Stress reactions of psychiatric patients to a stressor film: an attempt at experimental reduction of threat

The present experiment investigated the effectiveness of relaxation and cognitive rehearsal in reducing stress reactions of psychiatric patients to a stressor film. 39 Ss were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 training conditions—muscular relaxation, verbal pre-exposure to the film threat scenes (cognitive rehearsal) and a no-treatment control condition. The film was shown twice to investigate adaptation effects. The physiological measure of stress recorded was skin conductance. The psychological stress measurement consisted of scores on the Affect Adjective Check List. No treatment, adaptation or interaction affects were found. Doubt was therefore cast on the effectiveness of cognitive rehearsal in reducing the stress reactions of psychiatric patients.