Emotions conceptualized as intervening variables—with suggestions toward a theory of frustration.

Brown, Judson S.; Farber, Ilya

doi:10.1037/h0058839

Cited by 228 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…If conflict does contribute to drive, then the intensity, or speed, of the response occurring in the conflict situation should be increased (Brown, 1961). The results of several investigations (Castaneda & Worell, 1961; Finger, 194 I) have supported this proposal.…”

supporting

confidence: 59%

The effects of strength of competing responses during conflict

Yelen

1969

Psychon Sci

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(1959), have indicated that one of the effects of conflict is an increment in drive. If conflict does contribute to drive, then the intensity, or speed, of the response occurring in the conflict situation should be increased (Brown, 1961). The results of several investigations (Castaneda & Worell, 1961; Finger, 194 I) have supported this proposal. Brown & Farber (195 I) have also indicated that the degree of conflict varies as a function of both the relative and absolute strengths of the competing responses. That is, conflict is expected to increase when the difference between the strengths of the competing responses is reduced and! or when the strengths of both competing responses are increased. It would be expected, then, that variation of the relative and absolute strengths of the competing responses would be related to the intensity of the response that occurs in the conflict situation. This relationship, however. has received little experimental attention.The present study was designed to vary the relative and absolute strengths of two competing responses and then to determine the effects of this variation on the speed of the response that occurred when both responses were Simultaneously aroused. Conflict and nonconflict test trials on a RT task. modified by using two ready signals, two response keys. and one stimulus to respond, were used for this purpose. I n order to vary the relative speed of the competing responses, the response to one of the ready signals was associated with shock during training trials. It was expected that the association with shock would increase the rcla tive speed of this response during the test 80 trials. I n order to vary the absolute speed of the competing responses, the length of the fore period used during training trials was changed during the test trials. It was expected that these changes in the length of the foreperiod would decrease the absolute speed of the competing responses. APPARATUS A stimulus display panel, containing a 7.5-W white light, a doorbell buzzer, and a 40-W yellow light, was mounted vertically on a desk. The white light, used as one of the ready signals, was attached to the upper left corner, the buzzer, used as the second ready signal, was mounted on the upper right corner, and the yellow light, which served as the stimulus to respond, was fixed to the lower center portion of the panel. An ac shock source was used to deliver a shock to the forearms of the Ss' preferred hands. The same intensity of shock, judged by E to be uncomfortable, was used for all Ss. Silent Hunter timers were used to control the onset of the lights, buzzer, and shock.A horizontal response keyboard containing a plastic disk and two microswitches was attached to the writing surface of a student chair. The disk was attached to the edge of the keyboard that was nearest to the S. The microswitches were placed 6 in. apart in the upper left and upper right corners of the keyboard. and 12 in. away from the disk. Standard electric docks were used to measure the latencies of the Ss'...

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supporting

confidence: 59%

The effects of strength of competing responses during conflict

Yelen

1969

Psychon Sci

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“…Our 1952 article, incidently, was one of the two most widely read in that journal (as surveyed by the editor) in that academic year; the other was by Brown & Farber (1951) which, expressing the zeitgeist, was a neobehavioristic analysis of frustration and a treatment of emotion as an intervening variable. Psychol ogy had barely begun to move away from stimUlus-response (S-R) models to stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) models in an early stage of what later was called the cognitive revolution by North Americans.…”

Section: Early Approaches To Stressmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Psychological Stress to the Emotions: A History of Changing Outlooks

Lazarus

1993

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

1,700

568

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“…Drive. Various considerations and observed phenomena have led a number of writers (e.g., 11,30,46) to conclude that conflict may be a drive condition. The drive resulting from conflict as such must, of course, be distinguished from other drives that may be at a high level because conflict blocks the behavior that would normally reduce them.…”

Section: Reaction Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty and conflict: A point of contact between information-theory and behavior-theory concepts.

Berlyne¹

1957

Psychological Review

221

129

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2Information theory, originally designed to handle certain problems in communications engineering (41), needs to be distinguished from psychological information theory, which is one of its offshoots. The former consists of a mathematical language, incorporating a number of distinctive measuring techniques. Psychological information theory is, in contrast, a type of theory in the scientific sense: it applies information-theory measures to phenomena within the purview of psychology and uses information-theory language to formulate laws or hypotheses with testable implications about behavior.Recent literature contains several sketches of such theory (e.g., 1, 26, 35), mostly concerned with how human beings code information or with how much information can pass through them in particular situations. There are many unmistakable affinities between this kind of psychological theory and S-R behavior theory (learning theory) : they have overlapping interests in 1 This article owes a great deal to discussions with Dr. I. R. Savage and several other colleagues at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. It was written while the author was on leave of absence from the

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Emotions conceptualized as intervening variables—with suggestions toward a theory of frustration.

Cited by 228 publications

References 35 publications

The effects of strength of competing responses during conflict

The effects of strength of competing responses during conflict

From Psychological Stress to the Emotions: A History of Changing Outlooks

Uncertainty and conflict: A point of contact between information-theory and behavior-theory concepts.

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