The affective intensity modulates the autonomic physiologic reactivity to experimentally induced stress

The Affect Intensity describes the individual differences in the intensity of emotional experience. The main objective of this investigation has been the study about the relationship between autonomic physiological reactivity pattern to stressful laboratory situation, related with Affect Intensity level. In order to reach this objective, we selected 41 women, all of them were assessed by the Affect Intensity Measure, AIM, (Larsen, 1984). The experiment involved six phases: I-adaptation, II-relaxation, III-stress (mental arithmetic), IV-relaxation, V-stress (watching a distressing film) and VI-relaxation. During all periods, the autonomic reactivity using the Palmar Sweat Index (PSI), a sensitive indicator of the number of active sweat glands, was assessed. Results showed significant differences by group in autonomic reactivity related with Affect Intensity level during all experimental periods. We conclude that affective intensity modulates the autonomic physiologic reactivity to stress.