The Effect of Stress on Visual Selective and Focused Attention according to Agreeableness

The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of stress on selective and focused attention according to the personality factor of agreeableness. The sample group consisted of 60 male university students who were selected via multi-session random sampling with respect to neuropsychological control variables. The subjects were divided into two experimental and one control groups (20 subjects each). After administering cognitive stressful tasks, the visual selective and focused attention of subjects in the experimental groups were assessed. The visual selective and focused attention of the subjects in the control group was assessed without administering the aforementioned tasks. Sum of errors in counting and classification errors designated the visual attention indexes. Results indicated that stress leads to significant increase in counting and classification errors (p<0.001). In addition, agreeableness further increased the counting error (p<0.001) and classification error (p<0.001). The findings of this study revealed that stress reduces the visual selective and focused attention on neutral stimuli and factor A intensifies this negative effect.