Abstract

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a consistent personality trait that causes people to respond to stressful situations differently than Non-Behaviorally inhibited (Non-BI) counterparts. The physiologic and psychologic substrate which underlies the difference between BI and Non-BI individuals is unknown. A previously published study from our lab demonstrated that BI individuals have lower variability in their heart rate than Non-BI individuals. This has been interpreted as BI individuals having less active parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS). We will follow up on the previous study by testing the effects of stress vulnerability factors on perceived stress in human participants from Carthage College. To observe the effects of stress vulnerability, participants will be administered an electrical stimulation beginning at 5mV and increasing at 5mV increments until the participants reach 100mV. We will be using the Adult Measure of Behavioral Inhibition (AMBI) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), to categorize individuals based on their vulnerability to stress. We hypothesize that individuals that are BI will have higher perceived stress.