Advanced Seminar Management & Marketing: Emotional Measurement for Consumer Research

What it is about

You will learn how emotions are measured and interpreted in consumer research and marketing. You will acquire practical skills for recording skin conductance (electrodermal activity) and for the automated analysis of facial expressions, and you will conduct your own small experiment, analyze the data, and document the results.

What you will be able to do

• Methodical know-how for recording skin conductance and facial-expression-based valence measurement
• Formulation of a research question and associated hypotheses
• Working with scientific literature
• Analysis of psychophysiological data (signal processing, statistical tests, visualization)
• Critical assessment of the validity and limits of automated emotion measurements
• Presentation and defense of own research results
• Writing of a seminar paper including statistical analysis

What the module consists of

• Introductory blockConveying emotion theories, the role of emotions in consumer behavior, application in marketing and fundamentals of measurement
• Practicum/LaboratoryIntroduction to recording devices and software for skin conductance and webcam-based facial analysis
• Group work/ProjectDesign and execution of an experiment, data collection (at least 30 usable subjects after data cleaning) and data analysis
• PresentationPresentation and defense of empirical results in the seminar
• Written reportDocumentation of the entire research process and the results

Teaching method

• Introductory lecturesProvide fundamentals on emotions, consumer behavior and measurement methods
• Practical laboratory exercisesFamiliarize with recording devices and software for data collection
• Supervised group workJoint development and implementation of a research project with feedback from supervisors
• Presentations and discussionsPresent, defend and critically reflect on results