The Evaluation of Autonomic Responses: Toward a General Solution

Lacey, John I.

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1956.tb46040.x

Cited by 566 publications

(309 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…There were no premanipulation differences on the physiological measures; still, to eliminate the influence of initial levels of arousal on subsequent levels of arousal (i.e., the "law of initial values"; Lacey, 1956;Wilder, 1962), ANCOVAS were performed on each of the physiological measures, using the appropriate scores from the rest period as the measures of initial levels of arousal. The adjusted pulse rate, pulse volume, and skin resistance scores for each condition are presented in Table 4.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values.

Rosenblatt¹,

Greenberg²,

Solomon³

et al. 1989

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

1,020

986

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On the basis of terror management theory, it was hypothesized that when mortality is made salient, Ss would respond especially positively toward those who uphold cultural values and especially negatively toward those who violate cultural values. In Experiment I, judges recommended especially harsh bonds for a prostitute when mortality was made salient. Experiment 2 replicated this finding with student Ss and demonstrated that it occurs only among Ss with relatively negative attitudes toward prostitution. Experiment 3 demonstrated that mortality salience also leads to larger reward recommendations for a hero who upheld cultural values. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that the mortality salience effect does not result from heightened self-awareness or physiological arousal. Experiment 6 replicated the punishment effect with a different mortality salience manipulation. Implications for the role of fear of death in social behavior are discussed.Although it is evident that individual behavior is greatly affected by one's culture, relatively little is known about the forces that promote allegiance to particular cultural worldviews. Terror management theory (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986; press) posits that cultural conceptions of reality serve the vital function of buffering the anxiety that results from awareness of human vulnerability and mortality. Consequently, people are highly motivated to maintain faith in the cultural conceptions of reality to which they subscribe and to defend these conceptions against threats. The purpose of the research reported in this article was to test several hypotheses derived from terror management theory concerning reactions to those who uphold and violate cultural worldviews.Terror management theory is based largely on insights gleaned from Ernest Becker's (1962, 1973, 1975) attempts to synthesize contributions from the various social science disciplines into a coherent conception of human motivation and behavior. According to Becker, sophisticated human intellectual abilities lead to an awareness of human vulnerability and mortality, and this awareness creates the potential for overwhelming terror. As these abilities evolved, cultural worldviews began to emerge. The potential for terror put a press on evolving conceptions of reality such that any worldview that was to surviveWe would like to express our appreciation to Lisa Williams for conducting Experiment 5.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jeff Greenberg, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721. needed to provide a means of managing this terror. The conception of reality espoused by any given culture is thus the basis of a cultural anxiety-buffer that serves to protect the individual from the anxiety that results from awareness of his or her vulnerability and ultimate mortality.' According to the theory, however, protection from anxiety requires that one achieve a sense of value or self-esteem within the cultural context. This is because the culture promises secu...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values.

Rosenblatt¹,

Greenberg²,

Solomon³

et al. 1989

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

1,020

986

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Since the HR CR has been shown in some cases to be at least partially determined by pre-CS baseline HR (Lacey, 1956), the HR CRs for each post-CS second were transformed by the method of Lacey into standard scores (M = SO, SD = 10) in which the regression of baseline HR on change from baseline scores has been removed. ANOVAs were thus recomputed on these corrected scores.…”

Section: Baseline Heart Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

CS preexposure: Latent inhibition and Pavlovian conditioning of heart rate and eyeblink responses as a function of sex and CS intensity in rabbits

Hernández

Buchanan

Powell

1981

Animal Learning & Behavior

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Male and female rabbits received Pavlovian conditioning in which a 1,216 o H z tone served as the CS and a 3 0 m A paraorbital electric shock train served as the US. Eyeblink (EB) and heart rate (HR) CRs were assessed. Half of the animals received prior exposure to the CS, while half were restrained in the chamber for a similar length of time but did not receive prior CS exposure. Different groups of each sex received three different CS intensities including 60,75, and 90 dB (SPL) during both preexposure and conditioning. The results revealed that latent inhibition of the EB CR occurred only at the intermediate CS intensity, as indicated by a significant impairment of EB conditioning in this group. However, the magnitude of the decelerative HR CR was attenuated by prior CS exposure at all three CS intensities. Females showed faster EB conditioning than males, but latent inhibition occurred in both sexes. These results suggest that somatomotor and autonomic systems are affected differently by prior CS exposure.

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“…These were averaged over trials, after the Snedecor test indicated such averaging to be justified, and modest support was revealed for the t=4.86,df=38,p< .001). In view of this, the heart period analyses were repeated using autonomic lability scores (Lacey, 1956) based upon r xy values computed for each trial across Ss. The interstimulus analysis yielded no significant effects.…”

Section: Observer Reliabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Infants’ observing and heart period responses as related to novelty of visual stimuli

Meyers

Cantor

1966

Psychon Sci

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No justification was found for computing an average reliability estimate although fairly high interobserver correlations were obtained for judgments of infants' fixation times.No intrastimulus decrement was found in observing times, whereas heart period responses when adjusted for prestimulus levels showed across-trial changes, but differentially for males and females. Relationships between observation duration and degree of interstimulus nove lty were contingent upon stimulus sequence and tended to be nonmonotonic.In this initial experiment with infants on the psychophysiology of visual stimulus novelty, both observing and cardiovascular responses were recorded to determine if these were systematically related to novelty, one of Berlyne's (1960) "collative" properties. Two conceptualizations of novelty are used here. The first, "intrastimulus novelty, I I involves repeated presentation of a given stimulus; degree of novelty is assumed to decrease with repeated exposure of this stimulus. The effects of such a procedure, if they occur, are often termed habituation, or more descriptively, response decrement. The second notion, I 'interstimulus novelty, I I entails a comparison of different stimuli, some having been familiarized to various degrees. The present study had two major purposes: (a) to assess interobserver reliability in judging infants' ocular fixation responses; and (b) to examine the relationship of intrastimulus and inter stimulus novelty to observing time scores and to cardiac reactivity. MethodThe results are based on data obtained from 24 Ss, 12 males and 12 females, each 5 months old (± 1 week).S sat in an infant seat facing a 12-1/2 x 12-1/2 in. projection screen located 24 in. away. The stimulicolored pictures of a ball, a bear, a clown, and a dollwere projected onto the screen by a Dunning Animatic strip film projector. The objects occupied approximately 50 sq. in. of the 120 sq. in. light field illuminated by the projector. Two peep holes in the screen, 6 in. apart, allowed two observers to view the infant.The EKG was transduced from chest and back leads into a Fels Cardiotachometer to monitor heart rate. A pulse coincident with the R-wave triggered a Hewlett-Packard counter and printer which timed the successive R-R intervals or heart periods and printed them with stimulus codes.Interstimulus novelty was varied by presenting the clown, ball, bear, and doll pictures differential numbers of times. A given stimulus was projected for four trials (phase 1). Then a new stimulus was introduced and the Psychon. Sci., 1966, Vol. 5 (6) two stimuli were each presented four times (phase 2). Subsequently, a third stimulus was added (phase 3),and finally a fourth (phase 4), each stimulus appearing four times within a given phase. Thus, after 40 trials, the relative presentation frequencies (presumably from the least to the most novel stimulus) were 16, 12, 8, and 4 projections. Four counterbalancing groups insured that each of the four stimuli appeared for the first time in each of the four phases. A 9 se...

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The Evaluation of Autonomic Responses: Toward a General Solution

Cited by 566 publications

References 38 publications

Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values.

Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values.

CS preexposure: Latent inhibition and Pavlovian conditioning of heart rate and eyeblink responses as a function of sex and CS intensity in rabbits

Infants’ observing and heart period responses as related to novelty of visual stimuli

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