Stress

The Socially Evaluated Cold-Pressor Test (SECPT (Schwabe et al., 2008) [1]; reliably elicits stress responses. We refined the group-administered version of the SECPT (SECPT-G) aiming to increase its' effectiveness. In Experiment 1 (N = 39), we gathered data from 12 participants simultaneously, employing a stress confederate for each participant. In Experiment 2 (N = 69), we gathered data from six participants simultaneously, employing either six stress confederates (individual-observation) or a single one (group-observation). In Experiment 1, we found that the SECPT-G elicited cortisol responses compared to a control condition; in Experiment 2, we replicated these findings and observed that cortisol responses were similar in the individual- and the group-observation setting. The findings of Experiment 2 were corroborated by people's subjective stress experience. Importantly, both experiments show a similar magnitude of cortisol response, and a greater responder rate than in the regular SECPT or the regular Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). The presented SECPT-G template may thus serve as a reliable and efficient stress induction tool that allows standardization across research groups.

Stressors and mortality salience share considerable conceptual overlap. Thus, we examined the impact of a standard mortality salience and a standard stress manipulation on the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis via endocrine measures of stress; a neutral control condition completed the design. The results revealed that stress elicits increased salivary α-amylase and salivary cortisol reactions; however, no endocrine reactions were found in the mortality salience and the control conditions. To the contrary, we did not find any differences regarding positive and negative affect between any conditions. Implications for social and health psychology are being discussed.

The neuro-physiological response to stress has far-reaching implications for learning and memory processes. Here, we examined whether and how the stress-induced release of cortisol, following the socially-evaluated cold pressor test, influenced the acquisition of preferences in an evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure. We found that when the stressor preceded the evaluation phase, cortisol responders showed decreased evaluative conditioning effects. By contrast, impairing effects of a stressor-induced cortisol release before encoding were not found. Moreover, explicit memory was not found to be affected by the stressor or its timing. Implications of the timing-dependent effects of stress-induced cortisol release on EC and the relation between stress and associative memory are discussed.

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) technology has found its way into nearly all fields of psychology. Previous studies indicated that virtual reality adaptations of the TSST are less potent in stimulating HPA-axis responses, with lower salivary cortisol responses recorded as compared to the in-vivo TSST. (TSST-IV). In the present experiment we tested the stress-induction potential of a refined version of the TSST-VR using a fully orthogonal experimental design in which ninety-three healthy males were either assigned to the TSST condition or a corresponding control condition in a real or virtual environment. We found a significant increase of endocrine, autonomic and self-reported stress markers in both stress conditions. Notably, we found a robust rise in salivary cortisol to the TSST-VR comparable to that observed in the TSST-IV. Despite subtle differences in response between virtual and in vivo settings, we conclude that VR adaptations of in-vivo stressors have the potential to induce real physiological and subjective reactions.

Why is it that people do not change their behavior in the face of global threats? We hypothesized that when people who have been encouraged to engage in pro-environmental behavior are threatened, they fall back into their (bad) habits instead of exhibiting behavioral change; existential threat may thereby counteract pro-environmental norms. We tested this hypothesis in two field studies in which participants were encouraged to reduce paper use. Although the requests initially resulted in decreased paper use, this pro-environmental behavior ceased when an existential threat was induced. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for social psychology theorizing and behavioral change.