Mind over matter: reappraising arousal improves cardiovascular and cognitive responses to stress

Researchers have theorized that changing the way we think about our bodily responses can improve our physiological and cognitive reactions to stressful events. However, the underlying processes through which mental states improve downstream outcomes are not well understood. To this end, we examined whether reappraising stress-induced arousal could improve cardiovascular outcomes and decrease attentional bias for emotionally negative information. Participants were randomly assigned to either a reappraisal condition in which they were instructed to think about their physiological arousal during a stressful task as functional and adaptive, or to 1 of 2 control conditions: attention reorientation and no instructions. Relative to controls, participants instructed to reappraise their arousal exhibited more adaptive cardiovascular stress responses-increased cardiac efficiency and lower vascular resistance-and decreased attentional bias. Thus, reappraising arousal shows physiological and cognitive benefits. Implications for health and potential clinical applications are discussed.     

Heart rate perception in the type A personality

Heart rate (HR) estimation and actual HRs were obtained from 28 Type A and 28 Type B males before and after receiving feedback about their actual HR levels, and during performance of a moderately stressful task, digit recall. Self-reports of affective arousal during digit recall were also obtained from the Anxiety scale of the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List (MAACL) and a self-report questionnaire measuring affective reactions. Type As showed significantly higher HR increases during the digit recall than did Type Bs. Type As also reported significantly more affective reactions than Type Bs on the self-report questionnaire, but not on the MAACL Anxiety scale. Type As significantly overestimated their HRs relative to Type B at rest before receiving feedback, and during the digit-recall task. These results contradict the usual assumption that Type As underestimate their arousal levels.     

Type A behavior, aerobic power, and cardiovascular recovery from a psychosocial stressor

Fifty-six male university students were tested for actual aerobic power and Type A behavior (Form T of the Jenkins Activity Survey) before performing the Stroop Color-Word Interference Test. Neither fitness nor Type A was related to magnitude of heart rate (HR) increase, and only Type A was related to speed of recovery following the test, with Type As being slower to return to baseline HR levels than Type Bs. These results are discussed in terms of the need to consider factors that mediate speed of recovery from stress.     

Stress reappraisal during a mathematics competition: testing effects on cardiovascular approach-oriented states and exploring the moderating role of gender

Background and objectives: Effects of reappraising stress arousal during an interpersonal competition were tested on physiological functioning and performance. Additionally, the moderating role of gender was explored.

Design and method: Participants (N?=?279) were randomly assigned to a stress reappraisal, stress-is-debilitating, or a neutral control condition. Reappraisal materials educated participants about the adaptive benefits of stress, whereas stress-is-debilitating materials instructed participants to avoid stress. Control materials did not mention stress. Participants then competed against a gender-matched confederate on a 10-minute math performance task while cardiovascular reactivity was assessed. Participants were instructed to complete math problems as quickly and accurately as they could and were informed that a winner and loser would be determined by the resulting math scores.

Results: Reappraising stress arousal led to more adaptive challenge-like cardiovascular responses, but no condition effects were observed on math performance. Exploratory analyses revealed that reappraisal instructions were effective for improving physiological functioning and facilitating performance for men, but women were unaffected by the manipulation.

Conclusions: Reappraising stress arousal can improve physiological functioning during interpersonal competitions, but effects may be limited to men. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Feedback versus an illusion in time

The accuracy of many perceptual comparisons depends greatly on the order in which the to-be-compared stimuli are presented. With comparisons of durations around 300 ms, these presentation-order effects do not diminish, even with extended practice, when feedback about response accuracy is withheld. Providing such feedback greatly diminishes presentation-order effects and coincidentally produces substantial increases in response accuracy. The feedback acts in part through inducing response biases and in part through changes in sensitivity. The contradiction between studies which report time-order errors in duration comparison and those which do not is attributable to differences in the use of information feedback.     

Racism,stress, and sense of personal control among Aboriginal Australian pregnant women

Objectives

To characterise racism experiences in the past year and to investigate a causal association between racism, stress, and sense of personal control in a sample of pregnant South Australian Aboriginal women.

Methods

Data was from the baseline sample of 369 Aboriginal women participating in a randomised controlled trial to prevent early caries in children. Data on demographics, racism experiences, stress, sense of personal control, and health behaviours were collected through interview-guided questionnaires. Linear regression modelling was used to test the association between racism and stress and sense of personal control in separate models. The final models presented were adjusted for confounding.

Results

Participant mean age was 24.7 years (SD ±0.30; Min–Max: 14–43 years). Almost two-thirds (64.7%) resided in rural and regional areas and the highest educational attainment for almost three-quarters (73.7%) was high school or less. Nearly half (48.3%) reported at least one experience of racism in the previous year and almost one third (31.8%) reported racism occurring in a public setting. The adjusted regression coefficients for the effect of racism on stress and sense of personal control were respectively 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.28, 0.93) and −0.36 (95% CI −0.68, −0.04).

Conclusions

Our findings contribute with evidence that racism is one of the psychosocial causes of poor mental health among Aboriginal Australians. Culturally sensitive and safe mental health interventions may be beneficial in buffering racism effects during pregnancy. Societal-level policies aimed at both naming and reducing institutionalised racism against Aboriginal Australian Aboriginals are necessary.