Arousal

Experience of Emotion

The ability to experience emotion is one of the characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals. There are several theories that try to explain emotions. However, one theory focuses on how arousal, combined with the social environment, determines emotions. The two-factor theory of emotion, proposed by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer, states that when people are physiologically aroused, their emotional experience [Page 50]is determined by how they think about the arousal; in addition, other people are able to influence a person's thoughts. For example, when graduating from high school, a person is likely to experience a heightened level of arousal. However, this arousal may be labeled as excitement when around friends or as anxiety/despair when around parents or former teachers. In both cases, the same bodily arousal becomes labeled as two different emotions depending on the social context.

Attitudes

Perhaps due to its links with emotion, arousal is also an indication of how strongly a person holds an attitude. For example, if you wanted to know how strongly a person felt about a political candidate, you could measure that person's heart rate, perspiration, and so on. The candidate that elicits the most arousal is the one felt most strongly about. However, measuring arousal in this fashion cannot tell you whether the person likes or dislikes the candidate; just that they feel strongly.

Attitudes also have the ability to create arousal. This is likely when an attitude (e.g., “I love animals”) conflicts with another attitude (e.g., “Animals should be used for lab testing”), or with a behavior (e.g., “My fur coat looks great on me”). Lack of consistency among attitudes and/or behavior tends to produce feelings of tension and uneasiness (i.e., physiological arousal). According to Leon Festinger, people are motivated to relieve their aroused state by adjusting their attitudes to be more consistent.

Lie Detection

Arousal's link to emotions, attitudes, and inconsistency make the measurement of physiological arousal a potentially useful tool for lie detection. A lie detector test measures various physiological indicators or arousal such as heart rate, breathing rate, and perspiration. The assumption is that lying (which is an inconsistency between what is true and what is reported to be true) produces arousal that can be detected by the machine. Unfortunately, as with the strength of attitudes, the machine can only assess the level of arousal, and not what may be causing it. For example, a person may be aroused because they are lying, or they may experience arousal because they are worried that they are accused of committing a crime.

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