Psychological epidemic in Hong Kong. II. Psychological and physiological characteristics of children who were affected.
A double blind retrospective study was carried out on a sample of children who were affected in a mysterious gas poisoning epidemic together with controls drawn from the same school. The dependent measures employed were the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ), a Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (HSC), Heart Rate (HR) and Skin Potential Response (SPR). A vigilance task was administered during assessment of the latter two variables. The affected children had significantly higher HR together with a marginal increase in SPR. It is proposed that constitutional factors play an important role in determining whether an individual is affected in such an epidemic.
D001143:Arousal; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D005739:Gas Poisoning / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D007046:Hysteria / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests