Emotion and Inclination

Relation between Emotion and Inclination

Ankush Bansal Ronak Chaudhary Yashasvi Agrawal Saurabh Shukla T.N.V. Sai Kiran Amandeep Vikrant Varshney Yash Agrawal Viral Bansal Md. Tajuddin Manhar Abhinav Vishak Iyappan

ABSTRACT
This project is mainly consisted of a survey conducted on number of subjects to find how the emotions of a subject can dictate his attention and ability to take information into account from his surroundings. A series of questions (from a standard questionnaire) were asked to the subject in person and the answers from the subject was noted and analysed to accomplish this task. Graph of the result was prepared to reach the final conclusion. Before the actual experiment was conducted, the present mood of the participant was scaled by a Panas questionnaire and then compared with the response of the experiment.

CONNECTION BETWEEN EMOTION AND INCLINATION

It is well known that feeling emotions is one of the qualities that make us human. Some emotions are nice emotions, like happiness enthusiasm etc., whereas other are not so nice like fear, revenge, anger etc. The common way for psychologists to classify these emotions are in 2 ways: positive and negative emotions. There have been several studies that try to relate a persons emotional state and his attentional span while in this state. 2 models, the Causal model and the essentialist model have been developed to explain this behaviour.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Positive psychologist have traditionally classified emotions into 2 broad states: positive and negative. 2 models have been developed which try to explain their connection to attention and inclination. There are two main ways of thinking of the relation between emotions and attentional phenomena. On the first model, the CAUSAL MODEL, emotions and attentional phenomenon are taken to be distinct events, which causally interact, means that attention is the cause of event. This is most often assumed in psychology. CAUSAL MODEL Douglas Derry Berry and Don M. Tucker claim that emotion involve two separable types of effects on attention. First, they exert a general influence that serves to broaden or narrow the breadth of attention. Second, they exert more specific effects serving to direct attention toward particular sources of information. For example if there is a person who is dominant on the positive emotions then this person will be attracted towards a picture depicting positive emotions or towards a particular piece of information that relates to happiness.

 In the same way, Gerald Matthews and Adrian Wells, the authors of Attention and Emotion: A Clinical Perspective (1994) write: emotions and attention are intimately linked. States of emotions influence both the contents of consciousness and performance on tasks requiring selection of stimuli or intensive concentration and mental concentration The causal model is compatible with the thesis that emotions have as one or as their unique function to cause attentional phenomena. For example, Derry Berry and Tucker argue that motivational states serve to regulate orienting, directing attention toward perceptual information that is important or relevant to the current state of emotion

ESSENTIALIST MODEL The second way to talk about emotion and attentional phenomenon is Essentialist model. This model suggests that attentional phenomena are the only essential components of emotions. This seems to be Ronald de Sousas view. According to him, an emotion limits the range of information that the organism will take into account, In fact, different types of emotions seem to involve different kinds of attentional phenomena. A number of studies suggest that negative emotional states particularly high arousal ones like anxiety and fear serve to narrow peoples attentional focus, while positive emotions, even high-arousal such as elation and mania, lead to an opposite effect: an expansion of attentional focus. In one particularly telling study, subjects had to assess the similarity of two figures to a third figure, where the two figures resembled the third figure either with respect to global configuration (three squares vs. three triangles) or with respect to local features (four squares vs. three squares). As result explains, whereas negative emotional traits such as anxiety and depression predict a local bias consistent with a narrowed attentional focus, positive emotional traits such as subjective well-being and optimism predict a global bias consistent with a broadened attentional focus.

Methodology
Participants
The study was conducted on a sample of students belonging to the age group of 18 to 21 years. Most of the students who participated in this survey were belonged to B. Tech. 2nd or 3rd year. The subject have been also living in hostel environment for more than 8-9 months.

Tools
Panas questionnaire A questionnaire that assesses Measures of affect (specifically positive effect and negative effect).

_____cheerful _____disgusted _____attentive _____surprised _____strong _____relaxed _____irritable _____delighted _____inspired

______sad ______active ______angry at self ______calm ______guilty ______enthusiastic ______afraid ______joyful ______downhearted ______happy ______excited ______determined ______timid ______hostile ______frightened ______alert ______jittery ______interested ______upset ______lively ______loathing ______angry ______ashamed _____confident ______bold ______at ease ______ energetic

Scale used:

1 - very slightly or not at all 2 - a little 3 - moderately 4 - quite a bit 5 - extremely

Now to measure the dominance of positive of negative emotion, following table is used:

Copyright 1994, David Watson and Lee Anna Clark, the University of Iowa

IMAGE BASED QUESTIONNAIRE

IMAGE 1

Figure 1: 1. How many total members are in the picture? 2. Which dress colour was not there? A. Pink B. Purple C. Green D. Red

3. There were stripes on the blue colour t-shirt. A. Yes Figure 2: 1. How many persons were mourning besides the dead body? A. 4 B.3 C.5 D.2 B. No

2. Was there anyone wearing suit? 3. What was the colour of the shirt of the man sitting next to dead body's head? A. Blue B. Black C. White

IMAGE 2

Figure 1: 1. What was the colour of the hairs of woman? 2. What was the colour of stripes on the polythene bag the woman was carrying? 3. What kind of dress the woman was wearing? A. White suit B. White jacket C. White gown

Figure 2: 1. Whats the color of scarf of the woman in the front? A. Yellow B. Red C. Black D. Orange

2. Is there a mole on the face of the woman in the front? A. Yes B. No

3. Is any person in the figure wearing cap? A. Yes B. No

IMAGE 3

Figure 1: 1. Who appears to be holding the Black umbrella? A. Man B. Woman C. No one

2. Which type of machine was visible? A. Tractor B. Crane C. Crusher

3. Which calamity the image represents? A. Riots B. Drought C. Earthquake

Figure 2: 1. Which vehicle was there in the background? A. Car B. Scooter C. Motorcycle D. Auto

2. How many were wearing specs? A. 2 B.3 C.1

3. How many children were visible? A.5 B.6 C.7 D.8

MENTAL QUESTIONNAIRE
1. A clerk at a butcher shop stands five feet ten inches tall and wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh? 2. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world? 3. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet? 4. What word in the English language is always spelled incorrectly? 5. If you were running a race and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now? 6. Which is correct to say, The yolk of the egg is white or The yolk of the egg are white?

Answers: - 1. Meat 2. Mt. Everest 3. Zero dirt 4. 2nd place 5. Colour of yolk is yellow not white

http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2012/05/15/10-brainteasers-to-test-your-mental-sharpness/

Procedure
Initially the present mood of the participant was scaled by a Panas questionnaire. Then to test the inclination of a person towards an emotion depending on his mood three sets of photos were made each containing two photos, one representing positive emotion and another one representing negative emotion. A Photo was shown to the person for ten seconds (This time was not revealed to the person as the time restriction could have altered its natural behaviour) Then six questions were asked, three from the image reflecting positivity and three from image reflecting negativity. Then, next photo was shown for ten seconds and then again six questions were asked. In this way, we tested for three different sets of pictures to generalize the inclination of the person towards a feeling depending on his mood. The questions asked were simple and were taken from the noticeable parts of the picture such that a person concentrating on pic for 7-8 sec will be able to answer them.

Results and Discussions:

Total =30

People with positive emotion=25

People with negative emotion=05

Avg. correct answers to Happy images=5.04

Avg. correct answers to sad images=4.32

Avg. correct Answers to happy images=3.4

Avg. correct answers to sad images=4.8

DETERMINED FROM PANAS QUESTIONNAIRES

NET +VE EMOTION RATING PEOPLE WITH DOMINANT PNEGATIVE EMOTIONS 2.19 2.41 2.42 2.86 3.38 NET -VE EMOTION RATING 3.93 2.93 2.8 3.19 3.4 HAPPY CORRECT 2 4 1 5 5 SAD CORRECT 4 4 6 6 4 TOTAL CORR ANS 6 8 7 11 9 NO OF MENTAL CORR 0 2 1 2 0 TIME 3 1 3.35 2 2.01 RATIO(R-X) <<RATIO(r-Y) 0.557251908 0.5 0.822525597 1 0.864285714 0.166666667 0.896551724 0.833333333 0.994117647 1.25

AVERAGE:
PEOPLE WITH DOMINANT NEGATIVE EMOTIONS 2.33 2.66 3.23 2.428 3.23 3.19 2.14 3.47 2.85 3.95 3.1428 4 3.38 3.14 2.52 3.71 3.71 3.71 3 3.38 3.42 3.66 3.62 3.47 4.01 2.26 2.26 2.62 1.867 2.26 2.18 1.46 2.23 1.8 2.26 1.73 2 1.67 1.53 1.2 1.66 1.62 1.53 1.2 1.33 1.26 1.33 1.13 1.06 1.13

17/5=3.4
5 2 4 3 2 7 6 4 5 5 6 5 4 7 6 6 6 7 6 6 5 5 6 3 5

24/5=4.8
4 6 6 4 5 7 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 6 4 5 5 3 3 4 3 4 3 2 3

41/5=8.2
9 8 10 7 7 14 11 9 10 9 10 9 8 13 10 11 11 10 9 10 8 9 9 5 8

5/5=1
1 3 2 5 0 4 4 0 1 3 0 1 2 1 5 1 4 3 4 5 2 2 2 6 1

2 Min 27 Sec
5.2 2.54 4.5 1.55 3.31 1.14 1.48 2.17 1.55 4.3 3.43 3.2 2.16 3 4.1 3.1 5.03 1.44 2.48 2.5 4.2 5.12 3.22 3.5 1.52 1.030973451 1.17699115 1.232824427 1.300482057 1.42920354 1.463302752 1.465753425 1.556053812 1.583333333 1.747787611 1.816647399 2 2.023952096 2.052287582 2.1 2.234939759 2.290123457 2.424836601 2.5 2.541353383 2.714285714 2.751879699 3.203539823 3.273584906 3.548672566 1.25 0.333333333 0.666666667 0.75 0.4 1 1.2 0.8 1 1.25 1.5 1.25 1 1.166666667 1.5 1.2 1.2 2.333333333 2 1.5 1.666666667 1.25 2 1.5 1.666666667

AVERAGE:

126/25=5.04

108/25=4.32

234/25=9.36

62/25=2.48

3 Min 03 sec

2.5

1.5

r
1 0.5 0

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

R
r:- Ratio of correct answers related to happy pictures to sad pictures . R:- Ratio of net positive emotion rating to net negative emotion rating( calculated from PANAS questionnaires )

ANALYSIS

For mental questions

Persons having positive emotions have given more correct answers and also have taken more time.

Conclusion
From the results of the analysis of the image based questionnaire we can say that the person inclined towards perspective image which verifies the second part of the causal model (i.e. effect of emotions on attention towards particular information). The analysis also shows that the person with positive emotions has more attention which verifies the second part of causal model and essential model. From the results of analysis of mental questionnaire we can say that the persons with positive emotions are more attentive and they are also more inclined towards answering the questions as they have taken more time than the persons with negative emotions. This verifies both the models.

Bibliography
Christine Tappolet (University of Montreal) Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988) Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063-1070.