Citation

Blatz WE. J. Exp. Psychol. 1925; 8(2): 109-132.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1925, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/h0071039

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

For the purpose of the present study fear was aroused in the subject by suddenly tilting him backwards in a specially constructed chair. The subject was connected with an electrocardiograph, an electrical pneumograph and a galvanometer. The records were made upon a moving film. The records showed that upon the arousal of fear the heart beat increased suddenly in speed and in force and became markedly irregular, the duration of these effects varying with different subjects; that in most cases the rate of respiration decreased and the value of the respiratory index above unity increased; and that the electromotive force of the body increased in every case. The subjects all made an attempt to escape during their first experience with the tilting chair. The second experience, however, failed to call forth this escaping response; but the organic changes measured were exactly the same as at first except for diminished intensity. The subjects all insisted that only the first experience could properly be called one of fear, which leads the writer to conclude that of the "… two components necessary for the experience of a genuine emotion of fear, (i) an organic response of great complexity, and (ii) a gross skeletal response of an adaptive nature… the second appears to be the more important." From Psych Bulletin 23:02:00031. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)