Appraisal Theory The Effects On Skin Psychology Essay

Appraisal Theory The Effects On Skin Psychology Essay This report aims to replicate a classic finding in biopsychology research which proposed, that increases in task difficulty lead to increases in arousal. As well as to present any individual differences that angle off from this, that possibly could be accounted by the appraisal theory. One hundred and two individuals took part in a task called Speedy Pizzas where they had to deliver successfully a vast quantity of pizzas as the level of difficulty increased. The individuals were represented with a total of 5 levels of difficulty, beginning from level 1 (10 pizzas per minute) to level 5 (50 pizzas per minute). This experiment used a repeated measures design where each individual participated at both levels of task difficulty. The outcome showed that there was a significant increase in GSR as task engagement got more challenging. Although, that the overall GSR test showed increase, individual differences might suggest otherwise. Introduction To begin with, this paper will first examine some relevant background on the former literature on a classic biopsychology discoveries based on task performance and its association with increase in skin conductance in an attempt to replicate its findings. Afterwards, it will address some individual variations that might have a crucial role in that correlation. A number of researchers over the years have shown that task attainment of individuals is closely knit together with increase in skin conductance. For instance, Kahneman, Trusky et al. (1969 cited in Pecchinenda and Smith 1996) experiment, showed the relationship between skin resistance levels and mental arithmetic task at three layers of difficulty and encountered that skin resistance decreased as difficulty of each level increased. Nonetheless, this connection between them is often distinct, there are cases that the individuals disengage from the task by resigning which is shown in the form of decreasing responses in the GSR le vels whilst the task engagement becomes particularly difficult. This occurrence can be placed under the theory of the appraisal model proposed by Smith and Lazarus (1993 cited in Pecchinenda and Smith 1996) that suggested that the amount of each individuals focusing resources is established by their appraisal of task-solving coping potential. The above theory has been adapted in various studies, one of them was measuring accomplishment in a demanding mental task. (Pecchinenda and Smith 1996) Pecchinenda and Smiths study wanted to demonstrate the direct association between a cognitive task engagement and the appraisal of each individuals coping potential. Thus, subjects were presented by series of anagrams, that they were called to solve, in various circumstances whilst their GSR was continuously observed. The level of difficulty diverse between each anagram by either having an easy, moderately difficult and extremely difficult anagram as well as the amount of time available that par ticipants had to solve it changed between 30 sec and 120 sec. Results showed that participants coping potential varied between them, since the perception that each subject experienced the situation was different. Paradigm, when an individual appraised their task-solving ability with having a high coping potential approached the task with the attempt to achieve their goal and successfully complete the task. On the contrary, people who appraised the situation as overwhelming and the task as virtually impossible (Pecchinenda and Smith, page 486) had low coping potential and therefore disengaged from the task. Hence, apposite to the skin conductance activity there was a general increase in the GSR levels when the task-solving trials were aligned with the participants engagement in the trials. However, this increase dropped dramatically when the anagrams level of difficulty was extremely demanding as a result of the paltry levels of task engagement. An interesting feature about this stud y that shouldnt be obscured was that the correlation between skin conductance activity and task engagement is not absolute. There are other aspects that might intrude and mislead this association. As in that the correlation between GSR and other components such as stress, perception of the circumstance, negative feelings etc resulted as having an impact on the GSR, Nikula (1991 cited in Pecchinenda and Smith 1996). Another related experiment was conducted by Bohlin (1976). Bohlins study manipulated the levels of arousal by having participants to response after a number of trials whilst they were in physiological habituation state. She divided the subjects into three groups, the first group were told to relax when listening to a tone, the second one were given arithmetic tasks to solve and the third one a threat of shock was added to the task performance. Results showed that the Shock-threat group had the highest mean in conductance level and the Relax group had the lowest mean in GS R. Thus, this produces some evidence showing how  increases in task difficulty result in various increases in physiological arousal. These discoveries led to this current experiment were the aim was to replicate the existent findings; that when task difficulty increases individuals arousal increases as well. In addition, to demonstrate the variance between individual responses, for instance some individuals appraise themselves as having high coping potential, therefore engage in the task and complete it successfully and some of them as having low coping potential and appraise their abilities as insufficient and as a result they disengage from the task. Consequently to the past evidence one research hypothesis emerged from them for the present experiment; that there will be a significant increase in galvanic skin response from stage 1 to 5 and to also examine the individual responses as task difficulty increases. Method Design The design that was used in this experiment was a repeated measures design with one independent variable, task difficulty at two levels (easy(1) vs. difficult(5)) and two dependent variables; the Galvanic skin responses and the number of failures that occurred. Participants in the experiment were allocated in a computer lab and had to do all conditions. Eventhough, that there were 5 stages in total, only the easiest and most difficult level were chosen for this analysis. In this experiment a number of controls were used in order to avoid any confounded variables. First of all, the letter appearing on the pizza box was randomly generated therefore discarded any systematic bias introduced from having a particular order of pizza letters. Hence, people could not predict where the pizzas were going because the letter order was not the same. Secondly, , by asking people to stay relaxed and still at the baseline would make sure that everyone was at the same condition, therefore no one would be stressed out and having GSR increase at the easy state and then at the more challenging state not having much increase at the GSR because it was already at a high level . Lastly, all participants were given the same standardised instructions to prevent any extraneous variables and that the letter that appeared on the box was randomly different for everyone. Participants One hundred and two undergraduate Psychology students were asked to take part in a cognitive task as part of their evaluation in the course. They were chosen from an opportunity sample since it was more convenient and easier to gather data from those who were there to do the experiment at the time. All participants had to do all conditions from stage 1 to stage 5 in order to collect the data needed for the analysis. Apparatus The experiment was run in a computer lab. The task that the participants had to take part in was called The Speedy Pizza, the game was developed by University of Huddersfield psychology technicians  utilising  Adobe Flash, PHP and MySql to run  on  PCs, headphones were also used to avoid any replication between participants. Moreover, the Biopac system that was used to  measure GSR via an electrode attached to their fingers using a gel was called  GEL101 isotonic .Finally, the GSR data was recorded on the Biopac systems software that comes with the Biopac as standard. Procedure Every participant was seated in front of a computer where they were given some further explanation about the experiment. They were first given a handout that was to familiarise them with some relevant background of appraisal theory and its main connection with the study. After that, participants entered the game were full instructions were provided, showing in the appendix section. Next they were attached to the Biopac device and started the practise game which lasted a minute. The second minute was the baseline state where markers were placed, by pressing the Esc on the keyboard, (which also lasted 60 seconds) and then systematically after 60 seconds as the task difficulty increased. There were 5 stages that participants had to attend and excel by delivering successfully as many pizzas as possible, whilst the task got more challenging with each stage. By the time they reached to level 5 the number of pizzas that appeared on the conveyor increased greatly as the speed on the conveyor did, making it incredibly difficult. Results Description The outcomes from the above experiment were the following. In Stage 1 GSR in micro-mhos was lower than Stage 5 GSR (mean for stage 1 GSR = 13.15  µÃƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ (SD=7.37 µÃƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾), mean for stage 5 GSR= 14.13 µÃƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ (SD=8.36 µÃƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾). Also, in Stage 1 the amount of failures was less than the amount of failures in Stage 5 (mean failures in stage 1 =.03 SD=.17), mean failures in stage 5= 31.10 (SD=4.18). Moreover, to analyze the data and show the difference in the means between stage 1 and stage 5 in GSR levels and number of failures a repeated measures t-test (two-tailed) was used, but previously the data were checked for normality distribution. The normality assumption for this experiment can be waived since there was a large sample (N=102) (Field, 2009). The t-test displayed a significance difference from the alpha level (p=0.05) (t=3.779, df =101, p Discussion(513) The aim of the experiment was to replicate a time-honoured biopsychology finding which stated that increase in task difficulty results increase in the arousal. Additionally, to relate Pecchinenda and Smiths study (1996) on the appraisal theory, suggested that there may be some individual variations possibly having an impact on the above correlation. Thus, a research hypothesis was assessed; that there will be a significant increase in skin conductance from stage 1 to 5, along with examining individual responses to increasing task difficulty. Furthermore, the outcome that rose from this experiment was that research hypothesis was accepted and it was at the directed predicted, however there were some deviation due to individual differences. The results that we found can be supported by the following theories. First of all, by looking at the Kahnemn, Tursky et al. Study (1969) the outcome that we found was as expected from this theory; that skin conductance indeed increases concurrently as level of difficulty increases. In the present experiment increase was shown when the amount of pizzas on the conveyor was frequent and the speed of the conveyor increased too. Also, arousal increases muscle tension and bias synchronization, therefore extreme levels of arousal can create discomfort (Thompson, 1930). In the experiment it was calculated that participants when they were between stages 3-4 had high levels of GSR that resulted as discomfort and as a consequence participant gave-up by level 5. Moreover, the increase in skin conductance as the task difficulty got more challenging can be sustained by The Inverted U Theory conducted by Yerkes and Dodson (1908) that proposed performance will increase as arousal increases and a po int will be reached where optimal performance is achieved. Further of that point the performance will deteriorate. This explains the general pattern that was observed; as levels got more difficult participants level of arousal increased greatly particularly between stages 3-4 (optimal performance) but dropped dramatically at stage 5.However, there was some diversion from this, where decrease in GSR levels were spotted in 27 participants which can be possibly explained by the appraisal theory. That suggests that individual differences might alter that general pattern, people who estimate the situation as being overwhelming and incredibly difficult disengaged from the task because they felt their abilities were not strong enough. Although, the current experiment was generally as predicted there was a limitation that should be taken into account for further research. The coping potential was not self-reported and this weakens the experiment because it does not sustain the needed experimental conditions for testing the hypothesis regarding to the GSR in the extremely difficult-short conditions. (Pecchinenda and Smith 1996) Furthermore, our experiment considered ethical issues and therefore all participants were given the same standardised instructions, it was also valid and reliable, since it did what it attempted to do and it produces consistent results each time it is used with some variations. In conclusion, the findings of this experiment showed that although in general GSR increase as task difficulty increase, individual differences have an important role in this correlation and might show otherwise.

Essay --

Ashley Lotoszynski Darren Pagtakhan Social Justice December 17, 2013 Imaginary Fear Teddy Roosevelt once said that, â€Å"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself†. Fear is a product of the absence of knowledge and thoughts that are blown out of proportion. As humans we are scared of the unknown and what it conceals from us. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of children crash land on an unknown island without adults. As time passes, the kids become uneasy and try to seek comfort in their leaders. When their imagination takes over, the unknown soon ignites their fear and apprehension hinders the juveniles as they attempt to restore order. Since fear is fueled by imagination, the boys’ outward attempt to conquer it only results in violence and chaos. Because we are scared of what we do not know, we believe that the unknown can hurt us. In the beginning, the littluns become scared and speak of a â€Å"beastie†. Piggy asks one of the littluns what he saw and reports that, â€Å"he [the littlun] says he saw the beastie, the snake thing...he says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches†(Golding 36). The â€Å"snake thing† is a figment of the littluns’ imagination, causing the children to be more scared which in turn leads them to conjure up more imaginary objects that they believe will hurt them. It is also evident that the boys are scared when Ralph says to Jack that, â€Å"they’re frightened...they dream. You can hear ‘em...They talk and scream...As if it wasn’t a good island† (Golding 52). The boys have nothing to fear on the island however they want to return home where there is danger and war. It is ironic that the boys wan t to leave the island and return home where there ... ...(Golding 181). Jack is a character that instills the fear in the other boys to manipulate them into getting what he wants. By putting the fear into the other boys, they follow him and carry out his evil work leading to violence and chaos. This not only shows that Jack is manipulative, but that he also has a fear of not being a leader and in control. Imagination is the root of fear and leads to destruction and death in the novel. It can make people do irrational things and triggers responses in our security center. In the Lord of the Flies, fear is more dangerous than any beast because the boys are afraid of themselves. Everything that the boys are scared of have an unknown aspect to them. Instead of conquering fear, imagination provokes violence and chaos. The only thing we really have to fear, is fear itself due to its mentally and physically destructive nature.

America’s War in Iraq Essay

War, as it is defined to be is a conflict amid two or more nations, which results in organized violence between each of their military units in order to gain national sovereignty. It is a â€Å"universal phenomena,† whose intensity is defined by those who wage it. War has been seen to exist in the world since prehistoric times, where first it was only small scale raiding, today it is pronounced as an exhibition of military power, whose magnitude is on a constant surplus as the technology grows and is lead by a more modernized warfare. However, I would define war as unimaginable suffering of innocent people who are forced to become its victims, with no fault lying at their own sides. It is the not the politicians and policy makers who have to suffer its magnitude and the phase of its aftermath but rather it’s the soldier, the children, the elderly, the woman who pay off their decisions through the sacrifice of their homes, their families and their lives. The results that it webs to achieve are never obtained, whereas it only brings torture, corrosion of souls of the soldiers, fear to the citizens, destruction of the environment, uncontrollable expense, while it takes the war struck country decades back from its present growth and development. What our leaders forget to explain is that how they would be able establish peace and prosperity upon a graveyard of innocent martyrs and the blood of innocents. Iraq similarly is another such story of violence, sacrifice and blood brutally shed. It was a continuation of the revenge of America after the airplane crashes in New York, marking the 9/11. The actions of someone else’s were paid off by the innocents, who after Afghanistan were targeted as the next victims, the first bombardment starting from Baghdad, on March 20, 2003; and continues till now. A report published by the Washington Post in 2006, estimates that according to the death counts made by American and Iraqi epidemiologists, over 650,000 citizens have died in Iraq in the 3 years period of time. This according to the count defined by George W. Bush in 2005 is about 9 times more, and 10 times more than the count of the British research group. And as to why this war was waged, many reasons could be linked to it. More importantly it was America’s war against terrorism and its search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The US army is believed to have made over 300 inspections by now, but has unfortunately not been able to find any such weapons, and even if there was any existence of such weapons then the army would have used them against the army when they firs attacked, however it was a rather peaceful conquer of the entire country which was claimed by the politicians to be a major threat to their country and the war just a mere act of self defense. As a Canadian site in an article on â€Å"An introduction to the Iraq War† reports Hans Blix, the UN Chief Weapons Inspector to have said that â€Å"It is sort of fascinating that you can have 100 percent certainty about weapons of mass destruction and zero certainty of about where they are. †(Green, 2008) And even if the war was about the WMD then why is it still lingering when no proof of the weapons has been found? However if America claims that the war was initially waged in order to eliminate Iraq from its tyrannical ruler Saddam Hussain, who was captured more than 5 years ago, then why is the war still continuing. And even if it was to eliminate the dictatorship from the country, to remove unjust rulers then why is it that civilian areas are the targets of American bombardment, that innocent children are being killed, and the Us army is rather planting American flags in the Iraqi soils. What sort of liberation does their presidency talk about? Book Review An answer to all these queries is found in the book â€Å"Blind into Baghdad: America’s war in Iraq† written by James Fallow. Print and radio journalist, working for the Atlantic Monthly since years, James Fallow is also the author of seven more books. His more pronounced works revolve around military and its policies, making assumptions and then predicting the future of action, if they are to be taken up by the government. Similarly is this book Fallow had previously made predictions of the outcome of the war if it was brought up by America and what were the flaws and where the government lacked behind in this war. It is a compilation of basically five articles which he wrote for his magazine the Atlantic Monthly, which he later assembled in the form of a collected book which even won the National Magazine Award in 2005. Elaborated with an introduction and a foreword, the 5 articles which it contains are: The fifty-first state, blind into Baghdad, Bush’s lost year, Why Iraq has no army, and Will Iran be next? Fallow calls the entire Iraq war a big failure for the US, blaming it onto the policy implementers that is the few leaders handling the orders rather than the administration itself which handled the situation. He states in his book that, â€Å"The U. S. occupation of Iraq is a debacle not because the government did no planning but because a vast amount of expert planning was willfully ignored by the people in charge. The inside story of a historic failure. † (Fallow, 2006) The book clearly identifies the fact that immediately after the attacks of 9/11, (the very next day), plans were being towards attacking Iraq and abducting Saddam Hussain from his throne, and a year before the war the future of the country was decided with positions and posts within the â€Å"to be occupied country† already given out. However, hat is not known to the media is that the day of the starting and ending of the war were prefixed then already, plus seventeen working groups were formulated who were to take matters such as Oil and Energy, Legal Framework, infrastructure rebuilding of the country in hand with $5 million at their disposal. However, why it all remained to be secretive was because of the ongoing Afghanistan war which kept both the media and the people enough occupied to notice this planning. The war was estimated to cost around $50 to 60 billion which the military refused to later agree to, while a 135 item checklist of postwar duties was circulated among the army under the title â€Å"Mission Matrix. † James also raises the question as o why the government wasn’t able to plan into the future of the occupation, when no WMD were found, hadn’t the regime of Bush thought of what negative effects such an unplanned and reasonless terrorism would have upon the country’s international image and the party’s political position. He further points out the president’s attraction towards the action of bigger actions responsible for â€Å"American prestige, fortune, and lives,† which constantly ignored all the warnings predicted by the officials, how Donald Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz continued to ignore all these warning reports and put everything up on stake with the preceding of the war. The â€Å"Bush’s Lost Year,† talks about the postwar position of the US in Iraq, of how it further declined its status in Afghanistan and its stance over the â€Å"war on terror. † â€Å"Why Iraq has no army,† refutes the very reason of US’s invasion into Iraq which was to get held of the WMD, no matter the army wasn’t able to recover the imagined weapons but also failed its estimation to such a high level that Iraq was so defensively weak that it didn’t even hold an independent army of its own. While lastly in â€Å"Will Iran be next? † he highlights further predictions of Iran being the next potential target. He explains it through the analysis of experts and various interviews taken from soldiers, spies, and diplomats who further explain the effects of an Iranian war and reasons towards it. James Fallow, like many other elite journalists through his writing explicitly shows his opposition towards the Iraq war and openly describes it as US’s stance towards terrorism, â€Å"If [the United States] did not have to attack, then it should not go ahead, not simply because of the complications within Iraq itself but because the way a war would inevitably suck time, money, and attention from every other aspect of a ‘war on terrorism’. † On the other hand, no matter James’s writings show are an insight towards the situation of the US leaders and their incompetence towards the wars proceedings and planning, many journalists such as Michael Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, blame him for being less skeptic towards his work. It is believed that no matter he kept a strong view against the war he did not prove his point through facts and true research but merely based them upon anecdotes and assumptions, which made him a big candidate of the blame game. Conclusion War in Iraq as believed by many intellects could have been easily avoided, through the accepting the surrender of Saddam Hussain, sending search teams for armaments of Mass Destruction, international supervision of elections and even if a matter of oil, by signing a treaty with Iraq, not a drop of blood could have been lost, and even the objectives could have been attained. Thus war is not the only solution to political and economical issues, as at present the consequences can be seen of the war where today political parties are running for election the blame of Iraqi war holds grave consequences for the initial policy makers who so ever are responsible would not to be forgiven by the public in the end. References Fallows, J. (2006). Blind into Baghdad. America’s War in Iraq. New York: Vintage Books.Brown, D. October 11, 2006. Study Claims Iraq’s ‘Excess’ Death Toll Has Reached 655,000. Washington Post. Retrieved on November 2, 2008, from http://www. washingtonpost. com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442. html Green, R. Introduction to the Iraq War Essays. Canadian Mind Products. Retrieved on November 2, 2008 from http://mindprod. com/politics/iraqintroduction. html .

Using Can and Be Able to to Speak About Abilities

Can and Be able to are both used to speak about abilities, and the possibility of doing something. Can and Be able to are known as modal verbs in English. Here are some examples of can and be able to used to speak about abilities. Can for Abilities She can play tennis.They could speak English at a very young age.Peter can type 100 words per minute. Be Able to for Abilities My sister is able to run a marathon.The students were able to get an A on the test.We will be able to attend the class next semester. Here are examples of the two forms to speak about possibilities. Can for Possibilities Can you come to the party next week?Do you think he can help with my homework?Peter told me he could pick you up at the airport. Be Able to for Possibilities We werent able to get tickets to the concert.Shell be able to study for the test tomorrow.Jack wont be able to come for another three days. Listed below are examples and explanations for can/could/be able to for ability and permission in the past, present. and future. Examples Usage He can play tennis well.She is able to speak five languages.They can come on Friday.Jack will be able to come next week. Use can or be able to to express an ability or possibilityNOTE: The future of be able to is will be able to He could swim when he was five. Could in the past means the general ability to do something. They were able to get tickets for the concert.I was able to finish before 6.I couldnt come last night, sorry. OR I wasnt able to come last night, sorry. IMPORTANT: If someone was in the position to do something, or managed to do something, we use was/were able to instead of couldIn the negative, wasnt able to OR couldnt are both correct. Note: Can is also often used to ask for permission, as well as may: Can I come with you? May I come with you? Practice Can/Be Able To Practice can and be able to with this role play. Once youve finished, make up some of your own dialogues and practice with a classmate or a friend.   Peter: Hi Janet. Can you help me for a moment?Janet: Sure, whats up? Peter: Im not able to understand this math problem.  Janet: Really. I think I can help, but Im not that good at math. Peter: You were able to all the problems last semester, werent you?Janet: Yes, thats right, but I cant do everything. Let me see.   Peter: Here you go.Janet: Interesting, are you sure youre not able to do this? Peter: Yes, thats why Im asking for help!Janet: OK. After I explain this, youll be able to do without any problems. Peter: Great. So whats the answer?!Janet: Dont be in a hurry. Can I have a few minutes to think? Peter: Of course you can. Sorry.  Janet: No problem.