Electrodermal correlates of extraversion, trait anxiety and schitophrenisrn

Abstract.— Recording skin resistance in 34 young women it was found that extraverted subjects showed less responsiveness to moderate intensity stimuli, whereas high neuroticism or anxiety prone subjects showed more spontaneous fluctuations and better electrodermal conditioning when conditioned responses were scored relative to unconditioned responses. Further, the subjects were rated for 'schizophrenism' according to an inventory devised by the authors. The high schizophrenism subjects behaved electrodermally very much like the pre-schizophrenic sample in Mednick and Schulsinger's prospective study of schizophrenia; they exhibited faster recovery, greater response amplitude to aversive stimuli and faster initial habituation to these stimuli.