THE EFFECTS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS AND SUPPRESSION OF POSITIVE EMOTION ON PHYSIOLOGICAL CHANGES Asmir Gračanin, Igor Kardum & Jasna Hudek-Knežević Department of psychology Faculty of arts and social sciences in Rijeka

Two kinds of explanations of relation between expressivity and physiological changes during emotion 1.Coactivation theory (Cacioppo et al., 1992) 2.Emotional discharge theory (e.g., Bonaparte, Freud & Kris, 1954) and effort model (Kunzmann, Kupperbusch & Levenson, 2005)

- Cacioppo et al., (1992) concluded that results of the previous reserch support: a) Coactivation theory - in the context of intraindividual differences b) Emotional discharge theory. - in the context of interindividual differences - Contemporary research has shown positive relation between suppression (non-expressiveness) and activation in the context of intraindividual differences (e.g. Gross & Levenson, 1993, 1997; Butler i et al. 2003)

Personality traits and peripheral physiological activity in emotion Neuroticism  Previous research has shown that depressiveness is related to diminished physiological responding in emotional situations Agreeableness  theoretically and empirically this dimension is related to proness to feel empathy. It can be expected that individuals who are higher in agreeableness would show patterns of physiological activity that correspond to the level of experienced empathy. Conscientiousness  dimension that is related to control of own impulses and responsible dealing with different tasks; more conscientious individuals should put more effort into following instruction to suppress and thus would have higher sympathetic activity.

HYPOTHESES Different indicators of sympathetic activity (electrodermal activity, heart rate and peripheral pulse amplitude) are going to: 1.Increase in an positive emotional situation only in less depressive subjects 2.Depend on the interaction between different personality traits (neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness) and instruction to suppress experienced emotion 3.Increase when participants who are prone to put effort in a task receive the instruction to suppress

METHOD Subjects N= 129 participants, students of differnt faculties at the university of Rijeka, N= 97 females and N= 32 males Age - 18 to 35 years (M = 21.46; SD = 2.77)

METHOD Procedure / inducton of emotion Film clip aimed to induce joy:  Scene form the film “Les visiteurs” (Poire, 1993 ), lenght: 134 seconds Neutral clip (birds on the beach, 51 seconds) and clip aimed to habituate participants to experimental conditions (dots and lines, 91 seconds) taken from the Gross and Levenson’s study (1995)

METHOD Instruments NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) 240; five personality dimensions, 30 facets Short questionnaire designed for the purpose of this study 12 items; five basic emotions, PA and NA

METHOD Instruments Expressive behaviour  video camera  two evaluators  smiling, frowning, disgust, agitation Physiological activity  ECG (IBI)  PPA  SCL

METHOD Induction efficacy Subjective experience

METHOD Induction efficacy Expressive behaviour

METHOD Induction efficacy Physiological activation

RESULTS For each of the Five factor model dimensions and their facets only those participants which were positioned within the highest and the lowest 33% of the results were included in further analyses For each of the sympathetic activity indicators a group of three way ANOVAs has been conducted: 1.Repeated measures – variable CLIP – two levels: neutral and emotional clip 2.USUAL BEHAVIOR/ SUPPRESSION – depending on the instruction 3.PERSONALITY DIMENSION / FACET – two levels: the lowest 33% and the highest 33%  In each ANOVA next covariates were controlled for: sex, age and the variable aimed to check for the familiarity of film from which the scene/clip has been taken

RESULTS Interaction between neuroticism and film clip on the skin conductance level. More neurotic participants have shown lower skin conductance level in the emotional situation, F (1,66) = 5,11; p <0.05 Interaction between neuroticism facets ANGRY HOSTILITY; F (1,68) = 5,29; p <0.05 DEPRESSION; F (1, 65) = 4,85; p <0.05 VULNERABILITY; F (1, 70) = 5,71; p <0.05 and film clip on the skin conductance level. More hostile, depressive and vulnerable participants have shown a decrease in skin conductance level in the emotional situation while those lower on these facets have shown an increase in SCL

RESULTS Interaction between depression and film clip on the SCL

RESULTS Interaction between neuroticism facet IMPULSIVENESS and film clip on the heart rate (ibi) F (1,71) = 4,52; p <0.05. More impulsive participants have shown a decrease in IBI (increase in heart rate) in the emotional situation while those lower on this facet have shown increase in IBI. Interaction between agreeableness facet TENDER-MINDEDNESS and film clip on the heart rate (IBI) F (1,63) = 4,06; p <0.05. Less tender- minded participants have shown much higher increase in IBI (decrease in heart rate) in the emotional situation.

RESULTS Interaction between neuroticism, clip (neutral vs positive emotion) and suppression on the peripheral pulse amplitude. When participants received the instruction to suppress, those who are less neurotic have not shown decrease in the amplitude of peripheral pulse (vasoconstriction – decreased sympathetic activity) as it was the case in the no suppression group; F(1,64) =6,41; p=0.01

RESULTS Interaction between neuroticism, film clip and suppression on the PPA usual behaviour suppression

RESULTS Interaction between neuroticism facet ANGRY HOSTILITY, clip (neutral vs positive emotion) and suppression on the peripheral pulse amplitude. When participants received the instruction to suppress, those who are less hostile have shown greater increase in the amplitude of peripheral pulse (vasodilatation – decreased sympathetic activity), F(1,66) =4,68; p<0.05 Interaction between agreeableness facet TENDER MINDEDNESS, clip (neutral vs positive emotion) and suppression on the peripheral pulse amplitude. When participants received the instruction to suppress, those who are more tender minded have shown greater decrease in the amplitude of peripheral pulse (vasoconstriction – increased sympathetic activity), F(1,63) =8,6; p<0.01

RESULTS Interaction between tender-mindedness, film clip and suppression on the PPA usual behaviour suppression

RESULTS Interaction between conscientiousness facet COMPETENCE, clip (neutral vs positive emotion) and suppression on the peripheral pulse amplitude. During suppression, those who believe more in their self efficacy did not have any decrease in the amplitude of peripheral pulse (vasoconstriction – increased sympathetic activity), F(1,61) =5,47; p<0.05

RESULTS Interaction between competence, film clip and suppression on the PPA usual behaviour suppression

RESULTS Interaction between extraversion facet GREGARIOUSNESS, clip and suppression on the SCL. When participants received the instruction to suppress, those who are more gregarious have shown a decrease in SCL compared to situation when they behaved as usual F(1,71) =3,64; p=0.06 Interaction between conscientiousness facet DUTIFULNESS, clip and suppression on the SCL. When participants received the instruction to suppress, those who are higher in dutifulness have shown an increase in SCL compared to situation when they behaved as usual F(1,68) =7,46; p<0,01

RESULTS Interaction between dutifulness, clip and suppression on the SCL usual behaviour suppression

CONCLUSION No interaction between clip and suppression has been found; instruction to suppress has not, on average, produced any change in the indicators of sympathetic activation. Interactions between diferent dimensions of Five factor model and their facets with the film clip have been found. Personality traits have theoretically expected impact on the patterns of sympathetical activation in the situation which tipically produces positive emotion. Interaction between different Five factor model dimensions and their facets with variables film clip and suppression have been found. Different personality traits moderate the effects of instruction to suppress on the different physiological parameters (indicators of sympathetic activity) in the expected direction.