Avaliação de estímulos emocionais em Ex-Combatentes de Guerra com e sem PTSD

Abstract

The present study has been carried out to inquire how emotional images are evaluated by former war soldiers who were actively involved in the Portuguese colonial war. The study was produced with 72 subjects who had been submitted not only to two different posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) assessment scales, but also to the image visualization and categorization through the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM; Lang, Bradley & Cuthbert, 1997). Three groups of subjects were studied and compared: one group of subjects with PTSD, and two groups of subjects without PTSD, grouped according the self-assessment scales: one with lower levels (non-clinical low group – NCB), and another with higher levels (non-clinical high group – NCA). Both PTSD and NCA groups evaluate more negatively the unpleasant images showed (war images and “disgusting faces”) in comparison to the NCB group. Beyond that, mainly, the same groups, also evaluate unpleasant images as much activating and dominant than the NCB group. Concerning to the pleasant images, there was no significant difference between the three groups of subjects.