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Biological Psychology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Biological Psychology

Effects Of Self-Affirmation On Emotion And Cardiovascular Responses, Wei-Ju Chen Aug 2017

Effects Of Self-Affirmation On Emotion And Cardiovascular Responses, Wei-Ju Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Self-affirmation is the act of focusing on important aspects of the self, such as personal values and characteristic. Benefits of self-affirmation have been documented in past research. However, the immediate impacts of self-affirmation on cardiovascular responses have not been fully explored. Therefore, the present study examined such effects both during and consequent to the practice of self-affirmation. One hundred and twenty-five participants completed the study. A within-subject design was used, in which each participant went through both the control and self-affirmation conditions (the order of presentation was counterbalanced). In the self-affirmation condition, participants were asked to write about their top-ranked …


Cumulative Trauma, Emotion Reactivity And Salivary Cytokine Response Following Acute Stress Among Healthy Women., Yvette Z. Szabo Aug 2017

Cumulative Trauma, Emotion Reactivity And Salivary Cytokine Response Following Acute Stress Among Healthy Women., Yvette Z. Szabo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study furthers understanding of how trauma exposure may be connected to the development and maintenance of poor health by focusing on cytokines, tightly regulated proteins of the immune system. Cytokine responses to acute stress have been associated with the onset of poorer mental health in physically healthy women. The present study examined how two factors recently associated with cytokine reactivity –cumulative trauma and emotion reactivity– are associated with salivary cytokine reactivity among healthy women. Seventy-one women, screened to be physically and mentally healthy, completed a laboratory acute stress paradigm and self-report measures of state emotion and trauma exposure. Participants …