Gender Differences in Tonic and Phasic Electrodermal Activity Components
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25271/sjuoz.2020.8.1.670Keywords:
Electrodermal activity, EDA, Skin conductance, Skin potential, Skin susceptance, GenderAbstract
Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a well-established psychophysiological measurement for research and clinical approaches. Males and females often display different physiological responses to stimuli, which can be detected by EDA recordings. Using a new method to measure skin conductance (SC), skin potential (SP) and skin susceptance (SS) simultaneously at the same electrode, these differences were investigated. SC, SP, and SS were recorded from 60 participants during relaxation and stress. It was found that both tonic and phasic EDA parameters indicated gender differences. In addition, females displayed greater tonic and phasic EDA parameters (except for skin potential responses (SPRs)) than males under both relaxation and conditions of stimulation (stress). However, these results were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). This suggests that it is perhaps important to consider gender or at least note type of gender in EDA researches, but this cannot be generalized to clinical approaches.
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Venables, P., & Christie, M. (1973). Mechanisms, instrumentation, recording techniques, and quantification of responses. In W. F. Prokasy & D. C. Raskin (Eds.), Electrodermal activity in psychological research (pp. 1–124). New York: Academic.
Venables, P., & Mitchell, D. (1996). The effects of age, sex and time of testing on skin conductance activity. Biological psychology, 43(2), 87-101.
Bari, D., Aldosky, H., Tronstad, C., Kalvøy, H., & Martinsen, Ø. (2018). Electrodermal responses to discrete stimuli measured by skin conductance, skin potential, and skin susceptance. Skin Research and Technology, 24(1), 108-116.
Boucsein, W. (2012). Electrodermal activity. NewYork, NY: Plenum Press.
Bradley, M. M., Codispoti, M., Sabatinelli, D., & Lang, P. J. (2001). Emotion and motivation II: sex differences in picture processing. Emotion, 1(3), 300.
Broverman, D. M., Klaiber, E. L., Kobayashi, Y., & Vogel, W. (1968). Roles of activation and inhibition in sex differences in cognitive abilities. Psychological review, 75(1), 23.
Edelberg, R. (1971). Electrical properties of the skin. In C.C. Brown (Ed.), Methods in psychophysiology (pp. 1-53). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Edelberg, R. (1972). Electrical activity of the skin: Its measurement and uses in psychophysiology. In N. S. Greenfield & R. A. Sternbach (Eds.), Handbook of psychophysiology (pp. 367–418). New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Eisdorfer, C., Doerr, H. O., & Follette, W. (1980). Electrodermal reactivity: an analysis by age and sex. Journal of Human Stress, 6(4), 39-42.
El‐Sheikh, M. (2007). Children's skin conductance level and reactivity: Are these measures stable over time and across tasks? Developmental Psychobiology, 49(2), 180-186.
Fowles, D. C. (1986). The eccrine system and electrodermal activity. Psychophysiology: Systems, processes, and applications, 1, 51-96.
Fowles, D. C., Christie, M. J., Edelberg, R., Grings, W. W., Lykken, D. T., & Venables, P. H. (1981). Publication recommendations for electrodermal measurements. Psychophysiology, 18(3), 232-239.
Gaviria, B., Coyne, L., & Thetford, P. E. (1969). Correlation of skin potential and skin resistance measures. Psychophysiology, 5(5), 465-477.
Hare, R., Wood, K., Britain, S., & Frazelle, J. (1971). Autonomic responses to affective visual stimulation: Sex differences. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality.
Jorgenson, R., Salinas, C., Dowben, J., & St, D. J. (1988). A population study on the density of palmar sweat pores. Birth defects original article series, 24(2), 51-63.
Ketterer, M. W., & Smith, B. D. (1977). Bilateral electrodermal activity, lateralized cerebral processing and sex. Psychophysiology, 14(6), 513-516.
Kimmel, H., & Kimmel, E. (1965). Sex differences in adaptation of the GSR under repeated applications of a visual stimulus. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70(5), 536.
Kopacz, F. M., & Smith, B. D. (1971). Sex differences in skin conductance measures as a function of shock threat. Psychophysiology, 8(3), 293-303.
Kring, A. M., & Gordon, A. H. (1998). Sex differences in emotion: expression, experience, and physiology. Journal of personality and social psychology, 74(3), 686.
Maltzman, I., Gould, J., Barnett, O. J., Raskin, D. C., & Wolff, C. (1979). Habituation of the GSR and digital vasomotor components of the orienting reflex as a consequence of task instructions and sex differences. Physiological Psychology, 7(2), 213-220.
Martinsen, Ø. G., Grimnes, S., Nilsen, J. K., Tronstad, C., Jang, W., Kim, H., Shin, K., Naderi, M., & Thielmann, F. (2008). Gravimetric method for in vitro calibration of skin hydration measurements. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 55(2), 728-732.
Morimoto, T. (1978). Variations of sweating activity due to sex, age and race. The physiology and pathophysiology of the skin, 5, 1655-1666.
Neufeld, R. W., & Davidson, P. O. (1974). Sex differences in stress response: A multivariate analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83(2), 178.
Pabst, O., Tronstad, C., Grimnes, S., Fowles, D., & Martinsen, Ø. G. (2017). Comparison between the AC and DC measurement of electrodermal activity. Psychophysiology, 54(3), 374-385.
Purohit, A. P. (1966). Personality variables, sex-difference, GSR responsiveness and GSR conditioning. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 1(3), 166-173.
Tronstad, C., Gjein, G. E., Grimnes, S., Martinsen, Ø. G., Krogstad, A.-L., & Fosse, E. (2008). Electrical measurement of sweat activity. Physiological measurement, 29(6), S407.
Tronstad, C., Grimnes, S., Martinsen, Ø. G., Amundsen, V., & Wojniusz, S. (2010). PC-based instrumentation for electrodermal activity measurement. Paper presented at the Journal of Physics: Conference Series.
Tronstad, C., Johnsen, G. K., Grimnes, S., & Martinsen, Ø. G. (2010). A study on electrode gels for skin conductance measurements. Physiological measurement, 31(10), 1395.
Tronstad, C., Kalvøy, H., Grimnes, S., & Martinsen, Ø. G. (2013). Improved estimation of sweating based on electrical properties of skin. Annals of biomedical engineering, 41(5), 1074-1083.
Venables, P., & Christie, M. (1973). Mechanisms, instrumentation, recording techniques, and quantification of responses. In W. F. Prokasy & D. C. Raskin (Eds.), Electrodermal activity in psychological research (pp. 1–124). New York: Academic.
Venables, P., & Mitchell, D. (1996). The effects of age, sex and time of testing on skin conductance activity. Biological psychology, 43(2), 87-101.
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Published
2020-03-30
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Bari, D. S. (2020). Gender Differences in Tonic and Phasic Electrodermal Activity Components. Science Journal of University of Zakho, 8(1), 29–33. https://doi.org/10.25271/sjuoz.2020.8.1.670
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