Chapter ten - Inducing and Measuring Emotion and Affect

Summary

This chapter reviews the typical methods that are used to create and measure the physical states and subjective feelings that researchers refer to as affect or emotion, keeping in mind the scientific distinction between these two constructions. It reviews the variety of induction methods and measurement techniques that are used most frequently in social and personality psychology. The chapter outlines thirteen laboratory induction techniques such as films, images, faces, music, words, peripheral physiological manipulations, and virtual reality that are the most frequently and successfully used laboratory-based inductions. It presents a brief summary of each method, including a description, prototypical references, and advantages and disadvantages of each method. A psychologist's task is to discover facts about the mind (changes in affect or emotion) by measuring responses from a person (reaction times, perceptions, eye or muscle movements, bodily changes, or perhaps electrical, magnetic, blood flow, or chemical measures related to neurons firing).