Emotional dimensions in people with aggressive behavior: differential responses to affective visual stimuli

Abstract

Introduction: The emotional interaction between personal attributes and the environment is a key element to understand aggression. This study identified emotional responses of people with different aggressive traits to pictures with a specific affective content. Methods: Three hundred fifteen individuals were divided into five groups according to their scores on the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, which consists of 24 pictures of the International Affective Picture System that depict aggression, the suffering of others, filial situations, and sexual content. Each picture was evaluated for valence, arousal, and dominance using the Self-Assessment Manikin scale. Results: Sexual pictures were more appetitive and associated with more arousal in the groups of individuals with some aggression-related dimension than in the non-aggressive group. Conclusions: A strong interaction was found between aggressive traits (e.g., verbal aggression, physical aggression, anger, and hostility) and pictures with a sexual content. This interaction is decisive in understanding the later phases of aggressive behaviors and sexual aggression.

Características de la respuesta emocional generada por las palabras: un estudio experimental desde la emoción y la motivación

“…En Latinoamérica se han desarrollado estudios evaluando el iaPs en México (Chayo-Dichy, Velez, Arias, Castillo-Parra, & Ostrosky-Solis, 2003), Colombia (Gantiva et al, 2014;Gantiva, Guerra, & Vila, 2011) y Chile (Dufey, Fernández, & Mayol, 2011;Silva, 2011), los resultados de todas estas investigaciones muestran que los estímulos visuales del iaPs generan estados emocionales similares (altas correlaciones en todas las dimensiones entre las poblaciones), que la valencia es la dimensión sobre la cual se estructuran el resto de dimensiones y que los estímulos pueden ser usados de forma confiable para el estudio de la emoción y la motivación.…”

Modulation of the startle response in verbal aggressors: Differences among stimuli with distinct affective social content.

“…The results showed that people with different aggressive traits, including verbal aggression, valued sexual pictures as more pleasant and exhibited more arousal than people without any aggressive trait. No significant differences were found for the other picture categories (Gantiva et al, 2014). This indicates a relationship between aggression and the emotional response to stimuli with sexual content.…”

“…This indicates a relationship between aggression and the emotional response to stimuli with sexual content. Notably, when this same analysis was performed separately for men and women, only women with aggressive traits had a significantly different response to sexual pictures (Gantiva et al, 2014). The latter results are consistent with previous reports in which women and men differed in aggressive behavior (Archer, 2004; Bjorkqvist, Osterman, & Kaukiainen, 1992; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995; Hess & Hagen, 2006; Salmivalli, Kaukiainen, & Lagerspetz, 2000).…”

Modulación de las respuestas fisiológicas ante estímulos afectivos: una herramienta para investigar procesos psicológicos

“…También se ha identificado que los puntajes en dominancia varían con respecto al nivel de arousal, siendo menor ante estímulos con valencia aversiva y alto arousal (Gantiva, Rodríguez, Arias, & Rubio, 2012). Bajo esta metodología, se han estudiado fenómenos tan relevantes como las adicciones (Gantiva, Delgado, & Romo-González, 2015;Muñoz et al, 2013), la agresividad (Gantiva et al, 2014) y los trastornos de la conducta alimenticia (Micoli et al, 2014), entre otros. Los resultados de todos los estudios reflejan la eficiencia de esta metodología para la comprensión de las emociones y la motivación en estas problemáticas; sin embargo, aunque Carlos Gantiva, María Casas, Yeraldín Ballén, ET AL. ABSTRACT Conventional tools for the assessment of psychological processes rely on the use of self-report questionnaires and b ehavioral tasks, in spite of the existence of objective and more accurate physiological responses that could provide new insights into such processes.…”