Reshaping our Reactions to Stress
Our perceptions of stress, and our responses to stress, have ramifications on how well we function. Researchers were interested in whether reevaluation of stress-induced arousal, in a mind over matter experiment, could improve cardiovascular and cognitive performance.
The Biopsychosocial Model of Challenge and Threat is a theory that when stressed, there are two types of responses. When people believe that have enough resources to deal with the stress, they mount a challenge response. But when people believe that stressful demands exceed their coping resources, they experience a threat response.
When we are under stress, one of the first signals from our body is increased heart rate, which feels like our heart is racing. We often interpret this signal as anxiety or fear. This negative interpretation can lead to a threat response, and the perception that the stressful demands exceed our resources to deal with them.
A challenge response is characterized by increased blood flow and cardiac efficiency, stimulating a cognitive approach orientation to the challenge. An approach orientation to a challenge is a helpful adaptive response.
A threat response is characterized by reduced cardiovascular efficiency and vasoconstriction, which increases blood pressure. This instigates a cognitive avoidance orientation, and the preparation of the body for defeat and damage. A threat response also increases our attention to threat-related information, such as negative words or body language. A bias for threat-related information, experienced as a state of high alert, is associated with anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder.
One form of emotion regulation is reappraisal, or the capacity to rethink about stress arousal as the body’s ability to marshal resources to meet a challenge. To examine the reappraisal strategy, 49 participants (25% female, average age 22 years) were randomly assigned to one of three groups during a stressful public speaking task:
Reappraisal Group: were told that arousal is adaptive and helpful to performance;
Attention Reorientation Group: were told the best way to reduce nervousness and improve performance was to ignore the stress; and
Control Group: were given no instructions.
The participant’s cardiovascular and attentional bias responses were recorded.
Compared to the other two groups, the participants in the Reappraisal Group experienced more adaptive cardiovascular stress responses (increased cardiac efficiency and lower vascular resistance) and decreased attentional bias. Researchers found that reappraising stress arousal can provide physiological and cognitive benefits.
Takeaway: Reshaping how stress arousal is interpreted can result in a challenge response, where attention bias toward negative information is reduced, and cardiovascular response is efficient, rather than harmful.
Source
Jeremy P. Jamieson, et al., Mind over Matter: Reappraising Arousal Improves Cardiovascular and Cognitive Responses to Stress, 141(3) J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 417-422, Aug, 2012, Mind over Matter: Reappraising Arousal Improves Cardiovascular and Cognitive Responses to Stress - PMC (nih.gov).
