklin, D., & Hastings, J. (1995, March/ April). Where your fears come from. Health, 16–18.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Scared to Death
People can be literally scared to death. Edward Dolnick briefly reviews both the anecdotal and research evidence.
Understandably, the former far outweighs the latter; few drop dead under a researcher’s eye. Here are some
examples to cite in class.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
On November 19, 1983, Pearl Pizzamiglio, age 60, was working as a hotel clerk when Michael Steward
handed her a paper bag with a note: “Don’t say a word. Put all the money in this bag and no one will get
hurt.” Pizzamiglio complied, Stewart fled, and the police were called. Two hours later Pizzamiglio was
dead of heart failure. She had had no history of heart trouble and a jury, convinced that Stewart had scared
her to death, later convicted him of murder.
On Memorial Day weekend, 1988, Barbara Reyes, 40, was floating on a raft when a man on a jet ski roared
within a foot of her. Panicked, she paddled to shore, collapsed, and died. The skier was arrested and
charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Omar Torrijos, Panama’s former dictator, reportedly amused himself by killing a prisoner with an unloaded
gun; blanks, apparently, were enough to frighten the victim to death.
An elderly man sitting on his lawn collapsed and died when a car jumped the curb and seemed to head
straight for him.
A 45yearold man reportedly died of fright as he stepped to the dais to give a speech.
In the year 1840, Emperor Louis of Bavaria is said to have died of fright at the sight of a solar eclipse.
Although the medical community has been reluctant to accept the notion that fear alone can kill a heart that is
not already weakened by disease or genetic defect, scientific documentation is building. For example, Robert Eliot,
a cardiologist and expert on sudden death, recalls a series of five military incidents: “Air Force test pilots lost
control of their aircraft and couldn’t eject. Their electrocardiograms were being monitored from the ground. These
people died before they hit the ground, and they died of fright.”
Bernard Lown, a Harvard cardiologist, saw one case for himself. A middle-aged woman had a narrowing of a
heart valve, a condition known as tricuspid stenosis that is not life-threatening. “This woman has TS,” her
physician announced to Lown, and then left. Thinking TS meant “terminal situation” the woman began to perspire
and hyperventilate. Her pulse shot up to 150. Explanation proved futile and the woman died of heart failure later
the same day.
Neurologist Martin A. Samuels, who has dedicated his life to exploring sudden death, also believes it is
possible to die from intense fear. “I know this,” he states, “because I have had cases of children with absolutely no
heart disease who died on amusement park rides.” Samuels speculates that Kenneth Lay, the former Enron chief
who died in July 2006 while awaiting sentencing for conspiracy and fraud, may be a case in point. Lay’s doctors
called his death a heart attack. While Samuels didn’t examined Lay’s heart, he speculates the cause could have
been something else: “He was in his 60s, probably going to prison, probably for life, nothing he could do about it.
All you could say is that it is the perfect set up for sudden death.”
Studies with laboratory dogs also suggest that fear may kill. When a person is terrified, adrenaline and similar
chemicals called catecholamines command the heart to speed up. When dogs are injected with a massive dose of
catecholamines, they die; autopsies have revealed characteristic lesions on their hearts. Micro scopic examination
of the hearts of two people who were scared to death—a woman who was mugged but not physically hurt and a
man who died after being fired from his job—revealed muscle damage identical to that in the laboratory dogs. Such
lesions have now been found in more than 80 percent of the victims of sudden cardiac death.
ABC News (2006, October 30). Being “scared to death” can kill. Retrieved September 30, 2008 from
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnCall/Story?id=2614635 &page=1.
Dolnick, E. (1989, March/April). Scared to death. Hippocrates, 106–108.
B. Anger (pp. 387–389)
Feature Film: Fried Green Tomatoes and Expressing
Anger The feature film Fried Green Tomatoes provides a wonderfully entertaining and educational clip for
introducing a discussion of anger, in particular, the text discussion of catharsis. If you have ever seen the film, you
are sure to remember this scene. The clip begins 77:12 minutes into the film and runs approximately 3:05 minutes.
Evelyn Couch, a dowdy, passive housewife, navigates her car into the parking lot of a busy mall. She waits patiently
as another customer leaves his parking spot. Before Evelyn can capture the vacated spot, two cocky young women
drive their Volkswagen in ahead of her. Their action as well as their snide comments set Evelyn off as she
repeatedly slams her car into the back of the Volkswagen. For Evelyn there seems to be immediate catharsis (as well
as some hilarious lines). The action also transforms her into an aggressive feminist, as becomes immediately evident
in her subsequent conversation with friend Ninny Threadgoode, a spry octogenarian who lives in a nursing home.
Show the clip without introduction and invite students to respond to the following questions in small group or full
class discussion.
What makes us angry? Why would many, perhaps most, people experience anger in response to the women’s
actions? (The text introduces anger with the first question. Myers goes on to suggest that anger is especially
common when another person’s misconduct seems willful, unjustified, and avoidable.)
Is the anger that is portrayed in the clip “a short madness” (Horace) that “carries the mind away” (Virgil),
“many times more hurtful than the injury that caused it” (Thomas Fuller), or is it “noble anger” (Shakespeare)
that “makes any coward brave” (Cato) and “brings back . . . strength” (Virgil)? Explain.
Is the woman’s “venting of her anger” typical of the anger response? How might other people respond to the
same situation? Share a personal experience in which you vented your anger.
How does the venting of anger affect the woman? How did your venting anger affect you? Popular books and
articles on aggression sometimes advise that hostile outbursts are better for you than keeping anger pent up. Do
you agree? Why or why not?
What’s the best way to handle anger?
Classroom Exercise/Student Project: The Multidimensional Anger Inventory
Handout 8B–18 is the Multidimensional Anger Inventory designed by Judith Siegel. In scoring, the numbers circled
in front of items 2, 15, 23, 24, and 25 should be reversed. That is, students should change 1 to 5, 2 to 4, 4 to 2, and 5
to 1. Then total all the numbers. Male and female college students obtained a mean score of 71.18.
Siegel hypothesized that the inventory would measure the following dimensions of anger: frequency (items 1, 6,
9, 14, 17), duration (22, 25), magnitude (2, 10, 18, 26), range of anger-eliciting situations (30), hostile outlook (5, 8,
13, 16, 21, 28), and mode of expression. This latter dimension was expected to contain separate anger-in (items 3,
20, 23, 24, 27, 29), anger-out (4, 7, 12, 15, 19), guilt about expressing anger (11, 29), brood (15, 19, 20, 23), and
anger-discuss (24) measures.
The inventory was administered to two populations: male and female college students and male factory
workers. Factor analyses indicated that the frequency, duration, and magnitude dimensions cluster together to form
an anger-arousal factor. As hypothesized, range of anger-eliciting situations and hostile outlook emerged as separate
dimensions. Mode of expression was best described by only two measures: anger-in and anger-out (which refer to
whether we hold anger in or express it).
In general, male college students scored higher than females, although largely on the anger-in measure. Siegel
notes that because males are thought to be more overtly aggressive, one might expect them to score higher on angerout than on anger-in. However, because anger results in direct aggression only 10 percent of the time, it is likely that
anger produces a variety of behaviors. Males were also marginally higher than females on the range of angereliciting situations dimension.
College students scored higher than factory workers, with means of 71.18 and 68.45, respectively. While this
might indicate that college students are angrier than factory workers, it is also possible that the former feel less
conflict about admitting their anger. More careful analysis indicated that the outward expression of anger is not
associated with brooding among college students, but it is related to brooding among the older population of factory
workers. Furthermore, the members of the latter group scored slightly higher on guilt, also suggesting that they may
have greater conflict over anger.
Siegel, J. (1986). The multidimensional anger inventory.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51,
191–200.
Student Project: Monitoring Anger
Ask for volunteers to monitor their anger for a week. Have them record not only how frequently they feel angry but
also what precipitated the feeling. Do their results parallel those of James Averill, who found that most people
become at least mildly angry several times a week, and sometimes several times a day? Is the anger usually directed
at individual people, most often friends or relatives? Was the anger constructive or destructive? And last, but not
least, what effect did self-observation have on their feelings of anger?
Using descriptions of everyday provocations, Hasida BenZur and Shlomo Breznitz investigated the effect of various
factors on self-reported anger. Their main finding was that level of damage or degree of loss was the most important
instigator of anger. Two other factors—namely, the intentions of harm-doers and their ability to have prevented the
damage—also had consistent and independent effects on the subjective feeling of anger.
BenZur and Breznitz note that their results are surprising in light of the common claim that people should not
become angry even if the damage is high, provided it occurred by mistake or was unavoidable. One possible
explanation for the strong effect of damage may be that in certain cases, the subjective feeling of anger may be
determined by automatically processed elements of the situation rather than by the cognitive evaluations of
mitigating circumstances. Assessing damage is easier and faster than reasons for the act. Once damage is
determined, anger is proportionally aroused, and then its level may be difficult to change. BenZur and Breznitz
suggest that this analysis is not intended to imply that mitigating circumstances never affect anger. Most important,
mitigating circumstances may be crucial in determining anger’s duration and mode of expression. The initial
response, however, may circumvent complex cognitive processes.
Averill, J. (1983). Studies on anger and aggression: Implications for theories of emotion. American Psychologist, 38,
1145–1160.
BenZur, H., & Breznitz, S. (1991). What makes people angry: Dimensions of anger-evoking events. Journal of Research in
Personality, 25, 1–22.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Angry Driving
The topic of aggressive driving provides an interesting extension of the text treatment of anger. Invite your students
to speculate on the possible causes of aggressive driving. Among the answers psychologists have suggested are that
congestion on highways creates frustration and stress. E. Scott Geller, a psychologist at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University, argues that urbanization, dual income families, and workplace downsizing have left
people in crowded communities with more to do and less time to do it. People feel rushed and their stress is
particularly noticeable when they drive. Other psychologists have suggested that cars promote deindividuation. The
loss of self-awareness and evaluation apprehension reduces restraints on aggression.
Colorado State University psychologist Jeffrey Deffenbacher posed a question to his students: Someone cuts you off
while you’re driving on the highway or steals the parking space you’ve been patiently waiting for. Do you (a) take a
deep breath and move on; (b) honk and then move on; or (c) repeatedly honk, yell out, and pound your fists against
your steering wheel, wondering how the other person even got a driver’s license in the first place?
Deffenbacher notes that even typically calm, reasonable people sometimes turn into angry warriors who choose
the third alternative. “Anger is not a chronic experience for high-anger drivers,” reports Deffenbacher, “but
something prompted by different triggers or events on the road. . . . It’s about encountering provocations—events on
the road that are frustrating and provoking in some way—and then what they bring to the wheel that determines how
angry they will get.” When provoked on the road, they yell out obscenities, wildly gesture, honk, swerve in and out
of traffic, and, in general, endanger the lives of others as well as their own. His studies suggest that high-anger
drivers tend to
•
practice hostile, aggressive thinking. They report greater disbelief about how others drive. They have more
vengeful and retaliatory thoughts than low-anger drivers, and, in extreme cases, they may plot ways to physically
harm those drivers who have proved frustrating to them.
•
take greater risks on the road. In comparison to low-anger drivers, they more often speed—typically 10 to
20 miles over the speed limit—rapidly switch lanes, and tailgate.
•
behave more aggressively. High-anger drivers commonly report swearing or name-calling, yelling at the
driver, or honking in anger. They report being angry slightly more than twice a day and average just over two
aggressive behaviors per day. In comparison, low-anger drivers are angry less than once a day and average less than
one aggressive behavior per day. This pattern holds for low- and high-anger drivers who drive an equivalent number
of miles.
•
have more accidents. High-anger drivers have twice as many car accidents either from a collision with
another car or from an off-road crash. They also report more near-accidents and receive more traffic tickets.
•
experience more trait anger, anxiety, and impulsiveness. High-anger drivers are more likely to get in a car
angry from work or home stress. In general, they tend to express anger in more outward and less controlled ways as
well as to react impulsively.
Interestingly, Deffenbacher reports that high-anger drivers are not angry all the time when they drive. Driving on
unimpeded country roads—as they did in one of his study’s computer program simulations— high- and low-anger
drivers reported similar levels of low anger.
Do cities vary in the courteousness of their drivers? Ann Conkle and Catherine West report results from the 2008
Auto Vantage Road Rage Survey, which polled drivers throughout the country. Ask your students to guess which
city received top honors for courtesy. It was Pittsburgh, PA, followed by Portland, OR; Seattle, WA, Minneapolis,
MN, and Cleveland, OH. And the rudest? Miami, FL followed by Boston, MA, New York, NY, Baltimore, MD, and
Washington, DC.
Geller and Jerry Beasley have suggested a new way to reduce aggressive driving: Install a tiny green light at the
back of every car and teach drivers to say “please” (one flash), “thank you” (two flashes), and “I’m sorry” (three
flashes). The two have developed “The Flash,” a thumb-sized light that is attached with Velcro to the rear window
and is powered by the cigarette lighter. The Flash can be seen from the front and back and is activated by pushing a
remote control button.
Conkle, A., & West, C. (2008, June/July). Psychology on the road. APS Observer, 19–23.
Dittman, M. (2005, June). Anger on the road. Monitor on Psychology, 26–27.
Hargrove, T., & Bernt, J. (1999, July 25). Anger is all the rage in America, poll finds. Grand Rapids Press, p. A6.
O’Driscoll, P. (1997, December 9). In hot pursuit of road rage. USA Today, p. 3A.
Sleek, S. (1996, September). Car wars: Taming drivers’ aggression. APA Monitor, 1, 13.
(2003, June 24). Flashing ‘Sorry’ may defuse road rage, professor believes. KitchenerWaterloo Record, p. C1.
Classroom Exercise: The Anger Discomfort Scale
You can introduce the text discussion of alternative ways of dealing with anger by having students complete
Handout 8B–19, the Anger Discomfort Scale (ADS). Designed by Bruce Sharkin and Charles Gelso, ADS attempts
to assess respondents’ reactions to their own anger tendencies or experiences. The authors conceptualized anger
discomfort “as an inner, subjective experience similar to anxiety, tied to both intra-psychic and interpersonal
factors.” Individuals who are high on anger discomfort feel threatened by their experience of anger (intra-psychic)
and concerned about others’ reactions to their anger (interpersonal).
In scoring the scale, students should reverse the numbers before items 5, 10, and 11 (1 = 4, 2 = 3, 3 = 2, 4 = 1), then
total the numbers for all 15 items. Scores can range from 15 to 60, with higher scores reflecting greater discomfort
with one’s own anger. Undergraduates obtained a mean ADS score of 30.6. There was no significant sex difference.
After students have completed and scored the scale, have them discuss, either in small groups or as a class, what
we actually do and what we should do with our anger. Is anger “short madness,” as Horace suggested, or does anger
“make any coward brave,” as Cato argued? Is it better to express anger or keep it pent up? Does expressing anger
result in catharsis or does it breed new anger? The text suggests possible answers to these questions and includes
experts’ advice on handling anger.
Sharkin, B., & Gelso, C. (1991). The anger discomfort scale: Beginning reliability and validity data. Measurement and
Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 24, 61–68.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Do We Need to Vent Our Rage?
Do we occasionally need to “blow off a little steam”? The Week reports that a new bar in China allows customers to
ventilate their frustration by physically assaulting the staff. The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing employs
20 heavily muscled waiters whom patrons are free to punch and scream at without fear of retaliation. But does the
expression of anger and aggression make us less violent in the long run and contribute to our mental health? The
catharsis hypothesis suggests this to be the case.
The notion of catharsis is usually credited to Aristotle. Although he said nothing about aggression, he suggested
that we can purge our emotions by experiencing them. Viewing the classic tragedies presumably enabled a
“purgation” of pity and fear. Today, some therapists believe that aggressive action or fantasy can reduce the
aggressive urge. The “bataca” fight is presumably one form of constructive physical release. A bataca is a foam bat
with which people can hit each other without causing injury. The fight itself must be agreed upon by both parties,
and any differences in physical strength must be compensated for. For example, the stronger person may be required
to use the nondominant arm. Rules must also be made—for example, only legs and arms may be hit and the fight
will last for 5 minutes.
A bataca spanking has been suggested as another appropriate physical release for anger and aggression. It is used
when one person admits wrongdoing and allows the victim to retaliate. The offender must stand still so that the other
person can hit squarely. Other rules are negotiated, as in the bataca fight.
Ann Landers, the noted advice columnist who died in 2002, also argued that youngsters ought to be taught to vent
their anger in controlled ways. Not all her readers agreed, as is evident from this letter.
Dear Ann: I was shocked at your advice to the mother whose 3yearold had temper tantrums. You suggested that the child be
taught to kick the furniture and “get the anger out of his system.” I always thought you were a little cuckoo. Now I’m sure.
My younger brother used to kick the furniture when he got mad. Mother called it, “Letting off steam.” Well, he’s 32 years
old now and still kicking the furniture— what’s left of it, that is. He is also kicking his wife, the cat, the kids, and anything
else that gets in his way. Last October he threw the TV set out the window when his favorite team failed to score and lost the
game. (The window was closed at the time.)
Why don’t you tell mothers that children must be taught to control their anger? This is what separates civilized human
beings from savages, Dummy.—Star Witness
Dear Star: You, like some others who wrote to criticize, ignored the most important part of my answer. I did not condone
destroying furniture. I suggested that a punching bag or an old chair, specifically set aside for the purpose, be the object of
the child’s hostility. And P.S.—the most important part of my answer went like this: “Youngsters should be taught to vent
their anger against things— not people.”
Permission granted by Ann Landers and Creators Syndicate.
Was Ann right? Does the catharsis approach work? As the text explains, psychological research offers limited
support for the catharsis hypothesis. Laboratory tests of catharsis have produced mixed results at best. One study
found that when students were allowed to counterattack someone who had provoked them, their blood pressure more
quickly returned to normal. The calming effect seems to occur, however, only when the target is one’s actual
tormenter, the retaliation is justified, and the target is nonintimidating.
Does the viewing of aggression prove cathartic? Alfred Hitchcock once said, “One of television’s great
contributions is that it brought murder back into the home where it belongs. Seeing a murder on television can be
good therapy. It can help work off one’s antagonisms. If you have no antagonisms, the commercials will give you
some.” Once again, research is not supportive. Spectators of football, wrestling, and hockey exhibit more hostility
after watching the event than before. Similarly, after a war, a nation’s murder rate tends to increase, not decrease.
Unit 14 of the text will review the effects of televised and video violence. The near consensus in the research
community is that such violence increases aggression in the viewer.
Why does hostility breed more hostility? Perhaps, as the text suggests, people find that retaliation is tensionreducing and thus reinforcing. In addition, as students will learn in Unit 14, actions shape attitudes. We not only
hurt the people we hate but also come to hate the people we hurt. A vicious cycle is created in which actions and
attitudes feed on each other.
Staff. (2006, August 18). Best columns: The U.S. The Week, p. 12..
C. Happiness (pp. 389–396)
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Two Dimensions of Positive Affect
Research on two important dimensions of positive affect extends the text discussion of happiness and its adaptive
value. Ute Kunzmann and her research team at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development make an important
distinction between two dimensions of positive affect—namely, pleasant affect and positive involvement. Pleasant
affect is assessed by the frequency with which people report feeling exuberant, happy, proud, amused, and cheerful.
Positive involvement is measured by the frequency with which people feel interested, alert, inspired, attentive, and
active. The researchers found that the two dimensions are only moderately correlated (r = .37).
In their study, Kunzmann and her colleagues examined the relationships between these two different
dimensions of positive affect and lifestyle. To assess lifestyle, they used self-reported values, everyday activities,
and activity aspirations. They reported the following.
•
Pleasant affect but not positive involvement was related to a hedonic lifestyle. The pattern was found for
both values and everyday activities. That is, adults who tended to experience pleasant affect frequently were likely
to hold values related to a pleasurable life, intimacy, and social approval. They also pursue related activities (e.g., to
buy something nice for themselves, to make or visit a party, to go dancing, to do something with friends).
•
Positive involvement but not pleasant affect was related to a growth-related lifestyle. That is, adults
who tended to experience positive involvement were likely to hold values related to personal growth, the
wellbeing of family and friends, and societal engagement. They pursue related everyday activities (e.g., to do
volunteer work, to read books, to be politically active).
•
Pleasant affect and positive involvement were also linked to people’s activity aspirations, that is, activities
they would pursue if they had extra resources (time and/or money). People tending to experience pleasant affect
were likely to report hedonic aspirations (e.g., to buy a big house, to talk more with my friends) and were unlikely to
report growth-related aspirations (e.g., to visit museums around the world, to read classic books). For people who
experience positive involvement the opposite was true. (Note: The authors observe that the hedonic and growthrelated aspirations measures were not independent. That is, participants could report six activity aspirations, which
were coded to reflect mutually exclusive categories. Thus, a participant who reported more hedonic activity
aspirations had to report fewer growth-related aspirations, and vice versa.)
•
Age (respondents were from 15 to 70 years old) was negatively related to pleasant affect and a hedonic
lifestyle but positively related to positive involvement and a growth-related lifestyle. This finding seems consistent
with lifespan theories emphasizing that becoming older involves not only losses but also gains, particularly in
personality functioning. Clearly, the present study contributes to a growing literature focusing on the positive
aspects of adulthood and old age.
The researchers highlight the importance of considering two dimensions of positive affect—pleasant feelings and
positive involvement—separately when studying the link between affect and lifestyle.
Kunzmann, U., Stange, A., & Jordan, J. (2005, April). Positive affectivity and lifestyle in adulthood: Do you do what you
feel? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 574–588.
Classroom Exercise: What Is Satisfying About Satisfying Events?
Before students have read the section on happiness, you might introduce the literature by asking them the same
question Kennon Sheldon and his colleagues asked their research participants.
Consider the past month of your life. Think back to the important occurrences of this period of time. What I want you to
do is bring to mind the single most personally satisfying event that you experienced during the last month. I am being
vague about the definition of ‘satisfying event’ on purpose, because I want you to use your own definition. Think of
‘satisfying’ in whatever way makes sense to you. Take a couple minutes to be sure to come up with a very impactful
experience.
After Sheldon’s volunteers described the most satisfying event, they were asked to rate the relevance of then
personal needs within the events. These included autonomy (free to do things my own way), competence
(very capable in what I did), relatedness (strong sense of intimacy with the people I spent time with), selfactualization-meaning (a sense of deeper purpose in life), physical thriving (a strong sense of physical
wellbeing), pleasure-stimulation (intense physical pleasure and enjoyment), money-luxury (able to buy most
of the things I want), security (safe from threats and uncertainties), self-esteem (a strong sense of self-respect)
and popularity-influence (strong impact on what other people did).
Results indicated that, consistent with self-determination theory, the top four needs that determined satisfaction
were autonomy, competence, relatedness, and self-esteem. Self-actualization-meaning, physical thriving, popularityinfluence, and money-luxury were less important. Results were consistent across both U.S. and South Korean
samples.
Do your students show the same pattern? What kinds of experiences should they seek to increase their life
satisfaction? The researchers suggest that their results have strong relevance for society’s goal of providing optimal
social and developmental environments for citizens. Authorities and social planners should try to help their charges
find regular experiences of autonomy, competence, relatedness, and self-esteem in order to ensure that they thrive.
Sheldon, K. M., Elliot, A. J., Kim, Y., & Kasser, T. (2001). What is satisfying about satisfying events? 10 candidate
psychological needs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,80,325–339.
Classroom Exercise: Happiness Measures
Two brief exercises can be used to introduce Unit 8B’s treatment of happiness. Handout 8B–20 contains the
Happiness Measures (HM), perhaps the most researched index of happiness in the field. Michael Fordyce provides
an extensive review of its status.
The HM provides measures of both frequency and intensity of affect. The scale score and the three percentage
estimates are used as raw scores. The combination score, used by researchers as the primary criterion for
happiness, requires minimal calculation: combination score = (scale score x 10 + happy %) / 2. Mean scores for
more than 3000 community college students were as follows: Combination score = 61.66; Scale score = 6.92;
Happy % Estimate = 54.13; Unhappy % Estimate = 20.44; Neutral % Estimate = 25.43.
The characteristics of happy people are identified in the text. A classroom experiment suggested by Bernard
Rimland may enable you to extend the list. Ask each student to list 10 people they know well, using only initials or
nicknames. Beside each name the students should write an “H” if that person tends to be happy or an “N” if he or
she is not happy. Then have them go through the list a second time, this time writing “S” for selfish and “U” for
unselfish. Rimland defines selfishness as a stable tendency to devote one’s time and resources to one’s interest and
welfare and an unwillingness to inconvenience oneself for others.
Finally, draw a 4 x 4 table on the board with happy/unhappy on one axis and selfish/unselfish on the other. Ask
students to reproduce the table on their own sheets and count the number of people among the 10 names that fall into
each cell. Then have each student read off the number in each cell; tally the numbers on the chalkboard. The results
will be dramatic. The happy/selfish cell will have few cases; virtually all the happy people will be in the “unselfish”
cell. Ask students if they know anybody who is both selfish and happy. Few will. As Rimland points out, the
findings may represent an interesting paradox: Selfish people are those whose activities are devoted to bringing
themselves happiness. As judged by others, however, these selfish people are far less likely to be happy than those
who are devoted to making others happy.
Alan Feingold has suggested that selflessness and happiness may be associated because they are both socially
desirable characteristics; we may see people we like as possessing both traits and those we dislike as having neither.
Using self rating scales of happiness and selflessness, Feingold reported a positive correlation between the two
variables for males, but not for females.
Feingold, A. (1983). Happiness, unselfishness, and popularity. JournalofPsychology,115,3–5.
Fordyce, M. W. (1988). A review of research on the Happiness Measures: A sixty second index of happiness and mental
health. SocialIndicatorsResearch,20, 355–381.
Rimland, B. (1982). The altruism paradox. The Southern Psychologist,2(1), 8–9.
Classroom Exercise: Orientations to Happiness and Life Satisfaction
Handout 8B–21 is Christopher Peterson, Nansook Park, and Martin Seligman’s Orientations to Happiness measure.
The scale identifies three different ways to be happy: through pleasure, through engagement, and through meaning.
In scoring their responses, students obtain three subscale scores. In each case, they simply add their numbered
responses to the relevant statements. Happiness through a life of pleasure is assessed by items 3, 8, 13, 15, 16, and
18. Happiness through a life of engagement is assessed by items 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10. Happiness through a life of
meaning is assessed by items 2, 5, 11, 12, 14, and 17. For each subscale, scores can range from 6 to 30, with higher
scores reflecting a stronger orientation to that particular way of being happy.
Peterson and his colleagues trace the history of how philosophers and psychologists have viewed the good life.
The pursuit of hedonism has a long history. In the modern Western world, the pursuit of pleasure is widely affirmed
as the way to achieve life satisfaction: “Don’t worry—be happy.” Being true to oneself is another route to the good
life. In contrast to hedonism, the notion of being true to oneself emphasizes the premise that people should develop
what is best within themselves and then use these skills in the service of others. The pursuit of a meaningful life is
the way to achieve satisfaction: “Be all that you can be and make a difference.”
Still a third route to the good life is through the pursuit of engagement. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi identified flow
as the psychological state that accompanies highly engaging activities (see Appendix B, Psychology at Work, for a
description of the flow experience). When challenges match abilities, time passes quickly and the sense of self is
lost. People describe flow as enjoyable but only in retrospect.
The Peterson research team asked four important questions:
1
Are these three orientations to happiness empirically distinguishable?
2
Is it possible for the same person to pursue all three ways of being happy or are they incompatible routes to
the good life?
3
Do these three orientations contribute equally to life satisfaction or is one more important than the others?
4
Does the joint presence of these orientations predict greater life satisfaction than would be expected from
combining the individual components?
The researchers received responses from 845 adults to Internet surveys that included the orientations to
happiness scale as well as a measure of general life satisfaction. They found strong support for the existence of three
different orientations to the good life. Factor analysis identified three factors that corresponded to the pursuit of
pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Considered individually, each orientation to happiness predicted happiness,
although an orientation to pleasure was not as strong an individual predictor of life satisfaction as orientations to
engagement or meaning. Furthermore, scores on all three measures were positively correlated. The investigators
concluded that pleasure, engagement, and meaning are not incompatible routes to the good life and thus, it would
seem, can be pursued simultaneously. In fact, the Full Life (being simultaneously high on all three orientations)
predicts life satisfaction somewhat better than the sum of its parts and the Empty Life (simultaneously low on all
three orientations) predicts notably less life satisfaction.
Peterson, C., Park, N., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Orientations to happiness and life satisfaction: The full life versus the
empty life. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 25–41.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Money and Happiness
Ask your students: Is Microsoft’s Bill Gates as happy giving his money away as he was making it?
Elizabeth Dunn and her research team suggest a possible answer. Gates may in fact be as happy or even happier
giving it away. Dunn and her colleagues speculated that how people spend their money may be at least as important
as how much money they earn. Specifically, they hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a
more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. In surveying a representative sample of more
than 600 U.S. citizens, the research team found that self-reported happiness rates correlated positively with the
amount of money people had given away, not with the amount they had earned or spent on themselves. In an
experiment, research participants were given cash and then were randomly assigned to spend the money on others or
on themselves. Again, those assigned to give money away experienced greater happiness than those assigned to
spend money on themselves.
Dunn concludes that the data “confirmed our hypothesis more strongly than we dared to dream.” Furthermore, she
suggests that habitual charity is much better than a onetime donation for both the giver and the receiver. She
concludes that if giving “becomes a way of living, then it can make a lasting difference.”
Dunn, E., Aknin, L.B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319, 1687–1688.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Rising Happiness and Freedom of Choice
Ronald Inglehart and his colleagues report that international surveys carried out from 1981 to 2007 show that
happiness rose in 45 of 52 countries examined. This finding, the researchers note, challenges the widely accepted
claim that happiness is constant. Presumably, neither rising prosperity nor severe misfortune has a permanent effect
on happiness. After a period of adjustment, individuals return to their baseline or set point of wellbeing. For
nations, happiness also stays the same in the face of rising income because of a shift in reference. If happiness is
shaped by one’s relative position in a society, then even when a nation’s overall economy rises, only those with
above-average gains will experience rising happiness. Those increases will be offset by decreases among those with
below-average gains.
The research team admits that a large body of prior research evidence has supported the idea that subjective
wellbeing is stable. For example, life satisfaction remained stable from 1973 to 1988 in most western European
countries. Perhaps the strongest support for stability comes from the hundreds of surveys that have assessed life
satisfaction and happiness in the United States. From 1946 to the present, the data indicate no change in levels of
happiness among U.S. citizens. Because the happiness levels of given societies remains stable over time, the notion
that economic development will bring rising happiness has been rejected. And although rich nations show higher
levels of subjective wellbeing than do poor countries, some have argued that these differences simply reflect
differences in what happiness means.
What then accounts for the recent and largely unexpected finding of rising happiness in so many countries?
Inglehart and colleagues’ careful analysis indicates that an increase in free choice and personal control is a likely
cause.
Three factors were linked to the increased sense of free choice that was found in most countries surveyed from
1981 to 2007. First, strong economic growth enhanced citizens’ personal control. Economic scarcity had been one of
the important constraints on freedom of choice. Second, democratization contributed to personal control. People of
countries that moved from authoritarian rule to democracy during the relevant period showed a rising sense of free
choice. Finally, even more important than economic growth and democratization, a growing social tolerance of
diverse lifestyles enhanced people’s sense of choice and very likely fostered happiness.
Inglehart, R., Foa, R., Peterson, C., & Weizel, C. (2008). Development, freedom, and rising happiness. Perspectives on
Psychological Science, 3, 264–285.
Classroom Exercise: Adaptation Level
The adaptation-level phenomenon is used in the text to explain the relativity of happiness. The power of adaptation
to life circumstances was powerfully demonstrated in a University of Michigan study. Jason Riis and his research
team reported that patients on dialysis for terminal kidney failure were about as happy as healthy people. In the
study, 49 kidney patients undergoing dialysis treatments three times a week were asked to rate their moods several
times a day. A matched group of 49 healthy people did the same. They all used a rating scale in which “2” meant
feeling “very pleasant,” while “–2” meant feeling very “unpleasant.” The kidney patients rated their moods as .70,
while the healthy people rated theirs only slightly higher.
Before students read the text coverage of happiness, you might ask a question Eric Weiser (reported by
N. Belenky) poses to his class: Assume, for the moment, that you won $10 million in the lottery today. How happy
do you think you would feel in one year, on a scale from 1 to 10? Similarly, assume that you suffered a crippling car
accident today that left you paraplegic. How happy do you think you would feel in one year on a scale from 1 to 10?
The point of course is not the absolute numbers respondents give, but the difference between their two ratings.
Research suggests that people who experience these two life events adapt very quickly and, after a year, report little
difference in their ratings of life satisfaction.
The adaptation-level phenomenon refers to our tendency to adapt to a given level of stimulation and to notice and
react to changes from that level. Thus, an upward change in income, grades, or social prestige makes us happy for a
time, but then we require something better yet to give us another surge of happiness. The idea for Handout 8B–22,
which includes only one question, can be used to demonstrate the phenomenon. Students from poorer families will
define “well off ” at a lower income than will the wealthier students.
Americans at all income levels, except the very top, claim that more income would make them happier. In fact, this
is not the case. As noted in the text, during the last four decades, the typical American’s buying power almost
tripled. Did this change produce greater happiness? No, Americans did not report greater satisfaction with their
lives.
Belenky, N. (2004, June 29). Summary: social cognition activities. Message posted to PSYCHTEACHER
@list.kennesaw.edu.
Riis, J., et al. (2005). Ignorance of hedonic adaptation to hemodialysis: A study using ecological momentary assessment.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134(1), 3–9.
Classroom Exercise: Relative Deprivation
Royce Singleton has suggested that grade inflation in American colleges and universities may have increased
concern over grades by raising expectations, making students less satisfied with what was once considered a “good”
grade. (Although Singleton based his research on college students, his findings should apply equally to high school
students, for whom grades have become increasingly important. Also, the handouts mentioned below will work as
well with your students.) Because comparison with others is often the basis for self-evaluation, students assess the
value of their own grades by comparing them with those of their classmates. The higher the grade relative to others,
the more satisfying it will be. It follows that as grades become inflated, good grades will become less satisfying
because they are not as “good” relative to others.
Singleton demonstrated this relative-deprivation effect by presenting new students with past grade distributions that
indicated he was either a “hard” or an “easy” grader, and then asking how satisfied they would be with final grades
of A, B, and C. Students in the “hard grader” condition were more satisfied with all three hypothetical final grades
than those in the “easy grader” condition.
If your students are still uncertain about the type of grader you are, you may be able to replicate Singleton’s
results. Of course, it is important to debrief students thoroughly, as Singleton did. If you think your students already
know how hard a grader you are, use Handouts 8B–23(a) and (b), which contain hypothetical grade distributions,
and ask for students’ satisfaction with each grade. Randomly distribute an equal number of each form. Collect the
forms and, before the next class, calculate any differences in satisfaction with grades under the two distributions.
Report the results and explain in terms of relative deprivation.
The text notes that “by counting our blessings” when we compare ourselves with those less fortunate, we can
increase our satisfaction. You might read the following letter to Ann Landers in class to emphasize the point:
Dear Ann Landers: People often complain about what a rotten day they had when they catch a cold or miss a bus. Here is a
questionnaire that should put things in the proper perspective for those who think they have had a rotten day. Answer yes or
no to the following questions:
Today:
Did a family member or dear friend die?
Did the tests you took last week reveal you have cancer?
Did your child get hit by a car?
Did your husband (or wife) announce the marriage is
over?
Did you lose your job?
Did you get shot at?
Did your young son run away from home?
Did you just discover that your best friend and your
spouse are having an affair?
Did your daughter phone from college to say she’s
pregnant?
Did your business go bankrupt?
Did a tornado, hurricane, cyclone, or flood hit your
house?
Did you suffer a heart attack or stroke?
Did your lover announce he or she “needs more space”?
Did a bomb explode in your area?
Did you just discover a trusted employee has been
stealing?
Did your spouse surprise you with divorce papers?
Did somebody break into your home last night?
If you answered yes to one of these questions, you have a right to complain that you had a bad day. If not— as Ann would
say—quitcherbeefin’, and count your blessings. C.W., St. Clair, Mich .
Permission granted by Ann Landers and Creators Syndicate.
Landers, A. (1997, November 9). Tragedy puts things in perspective, Grand Rapids Press, p. L2.
Singleton, R. (1978). Effects of grade inflation on satisfaction with final grade: A case of relative deprivation. Journal of
Social Psychology, 105, 37– 41.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Laughter
Research on laughter provides an interesting extension of the happiness literature. As Jaak Panksepp explains,
laughter, which has been regarded as a unique human phenomenon, is evident in other primates and has been
observed even in laboratory rats.
Laughter is basically a social phenomenon. Robert Provine, who found it difficult to evoke laughter in the laboratory
and thus felt compelled to study it in natural settings such as the mall, reports that people are 30 times more likely to
laugh when they are with others than by themselves. Interestingly, however, laughter is often not a reaction to humor
or jokes. In fact, Provine reports that it occurs in response to humor only 10 to 15 percent of the time. Laughter
occurs during natural pauses in speech 99 percent of the time. Speakers laugh more than listeners with the amount of
laughter linked to the gender of the speaker. That is, female speakers laugh much more frequently than male
speakers, especially when the listener is male. Both male and female listeners, however, laugh more when the
speaker is male than when the speaker is female.
At the same time, laughter is contagious. In an APS presentation, Provine induced laughter in the audience by
playing a laugh box (much like the laugh track on a sitcom), suggesting that perhaps humans have a laugh detector,
that in turn produces laughter.
Laughter first appears in rudimentary form at 2 or 3 months of age. In young children, it is most easily evoked
by playful tickling. The fact that one cannot tickle oneself may indicate, suggests Panksepp, that the underlying
neural systems are controlled by social cues and interactions—perceptions of being wanted or chased as well as the
dynamics of the resulting playful social activities. Being tickled by another person arouses the brain more than
being “tickled” by oneself. The response conditions so quickly that after only a few tickles one can evoke laughter
simply through gestures that imply threats of tickling. This same type of learned anticipatory response is evident in
rats.
Panksepp suggests that a study of the neurobiological substrates of laughter may help us decode the
fundamental nature of joy within the brain. The fact that laboratory rats also exhibit high-frequency ultrasonic
laughter-type chirping responses to tickling indicates that the fundamental neural sources of positive social affect
may be studied in animal models. Clearly, like humans, young rats find tickling to be rewarding because they will
seek the proximity of a hand that tickled them over one that simply petted them. Young rats prefer to be with older
animals that chirp abundantly. Rat “laughter” can also easily be increased or decreased by selective breeding,
which indicates that it may reflect a heritable emotional trait.
In humans, it is generally believed that positive feelings of humor may require higher brain systems such as
those of the frontal lobes, where the right side appears to be especially important for the appreciation of humor.
Doctors have discovered that hearty laughter, accompanied by true mirth, could be induced by the presurgical brain
stimulation of a specific frontal cortical area. A 16yearold girl undergoing this procedure to identify the source of
her seizures was repeatedly overcome by laughter that intensified as brain stimulation was increased. Curiously,
this led to the projection of mirthful feelings onto “whatever stimulus was present.”
Is there a relationship between laughter and health? Norman Cousins reported “the joyous discovery that ten
minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect.” He also indicated that laughter provided hours of relief
from chronic pain. Some research indicates that humor and laughter may ameliorate pain, alleviate stress, and
promote functioning of the immune system.
Investigators at the University of Maryland have reported that when 20 research participants smiled and
laughed while watching the comedy Kingpin, their blood flow increased by 22 percent, equivalent to the increase
produced by aerobic exercise. In contrast, when volunteers watched tense scenes from Saving Private Ryan, their
blood flow decreased 35 percent. Michael Miller’s research team reports that laughing seems to cause the
endothelium (the tissue lining the blood vessels) to expand. Miller concludes that a healthy lifestyle might include
“30 minutes of exercise three times a week—and 15 minutes of hearty laughter each day.”
Laughter can also be derisive when it arises from feelings of social scorn. Both children and adults may use it
as a psychological tool for teasing and taunting. The establishment of exclusionary group identities sets the stage
for finding mirth in the misfortunes of other people. On the other hand, within groups, laughter may promote
solidarity and even cooperative forms of social engagement. In short, laughter can be an instrument for “roasting”
friends and enemies alike. From an evolutionary perspective, laughter helps organize social dynamics in support of
reproductive success.
Panksepp, J. (2000). The riddle of laughter: Neural and psychoevolutionary underpinnings of joy. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 6, 183–186.
Provine, R. (2000). Laughter: A scientific investigation. New York: Viking Press.
Staff. The value of a good laugh. (2005, March 25). The Week, p. 21.
VI. Stress and Health (pp. 397–406)
Student Project: Constructing a Family Health History
For an undergraduate health seminar, Kenneth Sumner assigns students the project of constructing a family health
history. The assignment can be readily adapted for your AP students. It can help students appreciate the biological,
psychological, and social factors involved in their own health. In Sumner’s project, students are asked to (a) profile
the physical and mental health status of at least 15 family members, (b) identify trends or patterns related to health
and illness in their families, and (c) develop an action plan for maintaining good health.
For your students, you may want to scale down the project, limiting the profiles to, say, just parents and
grandparents. For each profile, students should identify the relationship of the person to them; provide birth and
death dates (if applicable); describe the person’s medical and psychological illnesses through life, including both
chronic and nonchronic conditions; and suggest potential causes for the various conditions (biological,
psychological, and social-cultural). Students may use the text as well as additional resources in identifying possible
causes. (Sumner notes that adopted children, who may not know their biological parents, still find the project useful
because illnesses may be caused by behavioral, social, cultural, psychological, or environmental factors). Finally,
students should develop an action plan, focusing on alterable behaviors (e.g., smoking, diet, exercise) to enhance
their own health.
Sumner, K. E. (2003). Constructing a family health history to facilitate learning in a health psychology seminar. Teaching of
Psychology, 30, 230–232.
A. Stress and Illness (pp. 397–401)
PsychSim 5: All Stressed Out
This activity provides an overview of the biopsychosocial nature of stress, including its everyday sources, the
psychological and physiological impact of stressors, and how cognitive appraisal influences the coping process. The
student interactively explores how differences in cognitive appraisal and coping style alter the stress experience.
Classroom Exercises: Stress Level and Vulnerability to Stress
Handout 8B–24, which assesses one’s general level of stress, is a good way to introduce the topic of stress.
Reprinted from Jerry Adler’s helpful Newsweek article on stress, it is self-scoring, with means for different age
groups appearing on the handout itself. For items 4, 5, 6, and 8, students should reverse the numbers of their
responses (i.e., 4 = 0, 3 = 1, 2 = 2, 1 = 3, 0 = 4) and then, to obtain a total score, add the numbers in front of all 10
items. Alternatively, you can use Handout 8B–25, a test developed by psychologists Lyle Miller and Alma Dell
Smith of Boston University Medical Center. It is designed to measure susceptibility to stress and the factors that
contribute to it. To obtain their total scores, students should add the numbers they placed in front of the 21 items,
and subtract 21. Any number over 32 indicates a susceptibility to stress. A total score between 52 and 77 suggests
serious susceptibility, and over 77 means extreme susceptibility.
Adler, J. (1999, June 14). How stress attacks you. Newsweek, pp. 58–63.
Miller, L. H., & Smith, A. D. (1987, 1994). Susceptibility to Stress scale from Stress audit, version 5.0OS.
Classroom Exercise: Stress Symptoms
Handout 8B–26, designed by Roger Allen and David Hyde, provides a good introduction to the nature of stress and
the broad range of physical responses to it. Stress can arouse and motivate us to conquer problems. When it is severe
or prolonged, however, it may cause mental and physical harm.
The survey in the handout is self-scoring. Total scores between 0 and 35 indicate a low level of physical stress
symptoms and little danger to long-term physical health. Scores between 36 and 75 are judged to be average and are
associated with an increased likelihood of psychophysiological illness. However, there may be no immediate threat
to physical health. Scores between 76 and 140 suggest excessive physical stress symptoms; respondents with such
high scores should probably take deliberate action to reduce their level of stress and thus to ward off the possibility
of psychophysiological disorder.
Allen, R., & Hyde, D. (1980). Investigations in stress control. Minneapolis, MN: Burgess Publishing Co.
Classroom Exercise: The Stress Appraisal Measure
The text notes that how stressed we feel depends on how we appraise events. For example, retirement may increase
stress for one person and reduce it for another. Use Handout 8B–27, Edward Peacock and Paul Wong’s Stress
Appraisal Measure (SAM), to illustrate how appraisal mediates stress reactions. Peacock and Wong define appraisal
as the process of evaluating or categorizing the personal significance of events.
The SAM was specifically designed to measure anticipatory stress; that is, it assesses perception of future rather
than past events. The scale contains three primary appraisal dimensions: threat (the potential for harm/loss in the
future), challenge (the anticipation of gain or growth from the experience), and centrality (the perceived importance
of the event for wellbeing). The scale also contains three secondary appraisal dimensions that reflect an evaluation
of coping resources: controllable-by-self, controllable-by-others, and uncontrollable-by-anyone. Finally, the
instrument includes a general perceived stressfulness scale, which incorporates major conceptions of stress.
As presented in the handout, the SAM permits the user to specify the event for appraisal. In early development of
the instrument, Peacock and Wong asked research participants to appraise such stressors as a forthcoming test,
future unemployment, the possibility of contracting AIDS, and the possibility of a national disaster. You can specify
that students appraise one of these or some other event. After students have completed their appraisal, you may want
them to form small groups to share their evaluations: Small-group discussions are sure to highlight individual
differences in the appraisal of life events. Or you can use a general class discussion to accomplish the same goal.
Students score their appraisals by calculating the mean for each subscale:
Threat: Items 5, 11, 20, 28
Challenge: Items 7, 8, 10, 19
Centrality: Items 6, 9, 13, 27
Control—self: Items 12, 14, 22, 25
Control—others: Items 4, 15, 17, 23
Uncontrollable: Items 1, 3, 18, 21
Stressfulness: Items 2, 16, 24, 26
Peacock and Wong obtained the following means for four different events: Exam Unemployment AIDS
Natural disaster
Threat 2.6 2.6 3.2 2.8 Challenge 3.0 3.5 2.5 2.3 Centrality 3.6 3.7 3.5 3.6 Control—Self 3.9 3.8
3.1 3.2 Control—Others 3.7 3.4 3.3 3.3 Uncontrollable 1.6 2.2 2.8 2.9 Stressfulness 3.4 3.0 3.0 3.1
Source: Peacock & Wong (1990). The stress appraisal measure: A Multidimensional approach to cognitive appraisal. Stress
Medicine 6, pp 227–236. Copyright © 1990 John Wiley & Sons. Reprinted by permission in the format Text via Copyright
Clearance Center.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Tend and Befriend
Ask your students, “Do males and females respond to stress in the same way?”
The text notes that one important alternative to the fight-or-flight response, especially among women, is what
Shelley Taylor and her colleagues call tend and befriend. Women are more likely than men to seek and give
support. Kate Volpe provides a good overview of Taylor’s research, as follows:
The evolutionary significance of the fight-or-flight response for women is clear. If women fight, they may
become injured and unable to care for offspring. Similarly, if they flee, they also leave offspring unprotected and
forced to fend for themselves. The tend and befriend model states that stressed females devote more attention not
only to caring for offspring and dependents but also to seeking support from others. After conducting a metaanalysis of 26 studies, the researchers found that in all but one case women sought social support from others in
times of stress. The research also suggested that, compared to men, women are more likely to turn to other women
such as close friends and relatives than to turn to their spouses for support.
In reviewing the literature for her research, Taylor found one study in which men and women asked to think
about their spouses before experiencing a stressful event demonstrated different responses. Although males’ stress
responses decreased, females’ significantly increased. Other lines of research suggest that married women
experience higher levels of stress for a longer part of each day. Women’s autonomic arousal level remains elevated
until 10 P.M., while men’s arousal drops after they leave work. “The net effect of marriage on men is very
beneficial,” Taylor concluded. “It is estimated that the death rate of married men is 250 percent lower for a given
time period than that of unmarried men.” However, for women, Taylor stated, “marriage is likely to be a wash in
terms of health protection.”
Interviews with both parents and their children suggest that mothers and fathers respond differently to stress.
When stressed by work overload, fathers were more likely to show social withdrawal. When stressed by
interpersonal conflict, they tended to project their reaction outward by becoming argumentative. In contrast, mothers
experiencing stress showed their children more love and affection. Although “tending” is sometimes draining,
research indicates that those who give support also benefit themselves. “Giving social support is not biologically
costly,” noted Taylor. “It may actually be helpful as the providers are receiving psychological and biological
benefits as well.”
The biological underpinnings for “tend and support” may include the hormone oxytocin that is released in response
to stress. In studies with animals, injected oxytocin reduces anxiety, enhances grooming, and promotes bonding (all
tend and befriend behaviors). Because the hormone is enhanced by estrogen and inhibited by androgens, it is
considered more influential in women.
Volpe, K. (2004, January). Taylor takes on “fight-or-flight.” APS Observer, 21.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Hassles and Uplifts
Richard Lazarus and his colleagues have suggested that the petty annoyances, frustrations, and unpleasant surprises
we experience every day may add up to more grief than life’s major stressful events. Such hassles may range from
getting stuck in a long life at the store or losing a wallet to arguing with a friend or employer. Lazarus argues that
the impact of hassles on our physical and mental health depends on their frequency, duration, and intensity.
Furthermore, a person’s response to a given hassle depends on a variety of factors: personality, coping style, and
how the rest of the day has gone. Lazarus writes, “Psychological stress resides neither in the situation nor the person;
it depends on the transaction between the two. It arises from how the person appraises an event and adapts to it.”
The counterparts to daily hassles are daily uplifts: breathers or restorers when psychological resources pleasant and
satisfying experiences like hearing good have been run down during stressful periods. news, getting a good night’s
sleep, solving a difficult What are the most common hassles and uplifts in problem. Lazarus reasons that just as
hassles may cause life? To a large degree it depends on whom you ask. For physical and psychological changes that
may result in a group of 100 White, middleclass, middle-aged men illness, uplifts may serve as emotional buffers
against and women, the 10 most frequent hassles and uplifts those disorders. For example, they may serve as were,
in order of frequency, as shown below.
Hassles Uplifts
1. Concern about weight 1. Relating well with your spouse or lover
2. Health of family member 2. Relating well with friends
3. Rising prices of common goods 3. Completing a task
4. Home maintenance 4. Feeling healthy
5. Too many things to do 5. Getting enough sleep
6. Misplacing or losing things 6. Eating out
7. Yard work or outside home maintenance 7. Meeting responsibilities
8. Property, investment, or taxes 8. Visiting, phoning, or writing to someone
9. Crime 9. Spending time with family
10. Physical appearance 10. Home pleasing to you
You might ask your students for their own list of hassles and uplifts. One sample of college students reported the
following. Hassles Uplifts
1. Troubling thoughts about the future 1. Completing a task
2. Not getting enough sleep 2. Relating well with friends
3. Wasting time 3. Giving a present
4. Inconsiderate smokers 4. Having fun
5. Physical appearance 5. Getting love
6. Too many things to do 6. Giving love
7. Misplacing or losing things 7. Being visited, phoned, or sent a letter
8. Not enough time to do the things you need to do 8. Laughing
9. Concerns about meeting high standards 9. Entertainment
10. Being lonely 10. Music
To measure the effects of hassles and uplifts, Using their Hassles and Uplifts Scale, Lazarus and Lazarus had
participants fill out physical and mental his colleagues examined the physical effects of every health questionnaires
at the beginning and the end of day hassles among 75 married couples. They found a the year. As predicted, hassles
turned out to be much significant relationship between daily stresses and the better predictors of psychological and
physical health occurrence of both concurrent and subsequent health than major life events. The more frequent and
intense problems, such as flu, sore throat, headaches, and back the hassles people reported, the poorer their overall
aches. At the same time, there were striking individual health. Major events did have some long-term effects,
differences in the extent to which daily stress was hassle but in the short term, hassles seemed more strongly
correlated with health across time. For example, those with related with health. Lazarus suggests that major life low
self-esteem and little social support were more like events may affect us indirectly through the daily hassles to
experience an increase in physical problems both they provoke. Divorce, for example, might force an on and
following stressful days than were those high in inexperienced man to make his own meals and it might self-esteem
and social support. compel a woman to repair a leaky faucet.
Two other results are noteworthy. First, the negative relationship between hassles and health was particularly strong
for men. Second, contrary to expectations, uplifts did not seem to have much of a buffer effect. In fact, for women,
uplifts seem to have a negative effect on psychological health.
Bryant, F. B. (2003). Savoring Beliefs Inventory (SBI): A scale for measuring beliefs about savouring. Journal of Mental
Health, 12, 175–196.
DeLongis, A., Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. (1988). The impact of daily stress on health and mood: Psychological and social
resources as mediators. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 486–495.
Lazarus, R. (1981, July). Little hassles can be hazardous to health. Psychology Today, 58–62.
Seligman, M. (2002). Authentic happiness: Using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting
fulfillment. New York: Free Press.
Wilson, C. (2003, February 5). A mere 10 seconds can stretch a smile for a lifetime. USA Today, p. 1D.
B. Stress and the Heart (pp. 402–403)
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Broken Heart Syndrome
You may want to extend the text treatment of stress and the heart with an account of research at Johns Hopkins
University on what some have dubbed “broken heart syndrome.” Brought on by sudden emotional stress caused by
the death of a loved one, a bitter conflict, or even a surprise party, the condition, called stress cardiomyopathy,
causes temporary heart failure.
During a four-year period, researcher Ilan Wittstein and his colleagues studied 19 patients who were
hospitalized after such shocks. Most were older women in their sixties. One experienced symptoms an hour after
narrowly avoiding a car accident, another fell ill within two hours of being involved in a bitter argument, and a third
reported symptoms four hours after a surprise party. The grief or fear experienced stimulated the body to produce
adrenaline that stunned the heart muscle, leaving it temporarily unable to contract. The reduced pumping caused
chest pains, shortness of breath, and other symptoms similar to a heart attack. However, stress cardiomyopathy is not
the same thing as a heart attack, which occurs when a blood clot in a coronary artery cuts off circulation to the heart
muscle.
According to the researchers, shortly after the patients experienced the emotional event, they recorded very high
blood levels of stress hormones (including adrenaline). In fact, the levels were two to three times higher than those
in heart attack victims and seven to thirty-four times above those of healthy people. Some were placed on life
support to keep their blood circulating.
Patients diagnosed with the condition were all previously healthy and had no history of heart disease. Blood
tests showed normal levels of toponin, an enzyme released when cells are damaged in a heart attack. Most
important, all recovered, and magnetic resonance imaging of their hearts indicated no permanent damage.
Wittstein, I. S., Thiemann, D. R., Lima, J. A. C., Baughman, K. L., Schulman, S. P., Gerstenblith, G., et al. (2005).
Neurohumoral features of myocardial stunning due to sudden emotional stress. New England Journal of Medicine, 352,
539–548.
Classroom Exercise: Hostility and Its Alleviation
Research suggests that the Type A’s toxic core is negative emotion, especially hostility (a potent form of anger).
Redford Williams’ The Trusting Heart: Great News About Type A Behavior provides a good source of lecture
material on overcoming the hostile and cynical elements of Type A behavior. After showing how hostility and
cynical mistrust seem to be the lethal aspects of the Type A syndrome, Williams suggests that the route to a more
trusting heart requires three things. First, Type As must reduce cynical mistrust of others. Second, they must reduce
the frequency and intensity with which they experience anger, frustration, irritation, and rage. Third, they must learn
to treat others with kindness and consideration and to develop their assertiveness skills for unavoidable situations. In
summary, Type As must change certain thoughts, feelings, and actions.
To reach these goals, Williams proposes the following 12step program for the Type A personality.
1
Monitor your cynical thoughts. Keep a hostility log, noting when and where you become cynical and angry,
as well as who or what stimulates the cynical thoughts. The log will reveal the kinds of situations that stir these
thoughts.
2
Confession is good for the soul. Let someone close to you know that you recognize you have a problem
with hostility and want to enlist that person’s support in an effort to change. (This is also an act of trust directed
toward another person.)
3
Stop those thoughts! As soon as you realize you are having cynical thoughts, yell to yourself (or aloud if no
one is around) “Stop!” Surprisingly, those thoughts will become less frequent.
4
Reason with yourself. When cynical thoughts arise as you stand in a bank line, begin a silent speech: “All
right, you suspicious person, don’t assume that harmless little old lady deliberately intended to slow down the line
by forgetting her pen and asking the teller to fill out her deposit slip. . . .”
5
Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Looking at life through another’s eyes will quickly convince you
that your suspicions are ridiculous. Empathy and anger are incompatible.
6
Learn to laugh at yourself. You can use humor to deflect your cynical mistrust and defuse your anger.
Remember, though, it should be laughter at yourself. Laughing at the expense of others is just another expression of
cynicism.
7
Learn to relax. If you can’t stop your thoughts with the earlier steps, call on another powerful technique:
meditation. You will need to practice it regularly and at times when you aren’t even “stressed out.” Relaxation will
draw your mind’s eye from the habitual pattern of cynicism.
8. Practice trust. Begin looking for opportunities to trust someone in which, if it doesn’t work out, no harm is done.
More often than not, you will find that your trust has been warranted.
9. Learn to listen. Learn to keep your mouth shut until others have finished speaking. Your attention will
communicate that you value other people and their ideas.
10. Learn to be assertive. Calmly tell others what is bothering you about their behavior and why. Self-assertion is a
constructive alternative to aggression.
11. Pretend today is your last. The nitpicking things that trouble you will seem less important. Recognizing the
shortness of life puts matters in proper perspective.
12. Practice forgiving. Letting go of resentment lifts the weight of anger from your shoulders. Rather than blaming
others, try to understand the emotions of the one who has wronged you.
Source: ANGER KILLS: 17 STRATEGIES by Redford B. Williams and Virginia Williams. Copyright © 1993 by
Redford B. Williams, M.D. and Virginia Williams, PhD. Used by permission of Time Books, a division of Random
House.
Lecture/Discussion Topic: Type D Personality
The text indicates that negative emotions, including anger, pessimism, and depression, can be toxic. Johan Denollet
has proposed that a Type D personality, marked by negative affectivity and social inhibition, is inversely correlated
with cardiovascular health. Handout 8B–28 assesses a Type D disposition. (The measure is adapted from a longer
14item scale that Denollet and his research team have used in their research.) Adding the numbers circled in
response to statements 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, and 13 provides the negativity affectivity score; adding the numbers circled
in response to statements 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 14 provides the social inhibition score. Negative affectivity scores of
10 or higher combined with social inhibition scores of 10 or higher suggest a Type D personality. Studies indicate
that the potential social and emotional problems associated with this personality syndrome are linked with increased
chances of developing heart disease.
In research with 300 patients in a cardiac rehabilitation program in Antwerp, Belgium, Denollet’s research team
found that within 10 years 27 percent of the Type D patients had died (mostly of heart disease or stroke), compared
with 7 percent of the others. In a more recent study, investigators in the Netherlands followed 875 patients who had
received stents to open their coronary arteries. The results indicated that Type D patients were more than four times
as likely as their counterparts to experience a heart attack or death within six to nine months of the procedure.
Denollet suggests that Type D personality is not a psychological disorder but rather a collection of normal human
traits: “There are many Type D individuals who are living healthy lives and functioning quite well.” Moreover, the
distress that is associated with negative affectivity and social inhibition can be alleviated. Even the most distress
prone person can learn to cope with stress and defeat negative thoughts through psychotherapy. And a good
marriage can be an antidote to social inhibition, especially if one’s partner feels at ease with others. Lifestyle
changes, including exercise and a healthy diet, reduce almost anyone’s risk of a heart attack. Finally, as Michael
Miller observes, the Type D test itself can help people own up to their fears and frustrations because taking it does
not involve any embarrassing social interaction.
Denollet, J. (2005). DS14: Standard assessment of negative affectivity, social inhibition, and Type D personality.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 67, 89–97.
Miller, M. C. (2005, October 3). The dangers of chronic disease. Newsweek, pp. 58–59.
Schiffer, A. A. J., Pavan, A., Pedersen, S. S., Gremigni, P., Sommaruga, M., & Denollet, J. (2006). Type D personaity and
cardiovascular disease: Evidence and clinical implications. Minerva Psichiatrica, 47, 79–87.
C. Stress and Susceptibility to Disease (pp. 403–406)
PLEASE NOTE: Due to loss of formatting, the Handouts are
only available in Adobe
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