Examining Emotional Reactions to Varied Stimuli Through Subjective Assessment Methods

This study explored different paradigms and protocols to investigate participants' psychoemotional states. The study involved testing a variety of stimuli, including videos with dramatic content, videos with neutral themes, physiological stress induction, and presentation of polar stimuli. The subjects' emotional reactions were assessed using the DES. The study showed a decrease in shame-related emotions in participants' emotional responses to sadness-inducing video stimuli. This compensatory interaction of different emotional states reflects the dominance of the appetitive or aversive motivational system in the brain and is an adaptive survival response in humans. The role of negative content in increasing participants' surprise and interest is also discussed. Results with neutral content showed a decrease in negative states but did not result in a significant increase in positive emotions.