Challenge and threat imagery manipulates heart rate and anxiety responses to stress

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of different types of mental imagery on heart rate and anxiety responses to a standard psychological stress task. Using a within-design, 25 females (M=23.24; SD=4.19) imaged three different scripts (challenge, threat, and neutral) to manipulate appraisal of a speech preparation task. Following each script, participants completed the task. Heart rate was recorded during a resting baseline prior to each imagery script and during each speech preparation task. Cognitive and somatic anxiety and self-confidence were assessed prior to the speech preparation trials, and immediately prior to each speech preparation following imagery. Following threat imagery, participants reported the speech preparation task to be significantly more stressful and threatening, and experienced lower levels of confidence and more negative interpretations of their anxiety symptoms compared with the challenge and neutral imagery conditions. Additionally, there was a significantly greater increase in heart rate following threat imagery compared with challenge and neutral imagery. Findings demonstrate that imagery can alter stress appraisal and the accompanying cardiovascular and psychological responses to standardized stress tasks. Imagery interventions, acknowledging the stressful nature of events, but emphasising feelings of efficacy and control are likely to lead to more adaptive coping.

Self-Compassion and Psycho-Physiological Recovery From Recalled Sport Failure

“…Further, participants reported that during the imagery task, they felt the emotions of the image ( M = 4.70 out of 7, SD = 1.10) and used the image ( M = 5.25 out of 7, SD = 0.96) for the duration of the task. Our participants showed slightly higher ease of imaging compared to participants in a study by Williams et al (2017); M = 4.05 out of 7 in stress condition who used a similar scale to assess participant’s ease of imaging a stressful imaging task. Consideration of participants’ physiological and self-reported responses suggest that the imagery induction successfully induced a stress response in the expected directions.…”

Emotional Intelligence, Motivational Climate and Levels of Anxiety in Athletes from Different Categories of Sports: Analysis through Structural Equations

“…Concerning the connection with trait-anxiety, it is negative in both categories of sports, showing greater strength in individual sports. These data can be explained by Ros et al [ 67 ] in that instructions that emphasize the idea that emotional intelligence is an ability which can be learnt with the aim of controlling fundamental emotions in the sports context, such as stress, aggressiveness or anxiety, the latter being a disturbing element that deteriorates sport performance [ 52 , 68 ]. In collective sports, emotional intelligence rises and the levels of trait-anxiety fall; this is explained by the fact that in this category of sports, pressure endured by athletes during training sessions and competitions is distributed between members of the team [ 69 ].…”

Motivation, Anxiety, and Emotional Intelligence Are Associated with the Practice of Contact and Non-Contact Sports: An Explanatory Model

“…This corroborates findings from studies of individual and collective sports. Ros et al [76] identified that emotional intelligence allows athletes to adopt an orientation towards the task, increasing their focus on personal improvement, enabling them to reduce their anxiety levels [77]. Moreover, higher emotional intelligence enables participants to better understand the stressors which produce a negative emotional state, thus enabling them to avoid these stressors and avoid high state anxiety [76].…”