We investigated psychophysiological responses to fear and anger inductions during real-life and imagination. Female participants (N = 158) were assigned to a fear-treatment, fear-control, anger-treatment, or anger-control group. Context (real-life, imagination) was varied in two sessions of fixed order. Eleven self-report and 29 somatovisceral variables were registered. Results showed that (a) except during anger imagination, control groups were emotionless; (b) in control groups, contexts prompted diverging somatovisceral responses, but similar emotion self-reports; except during fear imagination, the emotion inductions (c) were successful and (d) produced specific emotion reports; (e) during real-life, somatovisceral fear and anger responses exhibited a marked cardiovascular defense reflex; (f) in addition, real-life fear showed an adrenaline-like specific response pattern, whereas real-life anger showed specific forehead temperature and EMG extensor increases, accompanied by an elevated DBP during imagination. A Component Model of Somatovisceral Response Organization is proposed.

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We investigated psychophysiological responses to fear and anger inductions during real-life and imagination. Female participants (N = 158) were assigned to a fear-treatment, fear-control, anger-treatment, or anger-control group. Context (real-life, imagination) was varied in two sessions of fixed order. Eleven self-report and 29 somatovisceral variables were registered. Results showed that (a) except during anger imagination, control groups were emotionless; (b) in control groups, contexts prompted diverging somatovisceral responses, but similar emotion self-reports; except during fear imagination, the emotion inductions (c) were successful and (d) produced specific emotion reports; (e) during real-life, somatovisceral fear and anger responses exhibited a marked cardiovascular defense reflex; (f) in addition, real-life fear showed an adrenaline-like specific response pattern, whereas real-life anger showed specific forehead temperature and EMG extensor increases, accompanied by an elevated DBP during imagination. A Component Model of Somatovisceral Response Organization is proposed.

Abstract. The main aim of the present study was to investigate whether faking on personality measures is predicted by cognitive ability and self-reported efficacy of positive self-presentation (ESP) assessed under honest conditions. 123 participants completed the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and the self-deceptive enhancement (SDE) and impression management (IM) scales of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding Version 7 (BIDR) under four instructional sets: honest, fake bad, fake good, and two specifically formulated applicant instructions. In line with the assumption that personality measures lose their original meaning under the instruction to fake, it could be shown that the relationship between honest and faked NEO-FFI scales decreased with increasing situational pressure. In line with the hypothesis that faking reflects an ability, it could be demonstrated that general intelligence was related to the amount of faking, to the ability to perceive the situational requirements, and to the ability to fake in line with the situational requirements. In addition, self-reported ESP, but not SDE and IM, was positively related to positive self-presentation. Our findings imply that faking on personality measures should not only be seen as a threat to validity, but rather as a positive, adaptive, and probably predictive variable, which should be investigated in its own right.