Affective pictures: the influence of gender and personality traits on estimation, effect on the autonomic nervous system

Emotion – a mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes. Gender differences include not only anatomical and physiological features, but also personality traits and behavior. The purpose of Master thesis was to investigate influence of gender and personality traits on estimation of affective pictures and effect of these pictures on the autonomic nervous system. Study with man and women revealed that: (1) rating of affective pictures by men is stabile. Women rate picture depending on menstrual cycle phases: attractive images are rated as very pleasant in ovulatory phase, antipathetic images are rated as very unpleasant in luteal phase; (2) men are more aroused by erotic images. Women’s reaction to erotic images is increased in ovulatory phase; (3) women are more affected than men by antipathetic images particularly in luteal phase; (4) extrovert women reacted more strongly to affective pictures than introvert. Personality traits do not affect rating of affective pictures by men; (5) estimation of IAPS images in Lithuania is comparable to rating of normative group; (6) men’s heart rate was correlated with valence - heart rate increased when viewed more attractive pictures and decelerated when viewied more antipathetic pictures