Physiological and psychological factors in stress

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to define stress, to formulate a model of stress containing both physiological and psychological components, and to test certain predictions derived from the model. Stress was defined as a reaction which occurs when the individual is encountering difficulty in his efforts to achieve a favorable outcome, when this outcome is important to him. It was predicted that stress would lead to higher magnitudes of autonomic responsiveness, as compared to a control condition. It was also predicted that response magnitudes, under stress and control conditions, would diverge from one another. No predictions were made concerning the role of psychological variables. Fifty female college sorority pledges experienced a stress condition in which they played the role of a person attempting to obtain a refund for a faulty garment from an experimenter assistant, who played the role of a complaint department manager. The situation was structured so that the subject was unsuccessful. Each S experienced a similar control condition in which she played the role of a job applicant, experimenter assistant taking the role of a personnel manager. Subjects were invariably successful in this second task. All Ss were aware of the artificiality of the role-play setting but were not informed that the outcome of each session was predetermined. Autonomic measures were taken on heart rate, heart rate variability, systolic blood pressure, changes in skin resistance and skin conductance. Psychological data included a measure of affect based on the stress condition, 13 MMPI scales, 3 self-ratings and 3 "other" ratings on autonomy, adjustment, and introversion. Analysis of the affect data indicated that Ss did experience distress while in the stress condition. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance strongly supported the first hypothesis but failed to reach statistical significance for the second hypothesis. All ten differences (5 response measures by 2 hypotheses) were, however, in the expected direction. Positive findings of ;relationships between psychological and physiological variables were few. Among the more definitive findings, supporting evidence was obtained for a statement by Lazarus and Alfert that high deniers (MMPI-K scale) will admit to less affective disturbance, but will show greater autonomic reactivity than low deniers. Evidence was also obtained indicating that introversion is positively related to hart rate reactivity.