A03 ANXIETY

• X evidence to contradict weapon focus effect?

  • j & s study may actually test element of surprise rather than anxiety
  • p focus on weapon as they are surprised by what they see not always because are scared/anxious
  • pickel 1998 conducted study where thief entered hairdressing salon carrying scissors,handgun,wallet,raw chicken as random items
  • found ewt was poor in high unusualness conditions
  • shows presence of unusual items are just as significant in influencing accuracy of ewt
  • meaning cannot be sure if its anxiety which makes us focus on weapon or if its just we are shocked to see it
• X ethical issues?

  • ethical issues of protection from psychharm may be broken as research is creating anxiety in participants purely for purpose of research
  • p are experiencing more harm than they would in real life meaning it would be difficult to replicate these studies in future to check for reliability
  • may be more ethical ways to conduct research into this area
• X influenced by individual differences?

  • in bothwell et al 1987 study p were assessed for neuroticisim - personality trait where individuals tend to become anxious quite quickly
  • p tested & labelled as neurotic/stable
  • stable p showed rising levels of accuracy as stress levels increased but opposite for neurotics - accuracy decreased as stress increased
  • shows there are individual differences in way levels of arousal impact accuracy of ewt depending on our personality type
  • not a consistent explanation that can be applied to recall accurately in entire population
• X yerkes-dodson law too simplistic?

  • anxiety is difficult to define & measure accurately
  • has many elements - cognitive/behavioural/emotional/physical
  • inverted u explanation assumes only one of these is linked to poor performance - physical arousal
  • suggests that only physical arousal has an impact but anxiety has multiple components which have not been considered so may be other aspects to anxiety which increase/decrease accuracy of ewt
• X evidence to show ewt influenced by dcs?

  • most lab studies showed p a filmed/staged crime
  • these p were aware they are watching a filmed crime for a reason to do with study
  • chances are most will work out what questions are going to be asked about what they have seen meaning will guess aim of study & change behaviour accordingly
  • ? ecological
  • rm involved are prone to dcs
  • behaviour is unlikely to be natural meaning its difficult to generalise findings to real life explanations of how anxiety influences ewt