Project Director

Warren, Amye

Department Examiner

Howell, Ashley; Huber, Thomas

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

This study investigated whether experimenter behaviors affected self-reported levels of state and trait anxiety, emotional valence memory, and projective interpretations of ambiguous stimuli. I hypothesized that participants exposed to anxious experimenters would report higher levels of state anxiety, recall more negative words, and render more negative interpretations while warm experimenters would lead participants to report lower levels of state anxiety, recall more positive words, and produce more positive interpretations. Participants (N = 98) were randomly assigned to either an anxious, flat, or warm experimenter condition and completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger et al., 1983), heard a list of 32 emotionally salient or neutral words, responded to ten Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) cards in a free-response format, completed an open recall of the previously read word list, retook the STAI, and evaluated their experimenter’s performance. Participants in all conditions reported significantly higher levels of state anxiety at the end of the study but did not significantly differ between conditions. Participants in the flat condition recalled significantly more negative words compared to those in the warm and anxious conditions, and the difference between the average number of positive and negative words recalled significantly differed by condition. Participant’s TAT responses were coded using the Linguistic Inquiry & Word Count (LIWC-22) software. Their responses were highly negative in tone but did not differ by experimenter condition. My primary hypotheses were not supported, and the flat experimenter exerted the most direct influence on participants. The laboratory environment appeared generally unsettling, suggesting further research on test anxiety and evaluative settings is necessary.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my committee members for their continued support and patience over the course of this project. I would like to especially thank my thesis director, Dr. Amye Warren, for fostering my interest in research by providing a creative and welcoming space throughout my undergraduate career. Thank you for the countless opportunities in your lab to become involved with psychological research and for always being a source of steady wisdom and gentle guidance. A special thanks to Dr. Ashley Howell who made this project possible by lending the Psi Chi office during my hunt for a lab and to Dr. Thomas Huber for helping me find my footing with my first source. This project would not have been possible without the inspiring persistence and terrific acting of the research assistants who played the experimenters, so a special thanks to Olivia Taylor, Jenna Puls, Kerrick Coble, Ellie Minneci, and Allie Brown.

IRB Number

24-029

Degree

B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Date

12-2024

Subject

Behavioral assessment; Human behavior; Mood (Psychology); Psychology--Research--Effect of experimenters on

Keyword

experimenter behaviors; anxiety; experimenter bias; emotional memory

Discipline

Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Document Type

Theses

Extent

iv, 32 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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