The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the effects of awareness on experimentally induced anxiety. Forty college undergraduates were conditioned with a mild electric shock as the UCS (unconditioned stimulus) and a tone a s the CS (conditioned stimulus). After conditioning, the experimental group was taught to discriminate between the CS and six other tones which were both higher and lower in frequency than the CS. The control group was not given these learning trials. After learning to discriminate the tones, the experimental subjects had a higher GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) to the seven tones as compared to the control group. The discrimination process thus facilitated an association among the tones. This increase in anxiety was relatively greater with the passage of time as the experimental subjects also had a higher GSR to the seven tones 24 hours after conditioning compared with 30 minutes after conditioning. These increases, however, were not significant in all cases.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-6766 |
| Date | 01 May 1974 |
| Creators | Lyon, Edward R. |
| Publisher | DigitalCommons@USU |
| Source Sets | Utah State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | All Graduate Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact digitalcommons@usu.edu. |
Page generated in 0.0015 seconds