HOSTILITY, FACIAL CONFIGURATION, AND BILATERAL ASYMMETRY ON GALVANIC SKIN-RESPONSE

The effects of hostility on bilateral measures of skin conductance dur ing affective facial configurations were investigated. Highly hostile and non-hostile men were instructed in making facial configurations th at were identified by raters as happy, angry, or neutral. Subjects wer e asked to make the set of facial configurations twice with unstructur ed baselines taken prior to each expression. Significant increases in skin conductance were found from baseline across all three facial conf igurations. Skin conductance varied as a function of affect, decreasin g from angry to happy to neutral configurations. A three-way group x h and x block interaction was found. The high-hostile group showed persi stence in the elevation of conductance at the left hand through Block 2. In contrast, reduced skin conductance at the left hand was found in the low-hostile group, along with habituation at the left hand across blocks. The possibility of altered right cerebral systems in high-hos tile individuals is discussed.