The roles of neuroticism and controllability/predictability in physiological response to aversive stimuli

Ninety-four undergraduate females with either high or low neuroticism scores were selected to view a series of negatively valenced, emotionally arousing slides. Physiological measures of arousal were obtained during the intertrial intervals of the slide stimuli, and subjects rated their overall level of emotional arousal and perception of slide unpleasantness. One-half of the subjects were able to control slide duration and predict slide onset (controllability and predictability group; CandP). The other half of the subjects were unable to control or predict slide stimuli and were yoked to the first group for duration of slides (No controllability and predictability group; NoCandP). This manipulation resulted in 4 experimental groups: high neuroticism/ CandP; high neuroticism/NoCandP; low neuroticism/CandP; and low neuroticism/NoCandP. The relationships between high and low levels of neuroticism and the presence or absence of CandP of the slide stimuli were examined. Results indicated the high neuroticism group was more physiologically and subjectively aroused than the low neuroticism group, but there were no significant differences between groups on the CandP measure or interaction effects. The failure to find interactions or a main effect for CandP appears to indicate that individual difference characteristics such as neuroticism may be more important than stressor characteristics in understanding physiological and subjective arousal following exposure to mildly aversive stimuli.