Schachter and Singer's theory of emotion

In basic psychology, there are many theories that try to explain the origin of emotions (psychological, cognitive, biological, social theories,...). In this article we will talk about one in particular, Schachter and Singer's Theory of Emotion.

It is a bifactorial theory involving two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive attribution. Let's see what it consists of, studies carried out by the same authors and what their main postulates are.

• Related article: "Top 10 Psychological Theories"

Schachter and Singer's theory of emotion: characteristics

Schachter and Singer's Theory of Emotion establishes that the origin of emotions comes, on the one hand, from the interpretation we make of the peripheral physiological responses of the organism, and the cognitive evaluation of the situation, on the other, which gives rise to such responses physiological

What determines the intensity of the emotion that the person feels is the way you interpret such physiological responses; on the other hand, the quality of the emotion is determined by the way in which he cognitively evaluates the situation that has provoked such responses.

Thus, while the intensity can be low, medium or high, the quality is the type of emotion (for example fear, sadness, joy,...).

• You may be interested in: "Stanley Schachter: biography of this psychologist and researcher"

Related studies and research

To test Schachter and Singer's Theory of Emotion, the authors themselves conducted an experiment in 1962 and published their results. what they did was give an injection of epinephrine (adrenaline), a hormone that increases heart rate and blood pressure, to a group of volunteer subjects.

Subsequently, they formed 4 experimental groups with these subjects at random (all of equal sizes). While 2 of the groups were informed that the injection would cause some physiological effects in their body, the other 2 groups were not given this information.

On the other hand, one of the 2 reported groups was placed in a situation that made them feel happy, while in the other group of informed subjects they were put in a situation that induced them to be angry. In addition, the same was done with the other 2 groups of subjects with the condition of no information; one was induced a happy situation and the other, an angry situation.

Results

What was seen in the results is that it was possible to confirm, in general terms, Schachter and Singer's theory of emotion. This was so because the subjects informed of the effects of the injection were not likely to feel especially angry or sad, since they attributed their physiological reaction to the effects of the adrenaline injection itself.

It can be thought that their cognitive evaluation of the information they had been provided motivated them to think that the physiological reactions of the organism came from the injection itself.

However, in the case of subjects not informed of the effects of adrenaline, the "opposite" occurred; they did experience the physiological responses (activation) (same as the previous group), but they did not attribute such responses to the effects of the injection, since they had not been informed of it.

Hypothesis

It can be hypothesized that the uninformed subjects, having no explanation for their physiological activation, attributed it to some emotion. Said emotion would be sought in the emotion "available" at that moment; for example, the joy or anger induced by the researchers.

Upon finding it, they found “his” explanation of him: then they adjusted their emotion to the situation; in the case of the non-informed subjects in a happy situation, they behaved in a happy way, and stated that they felt that way. However, the uninformed subjects in a situation of anger reacted with anger and stated that they felt that way too.

Principles of the theory

Also in relation to Schachter and Singer's Theory of Emotion, Schachter himself, in 1971, carries out further work, and establishes three principles that attempt to explain emotional behavior human:

1. label emotions

When a state of physiological arousal (physiological responses) is experienced, and the person experiencing it has no explanation at the time for such arousal, what you will do is "label" said state and describe what you feel in relation to the emotion that is available to her at that moment (or, in other words, the emotion she feels at that moment).

Thus, the state of physiological activation itself can be labeled as "sadness", "fear" or "joy", for example (or whatever emotion it is), according to the cognitive evaluation of the situation that has generated such activation.

2. When no labeling is performed

The second principle of Schachter and Singer's Theory of Emotion states that, in the event that the individual has a complete explanation for the physiological arousal you are feeling (for example, “I feel this way because I have been injected with adrenaline, or because I have taken X drug”), so no cognitive assessment of the situation is necessary.

In this case, it will be difficult for the person to "label" the emotion that he feels as he would in the previous case.

3. experience physiological arousal

The third assumption says that, faced with equal cognitive situations, the individual will describe/label her feelings as emotions (or will react emotionally) only when you experience a state of physiological arousal (this, as we know, involves a series of physiological responses, for example, increased heartbeat rate, heart).