Lesson 11

Question 1

what is anxiety?

Answer 1

it’s a state of fear and uncertainty from a threatening situation
when it’s high it can impair physical and psychological functioning

Question 2

what do psychologists suggest about anxiety

Answer 2

• it occurs when witnessing a crime and can prevent accurate recall especially if a weapon is present
• witnesses pay most attention to what causes them anxiety
• weapon focus affect = when witnesses who see a violent crime and can describe the weapon in detail but not the criminal

Question 3

what is the procedure for anxiety

Answer 3

• Loftus wanted to see if anxiety affects witnesses ability to recognise the criminal
• experimental condition = participants overheard a hostile and heated argument and then overturned furniture and broken glass and then a man emerged holding a bloody letter opener
• controlled condition = participants overheard an argument about lab experiment failure and a man with greasy hands holding a pen emerged
• participants were asked to identify the criminal from 50 pics

Question 4

What were the findings of the anxiety procedure?

Answer 4

• in the experimental condition (bloody knife) = 33% participants recognised the criminal
• in the controlled condition (pen) = 49% participants recognised the criminal

Question 5

what is a strength of the anxiety procedure?

Answer 5

• Loftus + Burns put participants in two separate conditions where one group watched a violent film with a boy shot in the head and the other watched a non violent film about a crime: participants recalled less accurately in the violent one

Question 6

What are the limitations of the anxiety procedure?

Answer 6

• lacks ecological validity = even though participants waited in the reception area of the lab it could’ve affected the accuracy of their judgment
• it has violated ethical guidelines as participants were deceived about the nature of the experiment and they weren’t protected from psychological harm as they were exposed to someone they think was a murderer + they could’ve lost someone to knife crime
• anxiety affects peoples memories differently - some people recall better when anxious = Christiansen + Hubinette used 110 people who witnessed 1 of 22 bank robberies (including onlookers and directly affected staff) and found that the directly affected staff were the most accurate at describing the criminals