Effects of stress and conflict difficulty on arousal and conflict resolution

Abstract

The present study was concerned with the effects of conflict type and shock stress on arousal and conflict resolution. Subjects were randomly assigned to either stress (random shock) or non‐stress conditions. Each subject was exposed to three trials of each of the four Lewinian conflict types and three control trials, interspersed among additional non‐conflict trials. Resolution performance was assessed in terms of speed of resolution and error frequency. Phasic electrodermal responsivity served as a measure of arousal. Results supported several hypotheses. It was found that both stress and conflict increased the magnitude of electrodermal responses and that larger responses occurred under more difficult conflicts. In addition, increased conflict difficulty produced lower speeds, and stress increased errors. Finally, stress caused a greater increase in error frequency on conflict than on control trials. Results were discussed in terms of arousal and stress hypotheses found in the theories of Lewin and Dollard & Miller.