This Master's dissertation explored whether a rapid orienting of attention toward or away from social stress information during a restful state, relates to the magnitude of glucocorticoids (GC) released in response to a stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). It also assessed whether childhood rearing in a low socioeconomic status (SES) context mediates this relationship. Subjects rested for 45 minutes during which time they completed a modified version of Posner's attention paradigm, comprising social stress words. Immediately following, participants were exposed to the stressor. Results indicated that a rapid attentional engagement toward social stress words associated with pronounced GC responses to the TSST. Fast engagers displayed lower self-esteem and did not differ in terms of their past SES. These findings demonstrate that attentional biases for social stress information at rest combine with diminished self-esteem to predict the magnitude of GC released during psychological stress irrespective of early SES conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.116040 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Pilgrim, Kamala. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Division of Neuroscience.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002826835, proquestno: AAIMR66977, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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