Psychophysiological Assessment of Social Stress in Natural and Laboratory Situations
Using the Experience Sampling Method and Additional Heart Rate Measures
Abstract
Abstract. Experience sampling and psychophysiological ambulant assessment methods were employed to compare reactions to social stress using a laboratory stressor (The Trier Social Stress Test [TSST]) or a corresponding real-life condition (seminar presentation). Stress reactions were assessed by self-report as well as additional heart rate (AHR, i.e., heart rate increases corrected for physical activity and initial values) and were compared to a control condition in each group. Twenty-five participants gave a talk in a university seminar course and twenty-two participants took part in the TSST. The TSST elicited a greater overall physiological stress reaction as compared to the seminar presentation. However, analyses of dynamic AHR levels revealed that the groups of speakers showed different response profiles during the time course of the stress situations. AHR levels of both groups were similar at the beginning of the free speech. During the course of their presentation, seminar speakers downregulated their arousal level. The arousal level of TSST participants showed a further increase in the later portion of the TSST during the mental arithmetic task. Thus, the more prominent overall physiological stress reaction during the TSST as compared to the seminar presentation appeared to depend on different demand characteristics rather than on differences of laboratory versus real-life situations per se. The experience of emotional strain was greater in response to the social stressors than in response to control situations in both the TSST and seminar speaker group with no differential effects of the experimental setting (laboratory vs. real life). During the TSST procedure, salivary cortisol concentrations were also assessed. Significant correlations of AHR with cortisol level and subjective experience indicate that AHR measurement provides a valid psychophysiological indicator of social stress. These findings suggest that ambulatory assessment techniques successfully contribute to the validation of a common social stress task.
References
(1997). Cardiovascular and neuroendocrine adjustment to public speaking and mental arithmetic stressors. Psychophysiology, 34, 266–275.
(2014). Biological and psychological markers of stress in humans: Focus on the Trier Social Stress Test. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 38, 94–124.
(2006). Glucocorticoid release and memory consolidation in men and women. Psychological Science, 17, 466–470.
(2000).
Measuring emotion: Behavior, feeling, and physiology . In R. D. LaneL. NadelEds., Cognitive neuroscience of emotion (pp. 242–276). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.(1999). Cortisol fluctuates with increases and decreases in negative affect. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 24, 227–241.
(2012). Acute psychosocial stress: Does the emotional stress response correspond with physiological responses? Psychoneuroendocrinology, 37, 1111–1134.
(2000). The stability of and intercorrelations among cardiovascular, immune, endocrine, and psychological reactivity. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 22, 171–179.
(1995). Memory for medical history. Accuracy of recall. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 273–288.
(2004). Acute stressors and cortisol responses: A theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 355–391.
(2007). Psychological and psychophysiological ambulatory monitoring: A review of hardware and software solutions. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 23, 214–226.
(2010). The decade of behavior revisited: Future prospects for ambulatory assessment. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26, 151–153.
(2009). Ambulatory assessment – An innovative and promising approach for clinical psychology. European Psychologist, 14, 109–119. doi: 10.1027/1016-9040.14.2.109
(2008). SVF. Stressverarbeitungsfragebogen
[Stress Coping Style Questionnaire] . Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.(1982). Covariation and consistency of activation parameters. Biological Psychology, 15, 151–169.
(2001). FPI-R. Das Freiburger Persönlichkeitsinventar. 7, überarbeitete und neu normierte Auflage
[Freiburg Personality Inventory. 7th exp. ed.] . Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe.(2007). Ambulatory assessment: Monitoring behavior in daily life settings. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 23, 206–213.
(1993). ADS. Allgemeine Depressions Skala
[General Depression Scale] . Göttingen, Germany: Beltz Test GmbH.(2012). The physiological response to Trier Social Stress Test relates to subjective measures of stress during but not before or after the test. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 37, 119–124.
(2014). Recent developments of ambulatory assessment methods. Journal of Neuropsychology, 25, 279–287.
(2001).
Electronic momentary assessment: Real-world, real-time measurement of patient experience . In J. FahrenbergM. MyrtekEds., Progress in ambulatory assessment. Computer-assisted psychological and psychophysiological methods in monitoring and field studies (pp. 69–92). Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.(1999). Impact of gender, menstrual cycle phase, and oral contraceptives on the activity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 61, 154–162.
(1993). The “Trier Social Stress Test” – A tool for investigating psychobiological stress responses in a laboratory setting. Neuropsychobiology, 28, 76–81.
(2003). Compliance with saliva sampling protocols: Electronic monitoring reveals invalid cortisol daytime profiles in noncompliant subjects. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 313–319.
(2012). Salivary cortisol in ambulatory assessment – Some dos, some don’ts, and some open questions. Psychosomatic Medicine, 74, 418–431.
(2009). Why do we respond so differently? Reviewing determinants of human salivary cortisol responses to challenge. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34, 2–18.
(2014). Dimensional assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder in DSM-5. Psychiatric Research, 218, 143–147.
(2012). Clinical stress assessment using a visual analogue scale. Occupational Medicine, 62, 600–605.
(2013). Mood-congruent memory in daily life: Evidence from interactive ambulatory monitoring. Biological Psychology, 93, 308–315.
(2010). Emotionen, Lernen und Gedächtnis im Lebensalltag: Interaktives Psychophysiologisches Monitoring in Labor und Feld
[Emotions, learning and memory in real life: Interactive psychophysiological monitoring in laboratory and real-life settings] . Frankfurt a. M., Germany: Peter Lang.(2014). Affect and memory in real life: Evaluating the utility of interactive ambulatory assessment. Journal of Neuropsychology, 25, 267–278.
(1987). Panic attacks in the natural environment. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 558–565.
(1992). Do cardiovascular responses to laboratory stress relate to ambulatory blood pressure levels? Yes, in some of the people, some of the time. Psychosomatic Medicine, 54, 686–697.
(2010). Stress impairs retrieval of socially relevant information. Behavioral Neuroscience, 124, 288–293.
M. Myrtek (2004). Heart and emotion: Ambulatory monitoring studies in everyday life. Göttingen, Germany: Hogrefe & Huber.
(2005). Emotions in everyday life: An ambulatory monitoring study with female students. Biological Psychology, 68, 237–255.
(1996). Perception of emotions in everyday life: Studies with patients and normals. Biological Psychology, 42, 147–164.
(2001). Freiburger Monitoring System (FMS). Frankfurt a. M., Germany: Peter Lang.
(2014). Neuropsychology in the real world: Applications and implications of ambulatory assessment. Journal of Neuropsychology, 25, 233–238.
(1999). Changing psychobiological stress reactions by manipulating cognitive processes. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 33, 149–161.
(2008). Covariance between psychological and endocrine responses to pharmacological challenge and psychosocial stress: A question of timing. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70, 787–796.
(2014). Ambulatory assessment in neuropsychology. Journal of Neuropsychology, 25, 239–251.
(2003). Dissociation between reactivity of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis and the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system to repeated psychosocial stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 450–460.
(2008). Ecological momentary assessment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4, 1–32.
(2015). Intra-individual psychological and physiological responses to acute laboratory stressors of different intensity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 51, 227–236.
(1994). The relationship between stress reactivity in the laboratory and in real-life: Is reliability the limitation factor? Psychophysiology, 8, 297–304.
(1996). The effects of perceived stress, traits, mood states, and stressful daily events on salivary cortisol. Psychosomatic Medicine, 58, 447–458.
(2010). Emotions beyond the laboratory: Theoretical fundaments, study design, and analytic strategies for advanced ambulatory assessment. Biological Psychology, 84, 552–569.
(2012). Cortisol responses to naturalistic and laboratory stress in student teachers: Comparison with a non-stress control day. Stress and Health, 29, 143–149.
. (1991). Declaration of Helsinki. Law Med Health Care, 19, 264–265.
