Stress reappraisal and its effects on emotional bias, state anxiety, social performance and physiological measurements

Abstract

Many individuals will struggle with performance anxiety throughout their life. Clinical research has shown that a positive conceptualization of stress and stress arousal (stress reappraisal) can lead to positive outcomes such as increased cardiac efficiency, higher GRE test scores and decreased bias towards threat cues as measured by physiological, performance, and attentional bias measures in a clinical population. Little is known regarding these processes in non-clinical populations. As such, this study examined the effects of different conceptualizations of stress (positive, negative, and neutral) on blood pressure (mean arterial pressure), social performance ratings, and emotional bias via physiological, observational, self-report, and attentional bias measures within a non-clinical population. In this study, participants who were instructed to conceptualize stress as positive had significantly lower mean arterial pressure (MAP) during a stressful task and significantly higher social performance during a social evaluation task in comparison to participants who were instructed to conceptualize stress as negative. This research suggests that a positive conceptualization of stress might improve cardiac function and performance on certain tasks in a non-clinical sample. Implications from this research suggest that if one who perceives stress and stress arousal as beneficial may experience an increase in their performance during a social evaluation situation, a decrease in the negative effects of stress arousal on physiology, and a positive impact on stress arousal responses.