Being Rational VS What You're Actually Feeling
My lab partner, Samyu, and I created, conducted , and wrote about our experiment together - to view hers click here
My lab partner, Samyu, and I created, conducted , and wrote about our experiment together - to view hers click here
When you feel an emotion, does your heart follow the pattern of that emotion, or is that just your mind rationalizing(thinking about what it was taught/is supposed to make of certain situations) and saying what it is supposed to feel? You see a random picture and your heart jumps or twinges or maybe does not even react at all.
Whichever the case, your heart’s reaction is the true emotion you are feeling, because of the long-trained “fight or flight” thought process in the brain. If your heart rate increases or decreases matching the emotion stated for that certain picture, then the person stated what he or she actually felt. If not, he or she rationalized with themself and told you, the scientist, what he or she was supposed to have felt. Remember this is about how much the test-subject is true to his or her own feelings; it is not to measure the person’s personality. Our hypothesis was that there would only be a few big changes (ex: leap for fear and excitement, and, after research, drops for sadness) in the heart rate compared to the emotion that was supposedly being shown. Remember this is about how much the test-subject is true to his or her own feelings; it is not to measure the person’s personality.
Whichever the case, your heart’s reaction is the true emotion you are feeling, because of the long-trained “fight or flight” thought process in the brain. If your heart rate increases or decreases matching the emotion stated for that certain picture, then the person stated what he or she actually felt. If not, he or she rationalized with themself and told you, the scientist, what he or she was supposed to have felt. Remember this is about how much the test-subject is true to his or her own feelings; it is not to measure the person’s personality. Our hypothesis was that there would only be a few big changes (ex: leap for fear and excitement, and, after research, drops for sadness) in the heart rate compared to the emotion that was supposedly being shown. Remember this is about how much the test-subject is true to his or her own feelings; it is not to measure the person’s personality. 
Overall, the males as a group had a much larger variance in heart rate, which was mirrored, for the most part, by the females but with less change. Everyone had a significant leap in heart rate at the first picture. The largest drop was between 40 and 45 seconds, while the time period with least variation in heart rate was 50 to 55 seconds, during which a peaceful picture was shown. From 55 to 65 seconds there were two approximately equal increases in heart rate for “surreal” and “excitement” pictures. Overall, the males as a group had a much larger variance in heart rate, which was mirrored, for the most part, by the females but with less change. Everyone had a significant leap in heart rate at the first picture. The largest drop was between 40 and 45 seconds, while the time period with least variation in heart rate was 50 to 55 seconds, during which a peaceful picture was shown. From 55 to 65 seconds there were two approximately equal increases in heart rate for “surreal” and “excitement” pictures.
The first leap was probably from the excitement of the experiment beginning. Then, the largest drop in the males’ heart rate, and a significant drop in the females, occurred when the picture of the dead bodies after a tsunami was shown. This drop is characteristic of sadness, which correlates with their said emotion for the picture. However, for the spider picture, the subjects all said that they felt fear. This was not evident in the heart rate at all. During the time we showed the spider (35-40 seconds), there was actually a drop in heart rate, so nobody felt actual fear. 
When analyzing the photograph, their logical mind may have told them that fear should be associated with the image, and so they wrote it. The other one for which we were expecting a change was excitement. Males experienced a sharp rise in heart rate, while females had a less pronounced increase. Below are some graphs displaying correlation between what the subject’s analytical mind said and what their first reaction, and heart rate, showed. Lastly, we were not expecting anything particular to happen for “peacefulness,” 
but the heart rate showed little change, which confirms that the subjects probably were feeling peaceful. Even though most of the subjects did not in fact have a heart rate matching his or her "said" emotion, in reality, for example if one is scared he or she will have a fast heart rate. So these test subjects, since instead of the actual situation, were shown pictures, their hearts did not match the emotions which they said they were feeling, though some people"In the graphs of averaged heart rate, more girls correlated with fear, while more boys correlated with excitement. Oddly enough, even though most individuals did not correlate for sadness, the averages most certainly did. However, the experiment overall did prove our hypothesis (there were significant jumps for the pictures we specified) and showed something we never expected: people often deceive themselves into thinking that they felt a certain emotion when they actually might have felt something different or even nothing at all. Does a picture of a spider scare you? Or does your brain remember the creepy spider you found on your ceiling and trick you into "feeling" scared? "(-Lab Partner-).
Picture Urls:
8) http://jasonschaeffer.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/polar-bear-on-a-peak-of-an-iceburg.gif
9) http://www.beccabondphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/playing-in-field-1024x614.jpg
10) Users/15hannahb/Desktop/crying-tears-of-joy-208913.jpg
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