Fear as a Tool to Achieve Desired Behavior - Literature review Example

Psychology Leventhal, Watts and Pagano (1967) conducted a study in which they have shown that moderately high levels of fear are most effective in achieving the desired targeted behavior. In their study, fear was examined as a tool to achieve desired behavior – i.e, to achieve a drop in smoking levels. The participants were divided into three groups – the first group was shown a film about the dangers of smoking. The second group was provided with some smoking cessation tips. The third group consisted of participants who were shown a film about the dangers of smoking and this was also supplemented with tips that were provided to the participants on how to cease smoking. Hence, they were exposed to both the fear generated by the film on smoking, as well as provided with the tools to begin to tackle those fears. i.e, smoking cessation tips. This study found that the desired action was increased in the third category of participants. In the first instance, where the participants were only shown the film about the dangers of smoking, high levels of fear were aroused, but this did not produce the desired effect, on the contrary, participants increased their smoking after being exposed only to the film. This was explained on the basis of the denial hypothesis, whereby when participants who are already high anxiety persons are exposed to more fear generation through the vehicle of the film, the net effect of such fear generation is psychological denial wherein they refuse to believe that the threat could actually apply to them. As a result, this does not produce any reduction in fear at all. Similarly, those who were exposed to only the tips on how to stop smoking did not demonstrate the desired effect either, because in this instance, the levels of fear were not adequate enough to spur the participant into action. Since the dangers of smoking were not impressed upon these participants and fear was not sparked off in them, they did not fully realize the dangers of smoking. As a result, after the study was conducted, these participants also demonstrated higher levels of smoking. Hence, this tactic was also not successful in achieving the desired objective, i.e, reduction in smoking levels of the participants. This study demonstrated that neither very high levels of fear nor very low levels of fear can successfully achieve the desired objective. Rather it is moderately high levels of fear which are truly effective. As pointed out by the authors in this study, it is the highly threatening messages that generate higher levels of fear which are more likely to produce agreement in the participants about the message that is being delivered, rather than low fear messages, which may generally be ignored or dismissed. Since the low fear messages do not create enough of a reaction, their importance is not likely to be appreciated by the participants or get them to alter the desired behavioral pattern. But at the same time, the level of fear that is generated cannot be too high, because this creates a psychological denial process in the participants which may be counterproductive in terms of the desired objectives. This is why this study showed that participants exposed to only high level fear only smoked more after seeing the film. Therefore, the best results could be achieved by moderate levels of fear – combining the film about the dangers of smoking, which created the awareness and fear of the dangers involved, with the tips on how to stop smoking, which helped the participant to achieve the desired objective. 2. Paul Ekman (1972) identified six basic human emotions – anger, disgust, fear, sadness surprise and joy. These are the six emotions that can be identified on the face and are universally recognized world over. Ekman first carried out research in Western societies, but in order to avoid the danger of culture bias, the same studies were later carried out in 10 different cultures in Asia, eastern and western Europe as well as the United States. The earlier findings on the six basic emotions that could be identified on the face were also corroborated through the findings. His research was based purely upon facial expressions and the emotions that could be detected through their visibility on the face. Ekman’s identification of the six basic emotions has been criticized on the grounds that his research is very superficial and does not take into account the subjective feelings accompanying such facial demonstration of expressions. However Ekman has argued that it is difficult to determine emotion and most studies conducted on emotion tend to test hypotheses on emotion based upon intuition or on the basis of observations. By linking emotions firmly with facial expressions, Ekman aimed to move beyond these difficulties in the assessment of emotion. Fear is one of the emotions that is studied most frequently, because when it is not properly regulated then anxiety and depression can develop. The area of the brain known as the amygdala contains the medial temporal lobes and this is the region of the brain where most circuits terminate, and the emotion of fear depends on those circuits in order to be transmitted. The amygdala area of the brain is believed to be crucial in respect to emotional reactions, learning and memories. (Sunday Times, 2007). The amygdale is also the region of the brain that regulates anger or rage, in fact it has been referred to as the rage centre. The area of the brain regulating the emotion of disgust is the basal ganglia, an area of the brain that is involved in motor control. This is also the area that regulates excessive reactions to things which cause disgust. Based upon the identification of six basic emotions, Ekman and Friesan have created a database containing pictures of facial effect. This database was collected in the 1970s and actors were carefully trained to produce different kinds of expressions on their faces. From the large set of pictures that were collected, a final picture set was selected for each of the different emotions, to form a part of a facial database. This is now referred to as the E-F database and is used by researchers in facial expression studies. The limitation in this database however is that it contains pictures of only the six emotions Ekman has identified – anger, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise and joy. Another limitation of this database is that it only contains still images, therefore the role of motion is largely ignored and the database can be used only in studies of static facial expressions. 3. Impression management refers to the process whereby an individual tries to control the kind of impression that other people form of him or her. It may be a conscious or unconscious move, but the individual basically tries to influence the perceptions of other people, either about themselves or about other people, objects and situations by controlling, regulating and manipulating the kind of information that they give out in social interaction. Therefore, impression management also includes the manner of presentation, i.e, the way an individual dresses, talks, walks and presents himself or herself to gain the attention of others and to manipulate the kinds of impressions that they form about him or her. The social setting is used as a vehicle to communicate messages about oneself through the content of what one says, alternatively, tacit information can also be conveyed by the manner and style of dress, so that an impression is conveyed about wealth or social status. The facial expressions, gestures and tone can be used to convey feelings and emotions that also contribute to the kind of impression that an observer is likely to gain about the individual concerned. The basic objective of impression management may be to gain the approval of others, for a variety of purposes. In most cases, the purpose of impression management is to gain the liking and love of other people and to increase one’s circle of friends, since all human beings experience the need for warmth and love (Ryan, 2004). Alternatively impression management can also be practiced in order to contribute to organizational objectives, for example to improve sales, gain the confidence of an investor or to improve business interactions. According to Goffman (1959), who proposes the impression management theory, an organization or individuals seeks to convey certain impressions in order to conform to the nature of perception that they wish to communicate to the public and to their customers. He uses the metaphor of play and states that individuals are like actors in a social setting, acting out certain roles in order to convey certain impressions. They interact with others through performances, where all the accoutrements of costume, voice tone and modulation, expression, etc are practiced in concert to generate the desired reactions in one’s audience. Bibliography * Ekman, P, 1972. “Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion”, IN J. Cole (Ed.), “Nebraska Symposium on Motivation” 1971, 19, pp 207-283. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. * Ekman, P and Friesan, W, 1978. “Pictures of Facial Effect”, CA: Consulting Psychologists’ Press * Goffman, Erving, 1959. “The presentation of self in everyday life”, Doubleday * Ryan, Elizabeth, 2004. “What do we gain from impression management?” http://www.simplysolo.com/relationships/impression_management_elizabeth_ryan.html; August 17, 2008 * “Your Brain: How to use it”, The Sunday Times, January 7, 2007. Read More