Effects of social anxiety and evaluative threat on cardiovascular responses to active performance situations

Self-Focus and Cardiovascular Effects of Stressor Anticipation and Active Coping: The Moderating Influence of Trait Social Anxiety

“…Participants were assigned to social anxiety groups on the basis of a median split of the final distribution of test scores (M = 11.43, SD = 5.12). The sample mean was comparable to means observed by Lück and cutoff criteria employed in previous research noting cardiovascular and psychological effects of social anxiety [17,18]. The mean score for high socially anxious individuals was 15.53 (SD = 3.43), the mean score for low socially anxious individuals was 7.33 (SD = 2.60), p < 0.0001.…”

“…Replicating prior research [17,44], cardiac activity was unrelated to affective arousal. Interestingly, differential effects of enhanced self-focus were confined to speech preparation.…”

“Having the heart to be evaluated”: The differential effects of fears of positive and negative evaluation on emotional and cardiovascular responses to social threat

“…Nevertheless, the extant literature remains opaque regarding the relationship between social anxiety and physiological responses to evaluative threat -indeed, examination of potential moderators of autonomic responses to social evaluation as a function of social anxiety continues to be called for FEARS OF EVALUATION AND RESPONSES TO SOCIAL THREAT 6 (Jamieson, Nock, & Mendes, 2013). Across a number of studies to date (although also see below for a number of exceptions), greater social anxiety has been linked to greater heart rate in response to social threat (e.g., see Davidson, Marshall, Tomarken, & Henriques, 2000;Gerlach, Wilhelm, & Roth, 2003;Gerlach, Mourlane, & Rist, 2004;Gramer & Saria, 2007;Grossman et al, 2001). Although a number of studies have failed to support this link (see also Edelmann & Baker, 2002;Hofmann, 2006;Jamieson et al, 2013;Mauss, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2003;Panayiotou & Vrana, 1998;Wilhelm, Kochar, Roth, & Gross, 2001), it nonetheless seems reasonable to conclude that heart rate can, at least under certain conditions (e.g., see Procedure section for an example of such conditions), serve as a valid, global index of sympathetic arousal in response to social threat.…”

“…14 social anxiety: Gramer & Saria, 2007; but see also, e.g., Edelmann & Baker, 2002;e.g., FNE: Papageorgiou & Wells, 2002). The CNAP TM Monitor 500 (CNSystems; Graz, Austria) used in the present study also assesses systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP); thus, the latter three indices were also examined in response to the speech, for exploratory purposes.…”

Phase synchronization of hemodynamic variables and respiration during mental challenge

“…It has been stated that task difficulty drives active effort as long as success is perceived as possible and worthwhile (Wright, 1996), and cardiovascular response magnitude is proportional to mental effort (Callister et al, 1992;Eubanks et al, 2002;Gendolla and Richter, 2006;Gramer and Saria, 2007;Iani et al, 2004;Richter et al, 2008;Vincent et al, 1996, Wright, 1996. Such mental stress effects are based upon dynamic relations between cardiovascular variables such as heart rate and blood pressure (Berntson et al, 1997).…”