Personality effects and sex differences on the International Affective Picture System (IAPS): A Spanish and Swiss study

• Published in: Personality and individual differences 2015-04, Vol.77, p.143-148
• Main Authors: Aluja, Anton, Rossier, Jérôme, Blanch, Ángel, Blanco, Eduardo, Martí-Guiu, Maite, Balada, Ferran
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; IAPS; Impulsivity; Personality; SAM
• ISSN: 0191-8869; 1873-3549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.058

•The relationships between personality and emotions were studied.•Results showed that females scored significantly higher in Anxiety and men in Impulsivity factors.•Anxiety and Impulsivity factors were extracted from a principal component analysis.•The effect of sex was highly significant for Anxiety.•Impulsivity correlated with positive IAPS valence–high arousal. The present study analyses the relationship between Anxiety and Impulsivity personality factors and emotions, by controlling for country and sex effects in a sample of Spanish and Swiss university students. Emotions were assessed through the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) of pictures (valence/arousal) using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) procedure. The mixed valence/arousal groups’ pictures were formed according to Tok, Koyuncu, Dural and Catikkas procedure (2010). Results showed that females scored significantly higher in Anxiety factor and men in Impulsivity factor in both countries. The effect of sex was highly significant for Anxiety (ŋ2: 0.12), but there was no significant effect of the country. Also, females obtained higher scores in the four valence/arousal pictures groups. The sex effect was particularly robust for negative valence–high arousal (ŋ2: 0.13). Impulsivity correlated with high ratings of positive valence–high arousal while Anxiety correlated with high ratings of negative valence–high arousal and with high ratings of negative valence–low arousal in both sexes, although scores were higher for females. Structural Equation Modelling confirmed these relationships. Nevertheless, Anxiety and Impulsivity explained only a small amount of the accounted variance of the self-reported valence and arousal of the pictures.