Discuss+ethical+considerations+related+to+research+studies+at+the+cognitive+level+of+analysis

Spiesman et al. (1964)

Participants shown film of unpleasant genital surgery.

AIM: To investigate if people's emotional reaction can be maipulated

PROCEDURE: Showing the film with 3 different soundtracks 1.) //Trauma Condition,// soundtrack emphasized the pain of the video 2.) //Denial Condition,// showed the participants in the video as willing and happy 3.) //Intellectualization Condition,// gave an anthropological interpretation of the surgery Deliberately manipulated the participants' appraisal of the video and evaluated the effect of the type of appraisal on their emotional response.

FINDINGS: The participants reacted more emotionally to the trauma condition. (Supports Lazarus' theory that it could not only be the event that elicits a strong emotional response but also the appraisal of the event).

EVALUATION: A laboratory study with manipulated variables, increasing the artificiality of the experiment. Deception was used in order to put the participants in an unpleasant situation.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS: When concerning emotion, cognitive research of such things could put participants in an uncomfortable situation. Such as having to recall the tragic loss of a loved one in Brown and Kulik's 1977 study or just an overall unpleasnt experience such as Spiesman et al. (1964).

(ps.this is just an outline for now. will be finished later)