Threat of shock produced a significant mean increase in heart rate compared to no threat, with greater acceleration in subjects reporting prior fear of shock.
Does threat of shock increase heart rate differently based on baseline anxiety or fear of shock?
Cognitive appraisal of an experimental situation, such as specific fear of a stressor, is a more important determinant of heart rate response to stress than general anxiety traits.
ABSTRACT Although there is growing consensus that psychophysiological response to stress is in part a function of the S s’ definition of the situation, many investigators continue to ignore individual differences in S s’ interpretation of stressor situations. In this study, high (HA) and low (LA) anxiety S s were run in Threat of Shock and No Threat Conditions. The Threat Condition produced a significant mean increase in heart rate (HR) as compared to the No Threat Condition, but there was no difference in the HR response of HA and LA S s to threat of shock. However, S s who reported moderate to extreme fear of shock two months prior to the experiment responded with greater HR acceleration than S s who reported little or no fear. These findings were discussed in terms of a conceptualization of “anxiety” which distinguishes between anxiety as a transitory state of the organism and as a relatively permanent personality trait. It was concluded that S s’“cognitive appraisal” of an experimental situation was an important determinant of psychophysiological responses to stress.
Hodges et al. (Fri,) conducted a other in Anxiety. Threat of shock vs. No threat was evaluated on Heart rate. Threat of shock produced a significant mean increase in heart rate compared to no threat, with greater acceleration in subjects reporting prior fear of shock.