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An experience sampling study into intra-individual correlations between bodily signals and experienced feelings

Ahlemeyer, Jan-Luca (2019) An experience sampling study into intra-individual correlations between bodily signals and experienced feelings.

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Abstract:Investigations into the correlation between bodily states and perceived emotions may be beneficial in many medical sectors, however, to this point in time studies that investigated this relationship have mainly focused on inter-individual estimates. The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between core affect and autonomic nervous system activity as measured by skin conductance levels. The skin conductance levels have been measured by wearable measurement devices (E4) during the daily activities of the test subjects, and the core affect state has been addressed with a mobile application (TIIM) that displays the two dimensions of core affect in one quadrant (core quadrant) in which the study participants were able to indicate their current state (i.e for the past minute) and the state of the last two hours. The data was analysed for both time intervals with a Spearman's rank-order correlation and due to the fact that emotional perceptions are highly influenced by individual factors, the analysis was done intra-individually as well as inter-individually and a comparison of the outcomes of both types of analysis has been made. The outcomes of both types of analysis intra-individually and inter-individually indicated that there likely is no linear correlation between skin conductance level and the dimensions of core affect. For the former a small amount of predominantly negative correlations has been detected between skin conductance level and the arousal dimension of core affect as well as between skin conductance level and the valence dimension; and for the latter, no significant correlation has been detected between skin conductance level and each of the two dimensions of core affect. These findings suggest that there likely is no direct linear relationship between bodily fluctuations and subjective experience in daily life, and all indicators for the presence of such a correlation indicate that it is negative (if existing at all) which is unexpected when comparing the results with other studies. Furthermore, by comparing the present study with similar research it can be assumed that individual and situational factors may play a crucial role in guiding the perceptions of emotions and autonomic nervous system activities may only play a small role.
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:70 social sciences in general, 77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/78601
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