The assessment of a ective reactivity using lms: Validity, reliability and sex di erences

Transcription

1 PERGAMON Personality and Individual Differences 26 (1999) 627±639 The assessment of a ective reactivity using lms: Validity, reliability and sex di erences Dirk Hagemann *, Ewald Naumann, Stefanie Maier, Gabriele Becker, Alexander LuÈ rken, Dieter Bartussek Fachbereich I ± Psychologie, UniversitaÈt Trier, UniversitaÈtsring 15, Trier, Germany Received 27 December 1997 Abstract Researchers interested in individual di erences of brain asymmetry and a ective reactivity have recently used lm clips to elicit emotions and provided some standardisation data of emotion ratings for English-speaking samples. The aim of the present study was to examine whether (1) a set of lms which already proved to elicit di erent emotions in English-speaking samples would demonstrate a similar capacity to induce emotions in a German sample and (2) to explore the validity, reliability and sex di erences of aggregated indices of a ective reactivity. Based on two lm sets which have been examined by other investigators in the eld, we formed a set of 13 emotion-eliciting lms and presented the lms along with emotion rating scales to university students. Our ndings indicate that most lms had the capacity to elicit speci c discrete target emotions and the emotions elicited by the negative clips were more distinct than the emotions due to the positive clips. The factor structure of the emotion rating scales indicated that a distinct positive and negative dimension was extracted. The indices of positive and negative a ective reactivity demonstrated good reliability and internal consistency. Women reported on greater levels of a ective reactivity than men, both for positive and negative a ective reactivity. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In recent years, some investigators have proposed that individual di erences of baseline asymmetrical activation levels in anterior brain regions are associated with trait-like a ective behaviours (e.g. Davidson and Tomarken, 1989). Some studies reported on a positive relation between relative right-sided anterior cortical activation and generalised negative a ect, negative * To whom all correspondence should be addressed. hagemann@uni-trier.de 0191±8869/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved PII: S0191±8869(98)00159±7

2 628 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627±639 a ective reactivity to negative lm clips, or trait anxiety; others reported on relative right-sided anterior cortical activation in depression (for a review, see Davidson, 1995). However, some data is at variance with these ndings (for a review, see Hagemann et al., in press). In these studies, all a ective traits were measured with published and widespread standard self-report instruments, with the important exception of a ective reactivity. The latter was assessed by self-made procedures, either by presenting brief emotion eliciting lm clips (Tomarken et al., 1990; Wheeler et al., 1993), or by presenting a ective slides (Hagemann et al., in press). Immediately after each stimulus presentation, the S indicated on rating scales for di erent emotions the intensity of each felt emotion during the stimulus presentation. An index of positive a ective reactivity (PAR) was computed as the mean across all positive emotion ratings across all positive stimuli and an index for negative a ective reactivity (NAR) was formed in a respective manner. While Hagemann et al. (in press) used slides of the well standardised International A ective Picture System (Lang et al., 1988), both Tomarken et al. (1990) and Wheeler et al. (1993) used lms which were culled especially for each study. For the latter two studies, the lms were selected on the basis of initial emotional ratings provided by undergraduate students. Only those clips were used that elicited the highest ratings on each lm's target emotion (e.g. happiness, disgust). Tomarken et al. (1990) provided a brief description of their standardisation data. Compared to many other emotion eliciting procedures like interaction with trained confederates, stressful interviews, hypnosis, repeating phrases, facial muscle movements, imagery, music, sleep deprivation and drugs, the presentation of slides and lms has the bene t of an easy standardisation and does not require deception or speci c S populations (for a comparison of di erent procedures, see McHugo et al., 1982; Philippot, 1993; Gross and Levenson, 1995). The capacity of slides to elicit a ective reactions has been successfully validated by the use of self-report a ect measures (e.g. Lang et al., 1988; Wagner, 1990) and by the use of physiological measures like facial EMG, heart rate, skin conductance and startle response measures (for a review, see Bradley et al., 1993). However, some authors believe that slides can only induce weak positive or negative a ective states without much further distinction (e.g. Philippot, 1993). In contrast, there are many studies that used a variety of self-report measures and demonstrated that lms have the capacity to induce distinct target emotions like anxiety (Pillard et al., 1974), anger (Brown et al., 1977), depressive mood (van Rooijen and Vlaander, 1984) or sadness (Engel et al., 1984; Marston et al., 1984). In one intriguing study, Philippot (1993) presented a selection of segments from commercial colour movies, targeting the emotions of anger, disgust, sadness, happiness and fear. Ss emotional states were assessed after each movie presentation with the Di erential Emotions Scale (DES; Izard et al., 1974), the Semantic Di erential (Osgood, 1964) and with free labelling. Results suggested that lm segments can elicit a diversity of predictable and distinct emotions that are similar in a majority of individuals. These ndings are further corroborated by evidence that lms have also the capacity to elicit a ective reaction on the physiological level as measured with facial EMG, heart rate, skin conductance and startle response measures (Mewborn and Rogers, 1979; Hubert, 1988; Hubert and de Jong-Meyer, 1990; Jansen and Frijda, 1994; Kumari et al., 1996). In addition, lm clips have been found to elicit emotions of higher intensity than slides (Heiman, 1980; Julien and Over, 1988).

3 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627± Recently, Gross and Levenson (1995) developed a lm set for the induction of di erent target emotions and provided extensive standardisation data. Inter alia, they reported on more intense emotion reports by women than men (but see McHugo et al., 1982, and Philippot, 1993, who did not observe such between-sex di erences). Again, this nding is supported by physiological data that indicates a greater a ective reactivity in women than men. Kumari et al. (1996) investigated the startle response during the presentation of positive or negative lms and reported on longer latencies in males than females for both positive and negative lms. Hubert and de Jong-Meyer (1990) recorded facial EMG while Ss watched di erent lms and reported that changes in facial muscle activity between lms of di erent target emotions was more pronounced in females than males. The present study is part of a larger investigation project on the frontal resting asymmetry and a ective traits, including the a ective reactivity to lms. The aim of the present study was to form a set of lm clips which proved to elicit di erent emotions in English-speaking samples and to investigate each lm's capacity to induce the intended target emotion in a German sample. In addition, we examined the reliability and validity of the a ective reactivity indices and explored sex di erences of a ective reactivity. 2. Method 2.1. Subjects A total of 43 students of the University of Trier participated in group lm-viewing sessions (33 Ss were students of psychology, the remaining Ss were students of other subjects like political science, German studies or geography). The inspection of the raw lm ratings facilitated the identi cation of one S as an outlier. This S was discarded from further analysis. The remaining sample consisted of 42 Ss (20 males, 22 females; mean age: 24.6 years, range 19±42 years) Stimulus material Tomarken et al. (1990) used 8 lm clips which were culled from commercially available feature lms in order to assess a ective reactivity. Each clip was designed to elicit primarily one of 4 target emotions: happiness, sadness, anger or disgust. There were 2 clips for each target emotion. Films in this set averaged 82 s in length (range 32±129 s). These 8 lms were remade for the present study according to the detailed descriptions and editing instructions provided by Davidson and Henriques (personal communication). In addition, we selected those lm clips from the Gross and Levenson (1995) set which were designed to elicit the same target emotions like the Tomarken et al. (1990) lms and which were also culled from feature lms commercially available on videotape. This selection procedure resulted in 4 additional lm clips: 1 lm for happiness, 2 lms for sadness and 1 lm for anger. Films in this set averaged 155 s in length (range 139±171 s). These lms were remade for the present study according to the detailed editing instructions provided by Levenson (personal communication). Finally, we generated 1 lm clip which shows the journey through a forest by train as it is seen by the

4 630 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627±639 engine driver and which was culled from a German television late night program. This lm was designed to be a ectively neutral and of 30 s in duration. Thus, the nal lm set consisted of one lm designed to be neutral in a ectivity, 3 clips pre-classi ed to be positive (happiness) and 9 negative lms (sadness, anger, disgust). As in former studies on brain asymmetry and a ective reactivity, all lms were in colour and silent (the latter is a requirement to avoid the possible confounding of asymmetry metrics by an association between di erent lm clips and speech, music and emotional sounds; see Tomarken et al., 1990). A description of each lm clip is provided in Table Procedure All lms were shown to 6 groups of Ss (group size range 3±13 Ss) on a 59 cm television monitor in a normal classroom. Each S viewed all lms. Prior to the lm presentation, Ss were instructed to watch each lm carefully and to complete a 10-item self-report inventory immediately after each lm presentation. They were told that this inventory will ask them to indicate their emotional experience while they watched the lm and that it is of importance to report on their own emotional experience, rather than how they expect other people might feel. Then the rst lm was presented and Ss completed the inventory after the presentation was nished. After all Ss concluded the task, the next lm was presented. The inventory consisted of the following rating scales, in the order indicated: interest, happiness, pleasure, amusement, sadness, fear, anger and disgust. A 0±9 scale was used, with 0 indicating that the emotion was not present at all and 9 indicating that it was felt very strongly. Additionally, one 0±9 scale for valence (0 indicated that the emotion was unpleasant and 9 indicated that it was pleasant) and one scale for arousal (0 indicated that the intensity of the emotion was weak and 9 indicated that it was strong) were added to the emotion scales. This inventory was previously used in our laboratory to assess a ective reactivity to slides (Hagemann et al., in press) and experience showed that the average S needs between 30 s and 1 min to complete it. These inter- lm intervals provide time for each elicited emotion to diminish before the next stimulus is presented. Films were presented in two random orders with the restrictions that (1) the rst lm was always neutral, (2) the subsequent 8 lms were from the Tomarken et al. (1990) set and the last 4 lms were from the Gross and Levenson (1995) set and (3) there were no two subsequent lms targeting the same emotion. The neutral lm was always presented rst to accustom the Ss to the task (the a ective responses to neutral stimuli are not part of the experimental procedure for the assessment of positive and negative a ective reactivity). The lms from the Gross and Levenson (1995) set were always presented last, because these lms were not designed as silent stimuli and it was di cult to anticipate the Ss' reactions to these lms after a presentation without sound (e.g. unintended amusement). Their presentation after the Tomarken et al. (1990) set prevented carry-over e ects of such reactions on the responses to the later set. The rst lm order was: Train Journey, Beating-Up, Dance, Bloody Horsehead, Suicide, Coming Together, Crawling Rat, Tearful Farewell, Provocation, Sexual Arousal, Crying Boy, Massacre, Lonely Fawn. The second lm order was: Train Journey, Beating-Up, Bloody Horsehead, Coming Together, Suicide, Provocation, Tearful Farewell, Dance, Crawling Rat,

5 Table 1. Description of lm clips D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627± Film clip (target emotion) Duration (s) Description ( feature lm title, company, year) Train journey (neutral) Dance (happiness) Coming together (happiness) Suicide Tearful farewell Beating-up (anger) Provocation (anger) Bloody horsehead (disgust) Crawling rat (disgust) Sexual arousal (happiness) Crying boy Lonely fawn 30 journey through a forest by train as it is seen by the engine driver (from FuÈhrerstandsmitfahrten, Franfurt/M. - Hannover (ICE), Sender Freies Berlin/SFB Werbung, 1995) 32 an elderly woman is singing and dancing in the woods; a younger women sneaks up and watches the scene through the bushes; she starts singing along with the other woman and both meet and embrace (from On Golden Pond, Universal Pictures, 1981; used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 111 a man in a white o cer's dress strides through a factory, meets a woman and gives her a kiss. They embrace, he sweeps her in his arms and carries her out of the factory (from An O cer and a Gentleman, Paramount Pictures, 1982; used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 102 a man and a woman knock on an apartment door and enter; they look about the room and the man goes into the bathroom; he nds a dead man hanging from the shower; he takes down the dead man's body, cradles his head in his lap and cries (from An O cer and a Gentleman, Paramount Pictures, 1982; used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 81 a man is shaking hands with other people in a room and leaves outside; one of the remaining men starts to cry as he watches him leave in the rain (from The Killing Fields, Goldcrest, 1984; used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 129 a man burns a paper in front of the crowd; the police arrest him and an other man takes a box with papers, walks over to the re and starts to drop the papers into the ame; a police sergeant strikes the man with his baton and continues to do so as the man struggles to drop more papers in the re; the man collapses in the dust (from Gandhi, Columbia Pictures, 1982; used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 87 a younger and an elderly man are driving in a coach; the passengers in the wagon ahead of them are annoyed by a group of local teenagers; the younger man leaves the coach and meets the teenagers, who start to harass him (from Witness, Paramount Pictures, 1985; used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 59 a man is sleeping in a bed, wakes up and pulls the blanket o ; he nds a bloody head of a horse in his bed and starts to scream (from The Godfather, Paramount Pictures, 1972: used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 58 a man is sleeping in a bed; a rat crosses the room, climbs up on the bed and advances up the sheets, leaving a bloody trail of paw prints; the rat crawls into the man's mouth, who clenches the railing of the bed; he throws the rate on the oor and starts to bash it up (from Maria's Lovers, MGM, 1984; used by Tomarken et al., 1990) 155 a man and a woman are sitting in a restaurant and talk to each other; the woman leans back and starts to show signs of sexual arousal, while the other customers are watching (from When Harry Met Sally, Columbia Pictures, 1989; used by Gross and Levenson, 1995) 171 a boxer is laying on a table in a locker room; a young boy moves to the table and the man dies; the boy starts to cry and moves to some other men who stand around and look at the boy with consternation; the boy goes back to the table, still crying (from The Champ, MGM, 1979; used by Gross and Levenson, 1995) 139 a roedeer and its fawn are grazing in a winter landscape; suddenly, they startle and begin to run away; the fawn hides in a cave; after a while, it leaves the cave and searches for its mother in the dark forest, but cannot nd her; a big stag appears and the fawn cries; they walk together into the distance, while snow is falling (from Bambi, Walt Disney Productions, 1942; used by Gross and Levenson, 1995) Massacre (anger) 156 a crowd of black people is walking and dancing on a street, moving to a big place where soldiers are waiting; the soldiers start to shoot at the people; the people try to escape from the massacre and many are wounded or killed (from Cry Freedom, Universal Pictures, 1987; used by Gross and Levenson, 1995)

6 632 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627±639 Table 2. Means and standard deviation of lm ratings Film clip (target emotion) Interest Happiness Pleasure Amusement Sadness Fear Anger Disgust Valence Arousal Train journey (neutral) Dance (happiness) Coming together (happiness) Suicide Tearful farewell Beating-up (anger) Provocation (anger) Bloody horsehead (disgust) Crawling rat (disgust) Faked orgasm (happiness) Crying boy Lonely fawn Massacre (anger) 2.55 (2.22) 2.57 (2.51) 2.50 (2.57) 2.79 (2.64) 0.55 (1.19) 0.29 (0.71) 0.80 (1.52) 0.02 (0.15) 5.31 (1.91) 1.98 (1.70) 5.17 (2.22) 5.10 (2.07) 5.45 (2.06) 5.83 (2.07) 0.29 (0.64) 0.02 (0.15) 0.29 (0.81) 0.10 (0.37) 6.55 (1.48) 4.07 (2.16) 5.90 (1.92) 5.90 (2.09) 6.07 (2.13) 6.12 (2.03) 0.71 (1.29) 0.62 (1.25) 0.93 (1.79) 0.21 (0.56) 6.95 (1.62) 5.50 (2.09) 5.95 (1.97) 0.98 (1.07) 0.81 (1.02) 0.67 (0.95) 5.74 (2.44) 2.90 (2.39) 1.60 (2.15) 3.36 (2.48) 2.36 (1.64) 5.07 (2.18) 5.17 (2.43) 1.17 (1.34) 0.90 (1.21) 0.93 (1.33) 5.64 (1.89) 1.57 (2.28) 1.43 (2.06) 0.34 (0.62) 3.21 (1.37) 4.17 (2.45) 6.40 (2.04) 0.88 (1.23) 0.74 (1.45) 0.74 (1.31) 5.29 (2.08) 4.00 (2.48) 6.19 (2.43) 4.62 (2.46) 1.98 (1.77) 6.45 (1.94) 6.50 (1.69) 1.86 (2.02) 1.86 (1.88) 2.67 (2.51) 2.60 (2.69) 2.05 (2.55) 5.74 (2.58) 1.45 (2.17) 3.57 (1.64) 4.64 (1.96) 5.45 (2.21) 1.33 (1.54) 1.26 (1.56) 1.83 (1.95) 2.14 (2.18) 3.29 (2.30) 2.05 (2.26) 6.02 (2.64) 2.24 (1.62) 5.12 (2.17) 4.88 (2.40) 0.71 (1.37) 0.81 (1.49) 1.33 (2.11) 1.71 (2.26) 4.36 (2.61) 2.64 (2.69) 6.88 (2.34) 1.64 (1.48) 6.31 (2.16) 6.79 (1.83) 5.83 (2.09) 7.29 (1.90) 8.19 (1.47) 0.29 (0.71) 0.05 (0.30) 0.19 (0.67) 0.10 (0.30) 7.62 (1.13) 6.52 (1.57) 5.69 (2.04) 0.40 (0.73) 0.33 (0.72) 0.33 (0.72) 6.64 (2.35) 1.55 (2.45) 2.05 (2.59) 1.19 (1.63) 1.81 (1.27) 5.93 (2.43) 5.38 (2.01) 2.67 (1.90) 2.81 (2.17) 2.93 (2.29) 5.48 (2.49) 2.19 (2.47) 1.36 (2.05) 0.14 (0.42) 4.19 (1.73) 4.62 (2.00) 6.95 (1.51) 0.55 (1.09) 0.31 (0.75) 0.19 (0.63) 7.00 (1.75) 4.33 (2.80) 7.81 (1.84) 5.79 (2.90) 0.86 (1.03) 7.31 (1.47) N = 42.

7 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627± Sexual Arousal, Lonely Fawn, Massacre, Crying Boy. The groups of Ss were randomly assigned to one of both lm orders. 3. Results The means and standard deviations of all ratings are presented in Table 2. A visual inspection of this data reveals that (1) the emotion ``interest'' did not di erentiate between the lms pre-classi ed as positive or negative, (2) the ratings for the emotions ``happiness'', ``pleasure'' and ``amusement'' were higher for the positive lms than for the negative clips, but were similar for each positive lm and (3) the ratings for the emotions ``sadness'', ``fear'', ``anger'' and ``disgust'' were higher for the negative lms than for the positive clips and showed a clear correspondence to the target emotion of each negative clip. (4) In addition, the lms which were designed to elicit happiness were rated as more pleasant than the neutral lm, which in turn was rated as more pleasant than the lms which targeted sadness, anger and disgust and (5) both positive and negative lms were comparable in a ective intensity, but more arousing than the neutral lm. These observations were supported by corresponding statistical tests. To assess all emotion scales' capacity to di erentiate between positive and negative lms, we averaged the ratings separately for each scale across the positive and negative lms and conducted a lm valence (positive, negative) emotion scale (interest, happiness, pleasure, amusement, sadness, fear, anger, disgust) analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurement on both factors. There was a lm valence emotion scale e ect (F [7, 287] = and p = 0.000; this and all following p-values were Huynh±Feldt corrected), indicating that the lms pre-classi ed as positive and negative elicited di erent emotion intensities on di erent emotion scales. To compare the a ective response on each scale between positive and negative elicitors, we decomposed the interaction by a Tukey HSD Test (Kirk, 1982). The mean ratings of the emotion ``interest'' did not di er between the positive and negative lms ( p = 1.000). For all other emotion scales (happiness, pleasure, amusement, sadness, fear, anger, disgust), there were signi cant di erences between positive and negative lms (all ps = 0.000). Since the scale for ``interest'' did not di erentiate between positive and negative lm clips, it was discarded from further analyses. To assess the discreetness of the remaining emotion ratings for the lms, we conducted for each positive and negative lm a 7-level within-subjects ANOVA (emotion scale: happiness, pleasure, amusement, sadness, fear, anger, disgust). These analyses revealed a main e ect of emotion scale for each lm (all Fs[6, 246]>18.89 and all ps = 0.000). To verify the impression that there were no marked di erences between the positive emotion ratings for each positive lm, but the negative emotion ratings showed a clear correspondence to the target emotion of each negative clip, we decomposed each main e ect by a Tukey HSD Test. For two of the positive lms (Dance, Coming Together), there were no signi cant di erences between the positive emotion ratings (all ps>0.996). However, for one positive lm (Sexual Arousal), there were signi cant di erence between all positive emotion ratings (all ps < 0.006), indicating that the ratings of ``amusement'' were higher than the ratings of ``pleasure'' and the latter were higher than the ratings of ``happiness''. In addition, each negative lm elicited signi cantly

8 634 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627±639 Table 3. Target emotion hit rate for each lm Film clip Target emotion Hit rate Train journey neutral Dance happiness 5 pleasure 2 amusement 36 Coming together happiness 9 pleasure 17 amusement 26 Sexual arousal happiness 0 pleasure 5 amusement 55 Suicide sadness 64 Tearful farewell sadness 83 Crying boy sadness 90 Lonely fawn sadness 62 Beating-up anger 40 Provocation anger 67 Massacre anger 45 Bloody horsehead disgust 67 Crawling rat disgust 57 N = 42. Hit rate refers to the percentage of Ss who indicated they had felt the target emotion at least one point more intensely than any other nontarget emotions. higher ratings for its target emotion than for the negative non-target emotions (all ps < 0.031), with three exceptions. One lm which was designed to induce sadness (Tearful Farewell) elicited similar levels of ``sadness'' and ``disgust'' ( p = 0.265) and two lms which were designed to induce anger (Beating-Up, Massacre) elicited similar levels of ``anger'' and ``sadness'' (both ps>0.309). As a measure for the discreetness of the elicited emotions, we computed for each lm the percentage of Ss who indicated they had felt the target emotion at least one point more intensely than any other nontarget emotion. For each of the positive lms, all positive emotions served separately as potential targets, but for the negative lms, this computation incorporated only each lms intended negative target emotion. The results of this analysis are presented in Table 3. In general, the hit rates of the positive lms (irrespective of the positive target emotion) were lower than the hit rates of the negative lms (again with the exception of the positive lm Sexual Arousal which showed a high hit rate for the emotion of ``amusement''), which corroborates the nding that the negative emotion ratings showed a clearer correspondence to the target emotion of each negative clip than the positive emotion ratings of the positive lms. To assess the overall valence di erences between lms pre-classi ed as positive, neutral and negative, we computed averages of the scale ``valence'' across all lms within each of the three valence categories. These averages were subjected to a 3-level within-subjects ANOVA (emotion category: positive, neutral, negative). There was a main e ect of emotion category (F[2, 82] = and p = 0.000). A subsequent Tukey HSD Test revealed that the positive lms (mean valence: 7.04, SD = 1.09) were rated as more pleasant than the neutral lm (mean

9 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627± Table 4. Varimax-rotated factor structure of emotional lm ratings Emotion Factor 1 loading Factor 2 loading Pleasure Amusement Happiness Sadness Disgust Fear Anger N = 42. valence: 5.31, SD = 1.92; p = 0.000) and the neutral lm was rated as more pleasant than the negative lms (mean valence: 2.43, SD = 0.82; p = 0.000). In addition, we assessed the overall arousal di erences between the lms of the three valence categories by computing averages of the scale ``arousal'' across all lms within each of the three valence categories. A 3-level withinsubjects ANOVA (emotion category: positive, neutral, negative) of these averages revealed that there was a main e ect of emotion category (F[2, 82] = and p = 0.000). A subsequent Tukey HSD Test revealed that the positive lms (mean arousal: 5.37, SD = 1.41) were rated as more arousing than the neutral lm (mean arousal: 1.98, SD = 1.70; p = 0.000), and the negative lms (mean arousal: 5.51, SD = 1.28) were rated as more arousing than the neutral lm ( p = 0.000). However, there was no arousal di erence between positive and negative lms ( p = 0.897). To assess sex di erences of di erent target emotions, we computed the average of the positive emotion scales across all positive lms and the average of each negative target emotion scale across the lms targeting the respective emotion (Table 4 shows the means and SDs of these averages for each sex). These averages were subjected to a sex (male, female) target emotion (positive, sadness, anger, disgust) ANOVA with repeated measurement on the last factor. The only sex e ect revealed by this analysis was a main e ect of sex (F[1, 40] = and p = 0.000), with females (mean target emotion: 6.96, SD = 0.93) reporting on more intense emotions than men (mean target emotion: 5.53, SD = 1.23). Table 5. Means and standard deviations of four target emotions Target emotion Males Females Positive 5.76 (1.60) 6.60 (1.17) Sadness 4.84 (1.77) 6.82 (1.49) Anger 6.22 (2.00) 6.91 (1.94) Disgust 5.30 (2.02) 7.50 (1.64) N = 42 (20 males, 22 females). The target emotion ``positive'' refers to the average of the positive emotion scales across all positive lms, the target emotions ``sadness'', ``anger'' and ``disgust'' refers to the average of each negative target emotion scale across the lms targeting the respective emotion.

10 636 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627±639 Table 6. Eigenvalues and variance explained after a principal component analysis of emotional lm ratings Component Eigenvalue % of variance explained Cumulative % of variance explained N = 42. The remaining analyses concentrate on aggregated a ective reactivity indices. Since Tomarken et al. (1990) provided descriptive data of these indices, we restricted the aggregation of the emotion ratings to the lms used by these authors in order to facilitate comparability. As in former studies on brain asymmetry and a ective reactivity (Tomarken et al., 1990; Wheeler et al., 1993; Hagemann et al., in press), a positive a ective reactivity (PAR) index was computed as the mean of all positive emotion ratings (in the present study: happiness, pleasure, amusement) across all positive lms and a negative a ective reactivity (NAR) index was computed as the mean of all negative emotion ratings (sadness, fear, anger, disgust) across all negative lms. To assess internal consistency and reliability of PAR (mean 5.75, SD = 1.64) and NAR (mean 3.49, SD = 1.15), we computed Cronbach's alpha for all emotion ratings which contribute to each reactivity index. This analyses revealed an alpha value of 0.88 for PAR and an alpha value of 0.87 for NAR. To assess whether these two reactivity indices re ect the dimensional structure of the emotion ratings in the present sample, we computed means for each positive emotion scale across the positive lms and means for each negative emotion scale across the negative lms. These aggregated emotion ratings were subjected to a principal component analysis. According to an examination of the eigenvalues, a two-factor solution was extracted which explained 73% of the total variance (Table 5 shows the eigenvalues and the variance explained for all components). This solution was varimax-rotated. Table 6 shows the rotated solution. All three positive emotion scales loaded highly on the rst factor, and all four negative emotion scales loaded highly on the second factor. Finally, we assessed sex di erences of aggregated a ective reactivity by conducting a sex (male, female) valence (PAR, NAR) ANOVA with repeated measurement on the last factor. The only sex e ect revealed by this analysis was a main e ect of sex (F[1, 40] = 8.44 and p = 0.006), with females (mean a ective reactivity 5.06, SD = 0.95) showing higher a ective reactivity than men (mean a ective reactivity 4.13, SD = 1.10). 4. Discussion The rst aim of the present study was to examine whether a set of lms which already proved to elicit di erent emotions in English-speaking samples would demonstrate a similar capacity to induce emotions in a German sample. Based on two lm sets which have been

11 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627± examined by Tomarken et al. (1990) and Gross and Levenson (1995), we formed a set of 13 emotion-eliciting lms and presented the lms along with emotion rating scales to university students. All three lms which were designed to elicit happiness were rated as more pleasant than the lm which was pre-classi ed as neutral, which in turn was rated as more pleasant than the remaining lms which were designed to target sadness, anger and disgust. In addition, the lms designed to elicit both positive and negative emotions were comparable in a ective intensity, but more arousing than the lm which was designed to be emotionally neutral. Thus, the preclassi cation of the lms as positive, neutral and negative seems to be valid for the present sample. Furthermore, two of the positive lms elicited similar intensities of happiness, pleasure and amusement, whereas the third positive lm elicited predominantly amusement. However, most negative lms evoked predominantly each lm's negative target emotion. This structure of the lm ratings, along with the quantitative reports of our Ss, is very similar to the ndings reported by Tomarken et al. (1990) and Gross and Levenson (1995). Our ndings indicate that the positive lms elicited rather cognate aspects of positive emotions, but the negative lms had the capacity to elicit speci c discrete target emotions. It is noteworthy that this structure of lm ratings matches the concept of basic emotions which proposes the universal nature of some distinct emotions. Usually, these basic emotions cover some negative emotions but only one positive emotion, which is often termed ``happiness'' (e.g. Ekman and Friesen, 1986: happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, contempt). In addition, the concept of happiness was described as multifaceted in nature, and includes other positive emotions (Averill and More, 1993). Taken together, all lms used in the present study were suitable for emotion induction in a German sample. This nding is in line with results of Gross and Levenson (1995) who did not observe ethnic di erences of lm reports in their English-speaking sample which included Asian-American, Caucasian, Hispanic and African-American Ss. These authors suggested that their lms may be useful with a wide variety of populations. This suggestion is supported by the present study. It is also noteworthy that the lms from the Gross and Levenson (1995) set elicited the appropriate target emotions, although these lms were not designed as silent stimuli (the set of Tomarken et al., 1990, was especially designed to ful l this requirement of hemispheric lateralisation research). The second aim of the present study was to examine the validity and reliability of a ective reactivity indices based on the lm ratings. We generated indices of PAR and NAR in a very similar manner like former investigators in the eld (Tomarken et al., 1990; Wheeler et al., 1993), with one exception. Both Tomarken et al. (1990) and Wheeler et al. (1993) generated an index of PAR by aggregation of several positive emotions, including ``interest''. In the present study, this particular emotion was not included in the aggregated PAR index, because the scale ``interest'' did not di erentiate between positive and negative lms (this latter nding is in line with results of Hagemann et al., in press, who assessed a ective reactivity to emotional slides and reported that ``interest'' did not di erentiate between positive and negative stimuli). However, the descriptives of our aggregated reactivity indices are similar to those reported by Tomarken et al. (1990). Furthermore, the factor structure of the remaining emotion rating scales indicated that a distinct positive and negative dimension was extracted, a nding which replicates results of Tomarken et al. (1990). In addition, both the PAR and NAR index

12 638 D. Hagemann et al. / Personality and Individual Di erences 26 (1999) 627±639 demonstrated good reliability and internal consistency. Taken together, the measurement procedure which was used in the present study (including the lm clips, rating scales and experimental protocol) facilitated a reliable and valid assessment of a ective reactivity. Finally, we explored sex di erences of a ective reactivity and observed greater levels of selfreported emotional reactions in women than in men, which was independent of the emotion's quality. This result replicates the nding of Gross and Levenson (1995) who reported on more intense emotion reports by women than men, and is consistent with other ndings of sex di erences in the experience and expression of emotions (for reviews, see Shields, 1991; Brody and Hall, 1993), with one substantial exception. Many investigators failed to observe sex di erences in self-reported experience of anger (Allen and Haccoun, 1976; Burrowes and Halberstadt, 1987; Stoner and Spencer, 1987), whereas in the present study, all target emotions (including anger) showed the same pattern of sex di erence. Taken together, it appears that sex might be an important source of individual di erences in a ective reactivity. Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through grant number Na 256/3-2. We thank Dr R. J. Davidson, Dr J. B. Henriques and Dr R. W. Levenson for providing exact descriptions and cutting instructions for the a ective lms used in their own research. In addition, we thank one anonymous referee for helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. References Allen, J. G., & Haccoun, D. M. (1976). Sex di erences in emotionality: A multidimensional approach. Human Relations, 29, 711±722. Averill, J. R., & More, T. A. (1993). Happiness. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 617±630). New York: Guilford. Bradley, M. M., Greenwald, M. K., & Hamm, A. O. (1993). A ective picture processing. In N. Birbaumer & A. OÈ hmann (Eds.), The structure of emotion (pp. 48±65). Seattle: Hogrefe and Huber Publishers. Brody, L. R., & Hall, J. A. (1993). Gender and emotion. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 447±460). New York: Guilford. Brown, W. A., Corriveau, D. P., & Monti, P. M. (1977). Anger arousal by a motion picture: A methodological note. American Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 930±931. Burrowes, B. D., & Halberstadt, A. G. (1987). Self- and family-expressiveness styles in the experience and expression of anger. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 11, 254±268. Davidson, R. J. (1995). Cerebral asymmetry, emotion and a ective style. In R. J. Davidson & K. Hugdahl (Eds.), Brain asymmetry. Cambridge, MA: A Bradford Book. Davidson, R. J., & Tomarken, A. J. (1989). Laterality and emotion: An electrophysiological approach. In F. Boller & J. Grafman (Eds.), Handbook of neurophysiology (pp. 419±441). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1986). A new pan-cultural facial expression of emotion. Motivation and Emotion, 10, 159±168. Engel, G. L., Frader, M., Barry, C., & Morrow, G. (1984). Sadness evoked by a lm on grief: An experimental study. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 14, 1±30. Gross, J. J., & Levenson, R. W. (1995). Emotion elicitation using lms. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 87±108. Hagemann, D., Naumann, E., Becker, G., Mayer, S., & Bartussek, D. (in press). Frontal brain asymmetry and a ective style: A conceptual replication. Psychophysiology. Heiman, J. R. (1980). Female sexual response patterns: Interactions of physiological, a ective, and contextual cues. Archives of General Psychiatry, 37, 1311±1316.

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