title: Relationships between temperament dimensions in personality and unconscious emotional responses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In addition to character dimensions, personality includes temperament dimensions, defined as individual differences in implicit associative learning responses to environmental stimuli processed by unconscious memories. We examined whether temperament dimensions were associated with patterns of unconscious emotional responses of an autonomic nature.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 70 healthy men, high and low novelty-seeking (NS) groups and high and low harm-avoidance (HA) groups were selected using scores on the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire measuring temperament dimensions. Emotionally negative, neutral, and positive visual stimuli were presented subliminally using backward masking, and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured as an autonomic index of emotional responses. Skin conductance responses to the three emotional stimulus conditions were compared between groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Skin conductance responses in the high NS group were significantly greater than in the low NS group when positive or negative emotional stimuli were presented but not neutral stimuli. Skin conductance responses in the high HA group were significantly greater than in the low HA group for stimuli of all three valences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Autonomic response patterns to unconscious emotional perception differed between NS and HA, suggesting that different dimensions of temperament may be associated with different patterns of unconscious emotional responses. Novelty seeking and HA may be associated with specificity and susceptibility of preattentive emotional perception, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, National Defense Medical College, 3-2 Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-8513, Japan. aihide@me.ndmc.ac.jp
authors.forename: Aihide
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yoshino
authors.forename: Yoshie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Yoshitomo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Soichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nomura
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011594:Psychometrics; D013360:Subliminal Stimulation; D013694:Temperament / Q000502:physiology*; D014473:Unconscious, Psychology