Myrtek M, Brügner G
Psychophysiological Research Group, University of Freihurg, Germany.
Biol Psychol. 1996 Jan 5;42(1-2):147-64. doi: 10.1016/0301-0511(95)05152-x.
Five studies with nearly 500 subjects recruited from the university, the work place, and from rehabilitation clinics served to investigate the perception of emotional events in everyday life. Physiological parameters (heart rate, physical activity, additional heart rate) and psychological parameters (excitement, enjoyment) were assessed simultaneously throughout the day using a special ambulatory monitoring device capable of storing 23-h records. Emotional events were identified by an increase of heart rate without an accompanying increase in physical activity (additional heart rate) and under special requirements a feedback signal was given which requested subjects to answer predefined questions. Between these 'true' feedbacks, 'random' feedbacks were interspersed with no indication of emotional arousal. Subjects were unaware that the feedback signal was triggered by their own heart rate. Laboratory experiments with films of different emotional quality showed that the method is suitable for the detection of emotional arousal. Comparisons of true feedbacks (emotional events) with random feedbacks (neutral situations) did not show significant differences for excitement and enjoyment ratings for any of the normal samples and for one of the patient samples. Only a sample of coronary heart disease patients showed small differences in the psychological variables which were significant due to the large sample size. From the results it may be concluded that the perception of physiological changes indicating emotional arousal in everyday life is quite different from the results suggested by laboratory experiments. The findings are discussed within the theoretical framework of 'competition of cues' and 'cognitive schemas' proposed by Pennebaker (1982, The psychology of physical symptoms, New York: Springer).
五项研究共招募了近500名来自大学、工作场所和康复诊所的受试者，旨在调查日常生活中对情绪事件的感知。使用一种能够存储23小时记录的特殊动态监测设备，全天同时评估生理参数（心率、身体活动、额外心率）和心理参数（兴奋、愉悦）。通过心率增加而身体活动没有随之增加（额外心率）来识别情绪事件，在特殊要求下会给出反馈信号，要求受试者回答预定义的问题。在这些“真实”反馈之间，穿插着“随机”反馈，不表明情绪唤醒。受试者不知道反馈信号是由他们自己的心率触发的。对不同情绪质量影片的实验室实验表明，该方法适用于检测情绪唤醒。对正常样本中的任何一个以及一个患者样本，真实反馈（情绪事件）与随机反馈（中性情境）在兴奋和愉悦评分上没有显著差异。只有一组冠心病患者样本在心理变量上显示出微小差异，由于样本量较大，这些差异具有显著性。从结果可以得出结论，日常生活中对表明情绪唤醒的生理变化的感知与实验室实验所暗示的结果有很大不同。这些发现将在彭尼贝克（1982年，《身体症状心理学》，纽约：施普林格）提出的“线索竞争”和“认知图式”的理论框架内进行讨论。
