anxiety Flashcards
what is anxiety?
a state of emotional and physical arousal. it is a normal reaction to stressful situations but it can affect the accuracy and detail of eye witness testimony.
what are the two areas of contradictory research into anxiety in eye witness testimony?
anxiety can lead to lowered accuracy
anxiety can lead to improved accuracy.
how can anxiety lead to lowered accuracy?
if the individual is too anxious, stressed and flustered, they may be unable to remember precise details
how can anxiety lead to improved accuracy?
if the individual is anxious, they are more alert and aware of their surroundings so are more likely to remember precise details.
how does the yerkes-dodson effect explain the contradictory research into anxiety?
it states accuracy increases as anxiety upto a certain point, this is the point of maximum accuracy. if an eyewitness experiences any more stress than this, their recall declines drastically so the accuracy decreases.
what is the procedure of Johnsons and Scott (1976) research into anxiety lowering accuracy?
they led participants to believe they were going to take place in a lab study. whilst seated in a waiting room, participants heard an argument in the next room. in the ‘low-anxiety’ condition, a man then walked through the waiting area, carrying a pen with grease on his hands. other participants overheard the same heated argument, but this time accompanied by the sound of breaking glass. in the ‘high-anxiety’ condition, another man walked through the waiting area holding a paper knife that was covered in blood.
what were the findings of Johnsons and Scott (1976) research into anxiety lowering accuracy?
the participants later picked out the man from a set of 50 photos. 49% of individuals who saw the man with the pen were able to identify him whereas 33% of participants who saw the man with the blood covered knife were able to identify him. this suggests there is a tunnel theory of memory, when a witnesses attention narrows to focus on a weapon as it is a source of anxiety.
what are the effects of the fight or flight response when witnessing a crime for anxiety improving accuracy?
the stress of witnessing a crime or accident creates anxiety through physiological arousal within the body. the fight or flight response is triggered which increases our alertness and improves our memory for the event as we become more aware of cues in the situation.
what is the procedure of Yuille and Cutshall (1986) research into anxiety improving accuracy?
they conducted a study of a real life shooting in a gun shop in Vancouver, Canada. the shop owner shot a thief dead and there were 21 witnesses in which 13 agreed to be in the study. the interviews were held 4-5 months after the incident and these were compared with the original police interviews after the incident. accuracy was determined by the number of details reported in each account. the witnesses were also asked to rate how stressed they had felt at the time of the incident using a 7-point scale, and asked if they had any emotional problems after the event such as sleeplessness.
what were the findings of Yuille and Cutshall (1986) research into anxiety improving accuracy?
the witnesses were very accurate in their accounts and there was little change in the amount of accuracy after 5 months, although some details were less accurate such as; recollection of the colour of the items and age/weight/height estimates. those participants who reported the highest amounts of stress were the most accurate (88% compared to 75% in the less stressed group)
AO3: how is ‘lack of control’ a limitation to anxiety as a factor effecting eye witness testimony?
one limitation to anxiety as a factor of eye witness testimony is that there is a lack of control in the research. for example, researchers usually interview real life eyewitnesses sometime after the event. this meant that as the researchers waited 4-5 months after, there would’ve been many other factors in the participants life that may have impacted them which they have no control over. for example, they may have had discussions with other people about the event or have read or seen accounts from the news and media. this is a limitation to the research as the extraneous variables may be responsible for for the accuracy of recall. therefore, the effects of anxiety may be overwhelmed by these other factors, and impossible to assess by the time the participants are interviewed.
A03: how is ‘unethical’ a limitation to anxiety as a factor of eyewitness testimony?
one limitation to anxiety as a factor of eyewitness testimony is that the research can be seen as unethical. this is because creating anxiety in participants can be risky as it may subject participants to psychological harm for the pure purpose of research. this is why real-life studies are so beneficial as psychologists interview people who have already witnessed a real life event, so their is no need to recreate it. therefore this doesn’t challenge the findings from researchers such as Johnson and Scott, but it does question the need for such research. However, comparing findings with less controlled field studies may offer benefits of this research and so it may outweigh the issues.
AO3: how is ‘weapon focus effect’ a limitation to anxiety as a factor of eyewitness testimony?
one limitation to anxiety as a factor of eyewitness testimony is the weapon focus effect. this means that in the study of Johnson and Scott, the reason participants focused on the weapon is not because they were scared, its because its not what they were expecting to see. Pickel conducted an experiment using scissors, a handgun, a wallet and a raw piece of chicken as the hand-held items in a hairdressing salon video. the scissors would be the low anxiety, low unusualness. they found that eyewitness accuracy was significantly poorer in the high unusualness conditions such as the raw chicken and handgun. therefore, this suggests that the weapon effect is due to unusualness rather than anxiety/threat and therefore tells us nothing specifically about the effects of anxiety on eyewitness testimony.
AO3: how is ‘the inverted u explanation is too simplistic’ a limitation to anxiety as a factor of eyewitness testimony?
one limitation to anxiety as a factor of eyewitness testimony is that the inverted u explanation is too simplistic. this is because anxiety is too difficult to define and accurately measure, as it has many emotional, physical, behavioural and cognitive elements to it. therefore, it is simplistic as the inverted u explanation only accounts for the physiological arousal being linked to poor performance, and doesn’t factor in the other elements linked to anxiety.
