Biological psychology
-
Biological psychology · Aug 1985
A correlation analysis between pulse transit time and instantaneous blood pressure measured indirectly by the vascular unloading method.
Linear correlation coefficients (r) between pulse transit time (PTT) and blood pressure (BP) were evaluated on within-subject by within-condition level. Beat-to-beat systolic and diastolic BP was measured noninvasively using the vascular unloading technique (Yamakoshi, Shimazu and Togawa, 1980). PTT was determined from the time interval between the R-wave of ECG and the peak of the finger pulse wave. ⋯ Under the CP or AN conditions, no consistent tendencies were observed. It was suggested that none of the r values are sufficiently high to warrant the use of PTT as an alternative index of BP. Some factors lowering the r values were discussed.
-
Biological psychology · Jan 1978
Interaction between physiological and cognitive determinants of emotions: experimental studies on Schachter's theory of emotions.
This study investigated the interaction between physiological arousal and situation-derived cognitions in the determination of feeling states that is proposed in Schachter's theory of emotions. The degree of bodily arousal was varied by disguised oral administration of a placebo or the sympathicomimetic agent ephedrine. The situational circumstances were varied by instructions offering cues for (a) no emotions ('neutral' control), or the feeling states called (b) 'anger', (c) 'happiness', and (d) anxiety'. ⋯ The results within the 'anger' and 'happiness' condition were in accordance with Schachter's theory: depending on the type of situation, ephedrine-induced arousal either decreased or increased positive descriptions of mood. The emotional effects of the 'anxiety' condition, however, were independent of the drug-induced arousal level. Contrary to Schachter's theory, anxiety reactions occured also in a state of low physiological arousal and did not increase with increasing arousal.