382 CHAPTER 9
*confederate: someone who is cooperating with another person on some task.cognitive-mediational theory
theory of emotion in which a stimulus
must be interpreted (appraised) by a
person in order to result in a physical
response and an emotional reaction.
Male student volunteers were told that they were going to answer a questionnaire about
their reactions to a new vitamin called Suproxin. In reality, they were all injected with a
drug called epinephrine, which causes physical arousal in the form of increased heart
rate, rapid breathing, and a reddened face—all responses that happen during a strong
emotional reaction.
Each student then participated in one of two conditions. In one condition, a confeder-
ate* posing as one of the participants started complaining about the experimenter, tearing
up his questionnaire and storming out. In the other condition, there was one man who
acted more like he was very happy, almost giddy, and playing with some of the objects in
the room. The “angry” man and the “happy” man in both conditions deliberately behaved in
the two different ways as part of the experiment.
After both conditions had played out, participants in each of the two conditions were
asked to describe their own emotions. The participants who had been exposed to the
“angry” man interpreted their arousal symptoms as anger, whereas those exposed to
the “happy” man interpreted their arousal as happiness. In all cases, the actual cause of
arousal was the epinephrine and the physical symptoms of arousal were identical. The
only difference between the two groups of participants was their exposure to the two
different contexts. Schachter and Singer’s theory would have predicted exactly these
results: Physiological arousal has to be interpreted cognitively before it is experienced as
a specific emotion.
Although this classic experiment stimulated a lot of research, much of that
research has failed to find much support for the cognitive arousal theory of emotion
(Reisenzein, 1983, 1994). But this theory did serve to draw attention to the important
role that cognition plays in determining emotions. The role of cognition in emotion has
been revisited in some more modern theories of emotion, as you will see in the remain-
der of the chapter.Questions for Further Discussion- How might observing the emotions of others under more normal circumstances
(i.e., not in a drugged state) affect a person’s own emotional state? - According to Schachter and Singer’s theory, for your first date with a person, should
you choose a happy movie or a sad one? - In this experiment, what was the independent variable manipulated by the experiment-
ers? What was the dependent variable? - This experiment used deception, as the participants were not told the true nature of
the injection they received. What kind of ethical problems might have arisen from this
deception? What problems would the experimenters have had in getting this study
approved by an ethics committee today?
LAZARUS AND THE COGNITIVE-MEDIATIONAL THEORY OF EMOTION As mentioned in
the Classic Studies in Psychology section, Schachter and Singer ’s (1962) study stressed
the importance of cognition, or thinking, in the determination of emotions. One of the
more modern versions of cognitive emotion theories is Lazarus’s cognitive- mediational
theory of emotion (1991). In this theory, the most important aspect of any emotional