Behavior, Arousal, and Affective Valence

Arousal and Performance

• Definitions:

  • Arousal: Mobilization or activation of energy in preparation for or during behavior.

  • Physiological Arousal: Corresponds with bodily changes (e.g. rapid heart rate).

  • Psychological Arousal: Refers to subjective feelings of being energized or anxious.

• Arousal's Relationship with Performance:

  • Arousal can be either helpful or detrimental to performance depending on the task at hand.

  • High arousal can hinder performance in complex tasks (e.g., math anxiety) but help in simpler tasks (e.g., proofreading).

Categories of Arousal

• Physiological Arousal:

  • Indicates readiness for action (e.g. clammy hands, dry throat).

  • Controlled by the autonomic nervous system, including:

  • Sympathetic Nervous System: Prepares body for action (increases heart rate, breathing).

  • Parasympathetic Nervous System: Conserves energy, counteracts sympathetic effects.

• Psychological Arousal:

  • Subjective feelings of arousal (e.g., feeling tense or alert).

  • Thayer's Dimensions of Arousal:

  • Energetic Arousal: Ranges from tiredness to high alertness.

  • Tense Arousal: Ranges from calmness to tension and anxiety.

Trait vs. State Anxiety

• Trait Anxiety: Individual differences in the tendency to perceive situations as threatening.

• State Anxiety: Actual feelings experienced in response to a specific threat.

  • Common in evaluative situations like tests or performances.

Sources of Arousal

• Stimuli that energize a person can include:

  • Music, evaluations (exams, competitions), social situations.

  • Background stimuli: Time of day, caffeine, being evaluated.

Arousal-Performance Relationships

• Inverted-U Hypothesis:

  • Arousal enhances performance up to an optimal point, beyond which performance deteriorates.

  • Performance effects vary based on task complexity.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

• The law states:

  • Optimal arousal is lower for complex tasks and higher for simple tasks.

Theories Explaining Arousal-Performance Links

• Cusp Catastrophe Model:

  • Performance improves with cognitive anxiety until a peak arousal point is reached, beyond which performance drops sharply (e.g., choking under pressure).

• Processing Efficiency and Attentional Control Theories:

  • Anxiety takes up working-memory capacity, hindering performance through impaired attention and distraction.

Arousal and Affective Valence

• Affective Valence:

  • Refers to the intrinsic attractiveness or aversive quality of an event.

  • Arousal is often coupled with either positive or negative feelings.

  • Optimal Level of Stimulation Theory: Each individual has a preferred level of arousal; too much or too little decreases positive feelings.

• Benign Masochism and Sadness in Music:

  • Some people enjoy unpleasant experiences (e.g., horror movies, sad music) that provide mixed feelings of pleasure and emotional release.

Collative Variables

• Novelty, Complexity, and Incongruity:

  • Stimuli that are novel, complex, or incongruous provoke arousal and can lead to pleasure or discomfort based on their intensity.

Conclusion

• Different forms of arousal influence our performance and emotional experiences in various ways. Individuals should recognize their own optimal levels of arousal and find strategies to maintain these levels during tasks.