Dreading the boards: stress response to a competitive audition characterized by social-evaluative threat

Abstract

The capacity of psychosocial stressors to provoke the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis has been demonstrated to vary depending upon a number of psychological factors. Laboratory stressors characterized by social-evaluative threat are proposed to be the most efficacious in the elicitation of a cortisol stress response. Salivary cortisol, cardiovascular, and subjective responses of 16 healthy adults facing a naturalistic stressor characterized by social-evaluative threat (competitive performance auditions) were examined. Audition exposure was sufficient to provoke significant cortisol, arterial blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), and subjective stress responses. Cortisol response reactivity (area under the curve with respect to increase [AUCi]) also correlated with participants' subjective rating of social-evaluative threat. The competitive performance audition context is therefore considered a promising context in which to further explore cortisol responsivity to social-evaluative threat.

Sex and stress: Men and women show different cortisol responses to psychological stress induced by the Trier social stress test and the Iowa singing social stress test

“…Estimates suggest that 25-50% of professional symphony orchestra members, opera singers, and collegiate musicians experience severe music performance anxiety that diminishes performance quality (Kenny, 2011). As in other performance contexts with inherent social evaluation (e.g., public speaking, acting), vocalists and instrumentalists experience significant subjective and physiological stress responses to both individual and group music performances, and such performance anxiety occurs regardless of expertise (Beck et al, 2000;Yoshie et al, 2009;Boyle et al, 2013;Pilger et al, 2014; for a discussion of how experience may mediate performance anxiety, see Sârbescu and Dorgo, 2014). Music performance anxiety appears to begin in childhood and adolescence (Kenny, 2011) and varies on a continuum from low-stress group rehearsals to high-stress solo performances (Fredrikson and Gunnarsson 1992;Fancourt et al, 2015;Nicholson et al, 2015).…”