Open AccessEffects of unpleasant emotional exposure on the state anxiety and heart rate in healthy women: a pilot study
Author(s) -
Ricardo Borges Viana,
Naiane Silva Morais,
Thalles Guilarducci Costa,
Lucas Carrara do Amaral,
Wellington Fernando da Silva,
Dos Santos,
Claudio André Barbosa de Lira
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
research, society and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2525-3409
DOI - 10.33448/rsd-v10i16.24153
Subject(s) - international affective picture system , anxiety , arousal , heart rate , psychology , anxiogenic , pleasure , audiology , heart rate variability , clinical psychology , stimulus (psychology) , developmental psychology , medicine , social psychology , psychiatry , cognitive psychology , blood pressure , psychotherapist , anxiolytic
Considering that exposure to unpleasant pictures taken from the International Affective Pictures System (IAPS) has a more significant impact on anxiety than exposure to pleasant and neutral pictures, we investigated changes in state anxiety levels and heart rate responses in healthy women following exposure to three blocks of unpleasant pictures from the IAPS. Thirty-seven healthy women visited the lab three times, separated by a gap of 24–72 hours. Anxiety levels were assessed using the State Anxiety Inventory before and after participants viewed the blocks of unpleasant IAPS pictures, while the heart rate was continuously monitored throughout each session by a heart rate monitor. We found extreme evidence (BF10 = 7.53*108) for the changes in the participants’ state anxiety after viewing IAPS unpleasant pictures, although there was ambiguous evidence (BF01 = 2.642) favoring similar changes in state anxiety and ratings of pleasure (BF01 = 1.567), arousal (BF01 = 2.609), and dominance (BF01 = 1.954) between the three blocks of unpleasant pictures used. Moreover, we found moderate evidence (BF01 = 7.449) favoring similar mean heart rates between the three blocks of unpleasant pictures. These findings reveal that exposure to unpleasant pictures can act as an anxiogenic stimulus used to induce experimental anxiety.