4-213 Measures of emotional and motivational processes activated by stress or comfort conditions Valeria Biasi * , Paolo Bonaiuto ** , Anna Maria Giannini *** * Department of Cultural and Educational Studies, Third University of Rome (“Roma Tre”) Via dei Mille, 23, Rome, 00185, Italy Tel.: +39-339-6870383 Fax: +39-06-44703879 E-mail: valeria.biasi@romascuola.net ** Department of Psychology and Direction, Master Program in Art Management Psychology, First University of Rome (“La Sapienza”), Via dei Marsi, 78, Rome, 00185, Italy Tel.: +39-340-0866306 Fax: +39-06-4451667 E-mail: paolo.bonaiuto@uniroma1.it *** Department of Psychology, First University of Rome ("La Sapienza") Via dei Marsi, 78, Rome, 00185, Italy Tel.: +39-333-3461644 Fax: +39-06-4451667 E-mail: annamaria.giannini@uniroma1.it Abstract Under stress conditions, obtained in the field or experimentally induced, changes occur in the nature and intensity of affective processes (emotions, motivations). Symmetrical changes occur under opposite (comfort) conditions. One of the first procedures for determining temporary stress states consists of administering difficult logical tasks (15 minutes), with erroneous or ambiguous feedback and social pressure. For example, some very difficult Raven Matrices were individually assigned to participants. The first two authors later found another procedure equally effective and even more advantageous for certain aspects: the “drawing recollection” of personal stressful experiences. The corresponding comfort treatments are, firstly, a progressive relaxation session in penumbra; or, in the second case, the “drawing recollection” of personal pleasant and positive experiences. To assess the emotional changes, we prepared seven-points bipolar scales centering on the main opposing emotions. As regards motivations, we used a list of nine motivational systems [7]. The whole set of items made up the so-called Self-Appraisal Scales, administered before and after a specific treatment, thereby obtaining a measure through the differences between the two successive assessments. Factor analyses were conducted for selecting the main emotional and motivational factors. Affective reverberations on cognitive processes were also studied and measured. Keywords: Bipolar scales, comfort, drawing recollection, emotion, motivation, stress 1. Introduction, methodological notes and purposes of the studies Under stress conditions, obtained in the field or experimentally induced as short-term treatments, changes occur in the nature and intensity of affective processes (mainly emotions and motivations). Symmetrical changes also occur in the opposite conditions, which we call comfort ones. These changes may be exactly determined and measured by using appropriate short-term treatments, adequate preliminary psychological analyses and reliable tools. Several effective procedures for determining temporary stress or comfort states are known in the relevant experimental literature. In our first studies we had our subjects attempt to solve some very difficult Raven Matrices, as other researchers have done [12]. In addition, subjects had been informed that this task would be an “intelligence test”, that there was only one correct answer for each problem, and ambiguous or erroneous feedbacks were given them. Then, some of the present authors devised specific innovative procedures based on the “drawing recollection” of personal stressful or pleasant experiences [1, 2, 3, 4, 6]. This new technique has been compared