engleski

Emotional Processes, Dimensions of Personality and Activation of Parasympathetic Nervous System

Thesis describes two experimental studies that investigated relations between parasympathetic activation and emotional processes, with the additional focus on personality. The problem of study I was to explore: a) whether vagal activation is going to increase during the induction of PA and decrease during the induction of NA b) the relations between subjective experience and facial expressions of negative affect, positive affect, and the changes in VT and to answer if changes in VT during positive affect are related to movements that are the part of emotional response c) the relations between baseline VT and observed emotional expressivity d) the relations between baseline VT and Five factor model dimensions and their facets e) the interactions of Five factor model dimensions and Neuroticism facets N1, N2 and N3 with the induction and the subjective experience of PA and NA f) the possibility that certain dimensions of Five factor model are in the basis of the relations of baseline VT and vagal reactivity The problem of study II was to explore: a) what is the impact of emotional/expressive suppression of positive and negative emotion on VT and is this impact dependent on the intensity of subjective experience and presence of facial expression b) the interactions of Five factor model dimensions and Neuroticism facets N1, N2 and N3 with the experimental manipulation of suppression Both studies were based on the experimental induction of emotion using the movie clips during which parasympathetic influences on the heart (termed as vagal tone, VT) were measured. Data about subjective experience and facial emotional expressions during the experiments, as well as about personality traits were collected. Study I included 149 participants of student age who watched one neutral, one movie clip aimed to induce positive affect (PA) and one to induce negative affect (NA). VT increased during the induction of PA and decreased during the induction of NA. Higher subjective experience of NA augmented the effects of NA induction, while more facial expression of PA augmented the effects of PA induction. Baseline VT is positively correlated with the facial expression of PA, and negatively correlated with the expression of NA. Baseline VT is correlated with Extraversion and Agreeableness. It was also related with different facets of all dimensions of five Factor model, mostly in the expected manner. Extraversion and Agreeableness as well as the different facets of other Five factor model dimensions moderated the effects of induced emotions in ways that are compatible with the Polyvagal theory and the model of neurovisceral integration. Importantly, these relations are dependent on the subjective experience of induced emotion. The hypothesis that certain personality traits encompass the part of the variance of resting VT that has the effects on the VT reactivity has been confirmed for Agreeableness and VT reactivity in women. Study II included 100 participants chosen by chance from the study I, who watched two additional movie clips. Usage of expressive suppression was manipulated by different instructions to two groups of participants. Expressive suppression during the induction of NA resulted in increases in VT. This effect appears to be the consequence of the processes related to effortful control. Expressive suppression during the induction of PA did not, as expected, have any effect on VT. As expected, personality traits modulate the ways in which expressive suppression impacts the vagal activation mostly in the expected manner, that corresponds to basic proposals of the Polyvagal theory and the model of neurovisceral integration.

parasympathetic activation; emotional processes; personality

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