Emotion and motivation II: Sex differences in picture processing.
Abstract
Adhering to the view that emotional reactivity is organized in part by underlying motivational states--defensive and appetitive--we investigated sex differences in motivational activation. Men's and women's affective reactions were measured while participants viewed pictures with varied emotional and neutral content. As expected, highly arousing contents of threat, mutilation, and erotica prompted the largest affective reactions in both men and women. Nonetheless, women showed a broad disposition to respond with greater defensive reactivity to aversive pictures, regardless of specific content, whereas increased appetitive activation was apparent for men only when viewing erotica. Biological and sociocultural factors in shaping sex differences in emotional reactivity are considered as possible mediators of sex differences in emotional response.
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Empirical evidence on gender differences in emotional responding is mixed, and negative findings are surprisingly common.
“However, despite lay convictions and psychiatric considerations, the empirical evidence on gender differences in emotional responding is mixed (Bradley, Codispoti, Sabatinelli, & Lang, 2001; Fujita, Diener, & Sandvik, 1991; Grossman & Wood, 1993; Labouvie-Vief, Lumley, Jain, & Heinze, 2003; Seidlitz & Diener, 1998), and negative findings are surprisingly common (Wager, Phan, Liberzon, & Taylor, 2”
From Gender Differences in Emotion Regulation: An fMRI Study of Cognitive Reappraisal (2008) · cites this paper as Bradley, Codispoti, Sabatinelli, & Lang, 2001
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BackgroundEmotion and motivation I: Defensive and appetitive reactions in picture processing.
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- Authors
- Bradley, M. M., Codispoti, M., Sabatinelli, D., & Lang, P. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Florida (US)
- Venue
- Emotion
- Published
- 2001
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 300-319
- ISSN
- 1528-3542 (ISSN-L)
- 1931-1516
- OpenAlex
- W1989486988
- Cited by
- 943
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 59 · 2020: 43 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 55 · 2017: 62 · 2016: 59 · 2015: 66 · 2014: 47 · 2013: 62 · 2012: 46
- FWCI
- 3.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Emotion (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5r01mh043975-12)
- National Institute of Mental Health (P50MH052384, MH 43975, MH37757, P50 MH 52384)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- sex differences, emotional reactivity, motivational states, image processing, threats, mutilation, erotic literature, arousal, emotional responses, sociocultural factors
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Electromyography, Emotions, Facial Muscles, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Humans, Male, Motivation, Sex Factors, Reflex, Startle, Visual Perception
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