What is the traditional approach to the experimental study of emotions?

The basic methods of traditional psychological research on emotions can be summarized in two ways: the impression method and the performance method.

(1) The impressionistic approach is a method of learning about a subject's emotional experience through conversation or question-and-answer sessions. Typically, the subject is given an emotional stimulus and then asked to report his internal experience. For example, the subject is given a piece of music and then asked to report whether or not emotional experiences arise, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant, when and how they arise, and how intense they are. Early experimental psychologists attempted to get a systematic description of introspective emotional experiences using impressionistic methods. The modern questionnaire method also allows for quantification to some extent, which is an advantage and cannot be replaced by other methods. The main disadvantages of the impressionistic method are: it is more subjective; to some extent, difficulties occur in comparing introspective reports of emotional experience obtained from different subjects, e.g., it is difficult for the experimenter to determine that the adjectives of emotion spoken by one subject are not equal to the adjectives spoken by the other; emotions tend to dissipate during introspection, and then decrease in intensity when recalled. Therefore, the impression method needs to be used in conjunction with other methods and indicators in emotion research.

(2) The performance method refers to the physiological and behavioral changes of the organism as an indicator of emotion to be measured and recorded. The main advantage of this method is that it is more objective. Although the focus of early researchers was not on the physiological processes and behavioral manifestations of emotions, the performance method was still used in the study of emotions. With the progress of science and technology, many advanced electronic instruments have been used, which are more objective and scientific. However, it should be noted that the physiological changes accompanying emotions are not equivalent to emotions per se, and are strictly speaking only a measure of physiological arousal, so it is also necessary to use the performance method in conjunction with the impression method.