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Laughter and Amusementâs Buffering Effect on Stress in a Population with Symptoms of Anxiety: An Experimental Design

Anxiety and stress can have debilitating effects on our physical and mental health. The purpose of the current study was to examine a way to buffer, or protect, people with anxious symptoms from the negative affect produced by a stressor. I examined if co-occurring laughter and amusement, elicited by an amusing video and instructions to act amused, has a stress buffering effect for people with elevated symptoms of anxiety. The study employed a between-subject design with two conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to either the control condition (boring video/boring instructions) or amusing condition (amusing video/amusing instructions). Results did not show evidence of a stress buffering effect of co-occurring laughter and amusement in this specific population of people with symptoms of anxiety. Negative affect post-stressor task significantly increased, rather than decreased (t(27) = - 2.995; p < 0.01). The current study reveals that a stress buffering manipulation that was effective in a sample of the general population was not effective in a sample of people with anxious symptoms. Potential reasons for these results, as well as limitations and future directions, are discussed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-03252016-113431
Date08 April 2016
CreatorsKline, Nora Katharine
ContributorsLeslie Kirby, Sohee Park
PublisherVANDERBILT
Source SetsVanderbilt University Theses
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-03252016-113431/
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