Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Kevin Larkin

Committee Member

Melissa Blank

Committee Member

Elisa Krackow

Abstract

Optimism is a positive psychological factor that has been associated with improved mental and physical health outcomes. To better understand the mechanism through which optimism results in improved health, researchers have examined whether autonomic reactivity to stress moderates this relation. While many studies have examined the relation between optimism and autonomic reactivity to stress, findings are mixed. Although some studies have found optimism to be associated with reductions in heart rate and blood pressure responses to acute stress presentations, many studies exploring this relation have found optimism to be associated with greater blood pressure responses to stress. However, most of these studies have used active-coping versus passive-coping stress tasks to assess autonomic reactivity. This study aimed to investigate the relation between optimism and autonomic reactivity using both active-coping and passive-coping stress tasks to examine whether observed differences in reactivity to stress in previous studies is moderated by this task dimension. Participants with high and low scores on a standardized measure of optimism completed both an active- and passive-coping stress task. Various reactivity measures, including blood pressure, heart rate, and heart rate variability were monitored to assess cardiovascular reactivity to the tasks. It was hypothesized that participants with high optimism would demonstrate higher cardiovascular reactivity during the active-coping stress task than participants low in optimism, while there would be no significant differences in cardiovascular reactivity between the two groups during the passive-coping stress task. Findings revealed that task type did not moderate the relation between optimism and reactivity. There was a significant main effect of optimism on DBP reactivity to stress, though this effect disappeared when controlling for social anxiety. Findings support future examination of the relation between optimism and autonomic reactivity, and subsequently, the relation between optimism and health.

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