Attention Bias to Emotional Stimuli in Depression and Anxiety

According to previous studies، people with emotional states، detect emotional stimuli faster than the control group. Current study would examine this hypothesis. 200 university bachelor students were tested for anxiety and depression using SCID، BDI، BAI، D-scale from MMPI، and the Spielberger trait-state anxiety inventory questionnaires. Then، the attention bias to emotional stimuli was verified by the performance in dot-probe (word) test. The scores were analyzed in SPSS software. According to anxiety and depression scores، participants were divided into four groups including high anxiety-low depression، low anxiety-high depression، high anxiety-high depression، and low anxiety-low depression. Results of the analyses showed that response pattern to emotional/neutral stimuli was not different in these four groups. Subjects who suffer from anxiety or depression do not seem to answer any differently to emotional stimuli. Meanwhile further studies are required to examine the patterns of detecting emotional stimuli in different emotional states.