Exploring and integrating discrete and dimensional approaches while inducing negative emotional states

Area of Science:

• Affective science
• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Selecting visual stimuli for inducing specific emotional states is challenging due to varying conceptualizations of emotions.
• Existing methods lack comprehensive characterization and integration of discrete and dimensional emotion theories.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel set of 55 visual stimuli designed to elicit specific negative emotions: anger, fear, and disgust.
• To integrate discrete and dimensional emotion theories for stimulus selection.
• To facilitate research on negative emotion recognition in both general and clinical populations.

Main Methods:

• Development of 55 visual stimuli.
• Involvement of a large, heterogeneous sample from the general population for stimulus labeling.
• Application of bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques to integrate emotion models.

Main Results:

• A validated set of 55 visual stimuli for inducing anger, fear, and disgust.
• Comprehensive characterization of stimuli through integrated emotion models.
• Confirmation of sexual dimorphism in emotional processing.

Conclusions:

• The novel stimulus set offers a valuable tool for affective science research.
• The stimuli can be used to investigate negative emotion recognition in diverse populations, including psychiatric samples.
• The study confirmed sexual dimorphism in emotional processing, providing a basis for further investigation.