FlashReportNot I, but she: The beneficial effects of self-distancing on challenge/threat cardiovascular responses
Section snippets
Participants
One hundred thirty-three undergraduates (68 women) participated in the study for partial course credit and had useable data in at least one of the two speech tasks. Of these, 132 had analyzable data for the first speech task, and 128 had analyzable data for the second speech task. This should have provided adequate power (0.80) to detect an approximate effect size of ηp2 = 0.06.
In a typical challenge/threat study, approximately 10–15% of the sample may be lost due to recording problems. In
Results
As is standard in challenge/threat research (e.g., Lupien et al., 2012, Seery et al., 2013), cardiovascular reactivity values were calculated by subtracting the value of the last baseline minute from each of the 2 min from both speeches (see Llabre, Spitzer, Saab, Ironson, & Schneiderman, 1991, for psychometric justification for the use of change scores in psychophysiology). Reactivity values were then averaged across minutes separately within each speech. This approach should increase
Discussion
The current study informs our understanding of self-distancing processes through the use of theoretically-based psychophysiological measures. Participants who self-distanced by using non-first-person pronouns and their own name while preparing for an upcoming speech showed cardiovascular responses consistent with greater challenge during the speech, compared to those who used first-person pronouns. Self-distancing did not, however, influence cardiovascular markers of task engagement. Given both
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Strong hearts, open minds: Cardiovascular challenge predicts non-defensive responses to ingroup-perpetrated violence
2021, Biological PsychologyCitation Excerpt :Congruent results were found for HR reactivity: a significant increase above baseline in both conditions (ingroup-perpetrator: M = 24.53, SD = 12.01, t(56) = 15.42, p<.001, d = 2.04; outgroup-perpetrator: M = 26.02, SD = 15.40, t(54) = 12.42, p < .001, d = 1.69), and no significant difference in HR reactivity between conditions, t(109) = 0.57, p = .571, d = .036. Similar to others who have measured challenge/threat reactivity across multiple contexts (e.g., Seery et al., 2009, 2010; Streamer, Seery, Kondrak, Lamarche, & Saltsman, 2017; Lamarche et al., 2020), we found that TPR reactivity and CO reactivity were strongly negatively correlated, r(107)=-.74, p < .001, and thus, our primary analysis was based on a single index of challenge/threat reactivity to streamline the results. This single index was computed by subtracting standardized TPR reactivity from standardized CO reactivity, such that higher scores indicated more challenge (or less threat) (for similar approaches, see Blascovich et al., 2004; Seery et al., 2009).
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2020, Journal of Experimental Social PsychologyClever girl: Benevolent sexism and cardiovascular threat
2020, Biological PsychologyCitation Excerpt :The last minute of baseline was selected as it should represent the truest resting state after relaxing for several minutes. The decision to use the final minute of baseline was determined a priori, in keeping with our previous work (e.g., Le et al., 2019; Saltsman, Seery, Kondrak, Lamarche, & Streamer, 2019; Seery et al., 2016; Streamer, Seery, Kondrak, Lamarche, & Saltsman, 2017). As is standard in challenge/threat research in general and when using this task in particular (e.g., Seery et al., 2004; Lupien et al., 2012), our a priori strategy was to use the mean of reactivity from the first two task minutes in analyses.
When a small self means manageable obstacles: Spontaneous self-distancing predicts divergent effects of awe during a subsequent performance stressor
2019, Journal of Experimental Social PsychologyCitation Excerpt :This could result in either greater challenge or lower task engagement than both high self-distancing in the control condition and low self-distancing (self-immersion) in the awe condition. However, given that Streamer et al. (2017) found differences in challenge/threat but not task engagement, we expected to find cardiovascular responses consistent with greater challenge (lower TPR/higher CO) rather than lower task engagement (lower HR/VC) for participants high in spontaneous self-distancing in the awe condition, relative to others. One hundred and eighty-two (81 women) introductory psychology students participated in the study for partial course credit (91 in each condition).
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2023, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior