| dc.description.abstract | The present study sought to replicate previous findings
on the discrepancy between Type A's self-reporting of stress
and their physiological arousal. An attempt was also made
to clarify whether this discrepancy was due to A's inability
to detect their heart rate changes, or simply due to their
"attentional style". Twenty-eight A's and twenty-eight B's
were selected from 200 male Introductory Psychology students
on the basis of extreme scores on the Jenkins Activity Survey
(JAS).
After a 5-minute rest period, subjects were asked to
estimate their heart rates, after which they were given
feedback. Two minutes later, they were again asked to estimate
their heart rates. The subsequent session was the
limit period where the subjects were presented with taperecorded
string of digits of increasing length until they
reached their own limit. Subjects then performed a digit
recall task twice: under instructions to concentrate hard on
the task to maximize performance or to focus on their heart
rate during the task performance. The order of these two
instructions was randomly assigned to each subject. Upon
completion of each task, the subjects estimated their heart
rates during the digit recall. They also completed the anxiety
scale from the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List
(MAACL) and a self-report questionnaire. Actual heart rate
was recorded throughout the experimental session. The results indicated that A*s manifested greater heart
rate increases than B's during the task, but no differences
were noted in their anxiety scores on the MAACL, thus,
replicating the previous reported discrepancy. Contrary to
expectation. Type A subjects were found to significantly
over-estimate their heart rates, compared to Type B's, both
at rest and during the task performance. Feedback significantly
improved Type A's accuracy of their heart rate estimation,
although attention-directing instructions had no
effect in either A's or B's. The findings of the present
study are difficult to reconcile with the suggestion that
A's do not report higher stress because they under-estimate
their level of physiological arousal. | |
