Emotional Development in People with High Capacities: Induction of Emotions through Pictorial Abstraction

Abstract

The goal of this work was to help the researcher that studies emotions in people with high capacities (HCs) to understand and intervene in the socio-emotional aspects of this group, considering the features of their profile that present a certain specificity. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS) developed by Lang, and based on the dimensional theory of emotions, was applied using abstract works by Kandinsky and Mondrian as emotional stimuli. The study was conducted with university students not classified as HC, to represent the normative group and enable the establishment of comparisons, to verify the existence of social-emotional mismatches in the individuals considered HC. The results indicate that the stimuli used elicit emotional states with valence and medium-high arousal that are free of connotations derived from figurative representation and correspond only to the sensory properties of the stimulus (colour, shape, etc.), which facilitate the study of traits such as emotional intensity and sensitivity.