The threat vs. challenge of car parking for women: How self- and group affirmation affect cardiovascular responses

This study examines cardiovascular responses indicating challenge (vs. threat) during motivated performance of women under social identity threat. Low gender identified women should primarily be concerned with their personal identity and self-worth, leading them to benefit from self-affirmation under social identity threat. Highly identified women, conversely, should care more for the value of their group and benefit more from group affirmation. Among 64 female participants social identity threat was induced by emphasizing gender differences in car-parking ability. Then, participants received an opportunity to affirm the self or the group and worked on a car-parking task. During this task, cardiovascular challenge versus threat responses were assessed according to the biopsychosocial model (Blascovich, 2008). Results confirmed predictions by showing that self-affirmation elicited cardiovascular patterns indicating challenge in low identifiers, while group affirmation elicited challenge in high identifiers. Theoretical implications for work on social identity are discussed.     

Cardiovascular responses to agency and communion stressors in young women

Theory and research (Helgeson, 1994) suggest that women are particularly responsive to communion stressors (i.e., social relationship concerns) as opposed to agency (i.e., achievement and dominance concerns) and that women low in the trait of agency are vulnerable to stress. To test these hypotheses, 60 undergraduate women interacted with a pre-recorded partner; one-third provided support to an interaction partner (i.e., communion stressor), debated current events (i.e., agency stressor), or described a typical day (i.e., control task). Compared to controls, the debate task evoked greater systolic blood pressure and heart rate reactivity and related autonomic changes. Compared to controls, providing support evoked larger increases in cardiac sympathetic activation and reduced vascular resistance. Low levels of trait agency were associated with greater CVR overall. Hence, agency and communion stressors had distinct psychophysiologic effects. Although both tasks heightened reactivity, the agency task evoked cognitive and physiological responses consistent with threat, whereas the communion task evoked a pattern consistent with challenge.     

Perceiver threat in social interactions with stigmatized others

The extent to which stigmatized interaction partners engender perceivers' threat reactions (i.e., stigma-threat hypothesis) was examined. Experiments 1 and 2 included the manipulation of stigma using facial birthmarks. Experiment 3 included manipulations of race and socioeconomic status. Threat responses were measured physiologically, behaviorally, and subjectively. Perceivers interacting with stigmatized partners exhibited cardiovascular reactivity consistent with threat and poorer performance compared with participants interacting with nonstigmatized partners, who exhibited challenge reactivity. In Experiment 3, intergroup contact moderated physiological reactivity such that participants who reported more contact with Black persons exhibited less physiological threat when interacting with them. These results support the stigma-threat hypothesis and suggest the utility of a biopsychosocial approach to the study of stigma and related constructs.     

Challenge and threat states: Cardiovascular,affective, and cognitive responses to a sports-related speech task

This study examined the relationship among cardiovascular responses indicative of challenge and threat states, self-efficacy, perceived control, and emotions before an upcoming competition. Using a repeated-measures design, 48 collegiate athletes talked about an upcoming competition (sport-specific speech task) and the topic of friendship (control speech task), whilst cardiovascular responses (heart rate, preejection period, cardiac output, and total peripheral resistance) were collected and self-report measures of self-efficacy, perceived control, and emotions completed. Findings showed that participants with a physiological threat response reported higher levels of self-efficacy and excitement. Further, none of the other emotions or the cognitive appraisals of challenge and threat predicted cardiovascular patterns indicative of either a challenge or threat state. Thus, cardiovascular responses and self-report measures of self-efficacy, perceived control, and emotions did not correlate in the manner predicted by the theory of challenge and threat states in athletes. This finding may reflect methodological aspects, or that perhaps highly efficacious individuals believe they can perform well and so the task itself is more threatening because failure would indicate under-performance.     

The Association Between Cardiovascular Stress Responsivity and Perceived Stress Among Subjects with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Temporomandibular Joint Disorder: A Preliminary Analysis

This study sought to evaluate the association between perceived and cardiovascular stress responsivity among subjects with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Temporomandibular Disorder (TMJ). Eight participants with IBS, eight participants with TMJ and 16 nonsymptomatic comparison participants took part in the experiment. Participants completed a series of personality and mood questionnaires as well as a laboratory procedure measuring aerobic fitness, cardiovascular responses (i.e., pulse rate and blood pressure), and perceived stress while performing stressful laboratory tasks (i.e., the Stroop Color Naming Test and a speech task). Although IBS and TMJ participants did not vary significantly from comparison participants in blood pressure or heart rate during the laboratory procedures, IBS and TMJ participants reported experiencing the laboratory tasks as more stressful than comparison participants. Although preliminary due to the small sample size, results suggest that IBS and TMJ sufferers may be more sensitive to perceived stress than others.     

Locus of control predicts appraisals and cardiovascular reactivity to a novel active coping task

These two studies investigated the influence of dispositional locus of control (LOC) on subjective and physiological responses to a novel laboratory stressor task. Across two studies, 64 healthy undergraduate students, ages 18-22, completed Levenson's (LOC) scales for internal, powerful others, and chance prior to performing a video-game task. Participants rated pretask and posttask stressfulness and coping ability (i.e., measures of primary and secondary appraisal). Cardiovascular measures (heart period, HP; preejection period, PEP; respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA; cardiac output, CO; systolic blood pressure, SBP; diastolic blood pressure, DBP & total peripheral resistance, TPR) were recorded during 4-minute baseline and 4-minute stressor task periods. The internal LOC factor predicted pretask reports of coping ability as well as posttask reports of stressfulness. In contrast, the powerful-others LOC factor predicted cardiac changes (HP, PEP, and RSA) during the task but not cardiac output or any other vascular change measure. These results underscore the importance of using the three subscales of the Levenson LOC to assess relationships between dispositional LOC and the response to stressors because self-reported appraisals of a task are predicted by a different component of dispositional LOC than are task-related cardiovascular functions.     

Vigilance, active coping, and cardiovascular reactivity during social interaction in young men.

This study of 72 undergraduate men examined the effects of two determinants of cardiovascular response-active coping and vigilance-on blood pressure and heart rate responses to social stressors. Observation of a future debate partner (i.e., vigilance) evoked larger increases in blood pressure than did observation of a less relevant person, apparently through the combination of increases in cardiac output and vascular resistance. Preparation and enactment of efforts to exert social influence (i.e., active coping) evoked heightened blood pressure and heart rate responses through increased cardiac contractility and output. Thus, both vigilance and active coping in social contexts increased cardiovascular reactivity, but apparently through different psychophysiological processes.     

Physiological markers of challenge and threat mediate the effects of performance-based goals on performance

We predicted that adopting a performance-approach vs. performance-avoidance goal would lead to physiological responses characteristic of psychological states of challenge vs. threat appraisals, respectively. Furthermore, we predicted that these states would mediate the effects of goals on performance. Twenty-seven undergraduate females performed a task described as identifying either exceptionally strong performers (performance-approach goal) or exceptionally weak performers (performance-avoidance goal). Participants’ cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) was recorded while they performed the task. As predicted, participants in the performance-approach goal condition performed better on the task than did those in the performance-avoidance goal condition. Also as predicted, those in the former condition exhibited a challenge pattern of CVR whereas those in the latter condition exhibited a threat pattern of CVR. Furthermore, physiological responses mediated the effects of performance-based goals on performance.     

Resilience in the face of romantic rejection: The automatic impulse to trust

Can heeding the automatic impulse to trust one's romantic partner increase physical and psychological resilience in the face of doubts about a partner's responsiveness? Experimental participants were led to believe that their partner perceived a long list of faults in them. All participants then gave a speech about their future career goals while their partner watched. The results revealed impulsive trust (i.e., evaluative associations to the partner on the Implicit Associations Test) increased resilience to partner-criticism for people who heed their automatic impulses (i.e., low in working memory capacity). Specifically, for people low in working memory capacity and high in impulsive trust, partner-criticism increased resilience relative to control participants (i.e., expecting a more approving partner reaction to their speech, cardiovascular reactivity consistent with a positive challenge response). In contrast, for people low in working memory capacity and low in impulsive trust, partner-criticism decreased resilience relative to control participants (i.e., expecting a more disapproving partner reaction, cardiovascular reactivity consistent with a negative threat response).     

Motivational Systems and Stress-Related Cardiovascular Reactivity

This study examined the relation of motivational systems to patterns of autonomic responses to stress. Specifically, we examined patterns of physiological response resulting from differential activation of motivational systems for behavioral approach and behavioral inhibition. We also examined the relation of these motivational systems to threat and challenge responses to potential stress. Self-report, cardiac measures (i.e., pre-injection period, or PEP, and heart rate, or HR), and blood pressure (i.e., systolic blood pressure, or SBP, and diastolic blood pressure, or DBP) measures reliably distinguished between an experimental condition facilitating behavioral approach and an experimental condition facilitating coactivation of behavioral approach and behavioral inhibition systems. Vascular (e.g., total peripheral resistance, or TPR) and electrodermal (e.g., electrodermal response, or EDR) measures, however, did not vary by condition. We discuss the results in relation to other research on motivational factors as they relate to stress and cardiovascular reactivity.     

The Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat: Using the Heart to Measure the Mind

The biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat (BPS) holds that during active goal pursuit, psychological processes reliably lead to specific patterns of cardiovascular responses. Because psychological experience during goal pursuit is not otherwise easily accessible, using cardiovascular responses to infer psychological states can provide valuable insight. In this context, challenge results from evaluating high resources and low demands, whereas threat results from evaluating low resources and high demands. Both challenge and threat lead the heart to beat faster and harder than during rest, but challenge results in dilation in arteries and more blood pumped, whereas threat results in constriction and less blood pumped. This article summarizes the BPS, presents recent research applications, and discusses remaining questions and future directions, including how research from other theoretical perspectives may clarify the nature of task engagement and how the BPS can inform the study of resilience to stressors.     

Social challenge and threat predict performance and cardiovascular responses during competitive video gaming

Individuals tend to compare themselves with others, and the results of these self-evaluations influence subsequent performance. When individuals perceive an advantage over their rivals (challenge-type response), they achieve higher levels of performance. According to the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, benefits of favourable appraisals are partly mediated by cardiovascular efficiency, which is increased by challenge and decreased by threat evaluations. In this study, we tested whether the biopsychosocial model can be extended to predict behavioural outcomes in esports. We expected that challenge-type evaluations would increase performance compared to threat-type evaluations. Eighty-two men were assigned to a challenge or threat group and completed three rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – a video game popular in esports. Individuals with the highest scores were awarded cash prizes. Cardiovascular markers of challenge and threat, cognitive appraisals, and game scores were recorded. We manipulated the social challenge and social threat evaluation by informing participants that their performance in the initial round was superior (challenge) or inferior (threat) compared with other gamers. We found that individuals with more gaming experience, believed they were better than other gamers, had higher heart rate and, in turn, achieved higher scores. These effects were related to initial situational appraisal at the baseline and were not boosted by feedback provided during the actual performance. These results are the first to document that social comparisons among gamers are accurate in the prediction of future physiological and behavioural outcomes. Furthermore, these findings emphasize that physiological responses mediate relationships between action-related cognitions and performance.     

Threatened by the unexpected: physiological responses during social interactions with expectancy-violating partners

Individuals who violate expectations increase uncertainty during social interactions. Three experiments explored whether expectancy-violating partners engender "threat" responses in perceivers. Participants interacted with confederates who violated or confirmed expectations while multiple measures were assessed, including cardiovascular reactivity, task performance, appraisals, and behavior. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants interacted with White or Latino confederates who described their family backgrounds as either high or low socioeconomic status. In Experiment 3, participants interacted with Asian or White confederates who spoke with expected accents or southern accents. Participants interacting with expectancy-violating partners (e.g., Asians with southern accents) exhibited cardiovascular responses consistent with threat, poorer task performance, and manifested negative and defeat-related behavior. Implications for decreasing prejudicial responses via uncertainty reduction are discussed.     

Decisions Under Distress: Stress Profiles Influence Anchoring and Adjustment

ABSTRACT— People frequently make decisions under stress. Understanding how stress affects decision making is complicated by the fact that not all stress responses are created equal. Challenge states, for example, occur when individuals appraise a stressful situation as demanding, but believe they have the personal resources to cope, and are characterized by efficient cardiovascular reactivity and approach motivation. Threat states, in contrast, occur when situational demands are perceived to outweigh resources and are characterized by less efficient cardiovascular reactivity and withdrawal motivation. We randomly assigned participants to social-feedback conditions (i.e., positive or negative feedback) designed to engender challenge or threat, or a no-stress condition. Participants then completed an anchoring-and-adjustment questionnaire. Those assigned to the challenge condition adjusted more from self-generated anchors than those assigned to the threat condition. Cardiovascular responses mediated the relationship between condition and adjustment. This study demonstrates the importance of considering profiles of cardiovascular reactivity when examining the influence of stress on decision making.     

Watching for gains and losses: The effects of motivational challenge and threat on attention allocation during a visual search task

This experiment tests predictions based on research and evidence around the biopsychosocial model (BPSM) that people in a challenge state have faster, more gain orientated search patterns than those in a threat state. Participants (n = 44) completed a motivated performance task involving the location of a target appearing in one of two search arrays: one associated with gaining points and the other associated with avoiding the loss of points. Midway through the task, participants received a false feedback prime about their performance invoking either challenge or threat. We found that participants receiving a challenge prime (high performance feedback) spent longer searching the gain array and made fewer fixations on the loss array. Those receiving a threat prime (low performance feedback) made fewer fixations on the gain array. These findings are in line with the BPSM and provide evidence that allocation of attention (measured using eye movement data) is related to challenge and threat.     

Turning social identity threat into challenge: Status stability and cardiovascular reactivity during inter-group competition

The current research examined the occurrence of threat and challenge in low and high status groups resulting from the stability of inter-group status differences during an inter-group competition. It was hypothesized that members of low status groups are relatively threatened when status differences are stable, but that this threat turns into a challenge when status differences become unstable. By contrast, unstable status relations were predicted to lead to threat in members of high status groups. Participants (N = 40) were categorized in minimal groups. Inter-group status differences, and the stability of these differences, were manipulated by providing feedback on three group tasks. During these tasks cardiovascular threat and challenge responses were measured following the biopsychosocial model [BPS; Blascovich, J., & Tomaka, J. (1996). The biopsychosocial model of arousal regulation. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 28, pp. 1-51). New York: Academic Press]. Results were in line with expectations and are discussed in terms of the BPS model and social identity theory.     

The relationship between self-esteem level, self-esteem stability, and cardiovascular reactions to performance feedback

The authors examined the notion that individuals with unstable high self-esteem possess implicit self-doubt. They adopted the framework of the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat and assessed spontaneous cardiovascular reactions in the face of success versus failure performance feedback. Study 1 revealed predicted interactions between feedback condition, self-esteem level, and self-esteem stability, such that participants with unstable high self-esteem exhibited relative threat (a negative reaction) in the failure condition, whereas those with stable high self-esteem exhibited relative challenge (a positive reaction). Study 2 replicated these results and provided additional evidence against plausible alternative explanations.     

When avoiding failure improves performance: Stereotype threat and the impact of performance goals

We examined the impact of inducing performance-avoidance and approach goals (versus no goal) on women??s math performance in stereotype threatening versus nonthreatening situations. Two experiments showed that inducing either stereotype threat (versus no-threat) or a performance-avoidance goal (versus no goal) alone led to decreased math performance. However, inducing both stereotype threat and a performance-avoidance goal increased women??s performance and challenge appraisals. These findings are consistent with the theory of regulatory fit. Performance and challenge appraisals increased when there was a fit between the motivation associated with stereotype threat (avoid failure) and the induced goal (avoid performing worse than others). Implications for stereotype threat, achievement goals and regulatory focus theories are discussed.     

Gender Traits and Cognitive Appraisal in Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Locus of Control

The present study examined the relationships between masculine and feminine traits, measured using the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI), and the way young adults appraise events (i.e., as threats or as challenges). We hypothesized that the locus of control (LOC)—i.e., individuals’ perceived control over the events that affect them—mediated these relationships. We tested these assumptions on two student samples from the French-speaking part of Switzerland (N?=?123 and N?=?504). Regression analyses demonstrated that, as expected, agentic masculine traits were positively related to challenge appraisals, and negatively to threat appraisals. LOC mediated these relationships, but most strongly among female participants. A different pattern was found for femininity. Feminine traits were positively related to increased challenge appraisals, but only in female participants of Sample 2. They were also related, in some cases, to increased threat appraisals. Furthermore, in line with previous research, LOC did not mediate the relationship between feminine traits and cognitive appraisal. Overall, the present results confirm that masculine and feminine stereotypical traits differ in their consequences for the way young adults appraise events in their everyday life.     

Creating bizarre false memories through imagination

The present study explored memory for familiar or usual actions (e.g., flip the coin) and bizarre or unusual actions (e.g., sit on the dice). In Session 1, action statements were presented to 210 participants, who had to either perform or imagine those actions. In Session 2, 24 h later, participants imagined performing various actions, some presented in the first session and others totally new. Finally, in Session 3, 2 weeks later, participants were tested on their memory for the original actions. We found that as the number of imaginings increased in Session 2, so did the proportion of did responses to actions that were only imagined or not even presented. This pattern was present for both bizarre and familiar actions. These results demonstrate that bizarre actions may lose the item distinctiveness that is used to make accurate memory decisions after repeated imagination.