2023 - Full Presentation Schedule
It’s Hostile, but it’s Not Stressful
Abstract
Experimental research is necessary to determine the influence of stress on child development. However, no stress paradigm is available for use with children. Previous research has suggested that exposure to hostile cues (e.g., loud voice, reprimanding intention) would be an appropriate option for stress induction.
Previous attempts with undergraduate students to determine if hostile audio stimuli induce stress has shown that while recognized as hostility, it is not stressful. However, those who perceive the stimuli as more hostile did report expecting it to have a greater impact on their mood. Qualitative surveys were distributed to undergraduate students (N = 41) to assess aspects of a real-life hostile encounter that are most stressful and which aspects of the hostile audio stimuli might need editing to increase the likelihood of a stress response.
Quantitative analyses suggest that those who have experienced greater levels of hostility exposure in their own lives found the stimuli to be less hostile (M = 5.95; range 1-10) compared to individuals who have experienced an equivalent level of hostility (M = 7.60) or a lower level of hostility (M = 7.67).
Additionally, although one’s perception of the quality of their family relationships and their trait anger are correlated (r = 0.38; worse relationships with family corresponded to higher anger levels), neither was related to how hostile they perceived our hostile audio stimuli. Qualitative analyses are in progress and modifications to the hostile audio stimuli will be considered as a result of those findings.
Keywords:
Stress, Child Development, Hostility, Trauma, Threat Response, Experimental Stimuli Validation
It’s Hostile, but it’s Not Stressful
CASB 105 - Psychology
Experimental research is necessary to determine the influence of stress on child development. However, no stress paradigm is available for use with children. Previous research has suggested that exposure to hostile cues (e.g., loud voice, reprimanding intention) would be an appropriate option for stress induction.
Previous attempts with undergraduate students to determine if hostile audio stimuli induce stress has shown that while recognized as hostility, it is not stressful. However, those who perceive the stimuli as more hostile did report expecting it to have a greater impact on their mood. Qualitative surveys were distributed to undergraduate students (N = 41) to assess aspects of a real-life hostile encounter that are most stressful and which aspects of the hostile audio stimuli might need editing to increase the likelihood of a stress response.
Quantitative analyses suggest that those who have experienced greater levels of hostility exposure in their own lives found the stimuli to be less hostile (M = 5.95; range 1-10) compared to individuals who have experienced an equivalent level of hostility (M = 7.60) or a lower level of hostility (M = 7.67).
Additionally, although one’s perception of the quality of their family relationships and their trait anger are correlated (r = 0.38; worse relationships with family corresponded to higher anger levels), neither was related to how hostile they perceived our hostile audio stimuli. Qualitative analyses are in progress and modifications to the hostile audio stimuli will be considered as a result of those findings.
Keywords:
Stress, Child Development, Hostility, Trauma, Threat Response, Experimental Stimuli Validation