Personality and Social Psychology Issues - Essay Example

?Personality and social psychology bulleting Insert Grade Introduction This study was conducted in order to identify how individuals reacted to real-life threats by using a ballroom competition and the cortisol secretion related to it. It arose from various studies and arguments on what caused higher HPA Axis stimulation. The background to the research was that human beings value social groups and that the body responds in a certain way in order to protect their social self. While some research argued that both physical and psychological stressors can lead to activation of the HPA axis, others argued that the psychological stressors are more pronounced and give profound results. Further arguments arose that claimed that the characteristics of a threat caused more effects. It is from this basis that the study was carried out in order to determine how human behaved in order to protect their social self. The framework that was used was to introduce an activity that could act as a social threat in this case the act being ballroom competition. A goal is set in order to increase the threat which would enhance the production of the HPA Axis (Rohleder et al, 2007). The major research question of the study was whether ballroom competition could be a real-life task that would act as a stimulus to the production of the HPA Axis. Another question was to find out particular parameters of stressor that would strongly predict cortisol response. The study comprises of several hypotheses some of which include; the competitive nature of ballroom dancing would act as a real-life stimulus towards the activation of the HPA Axis and that cortisol elevation was due to physical strain of the participants. It is from these hypotheses that the study sought to find whether physical strain and self-evaluation were important in cortisol secretion. Methods The research comprised of five studies that had different participants. The first study had 44 participants 22 of them being men while others were women both being amateurs in the competition. They were aged between 17 to 62 years. According to Rohleder et al. (2007)the second study had 16 dancers with equal number of men and women that ranged between 21-55 years. The third study equally had 16 dancers with equal number of male and female. The fourth study comprised of 15 dancers from Nordrein Germany aged 22- 42 years while the fifth and the final study comprised of 17 modern dancers 9 of them being women and 8 being men. A control group of 20 university students was also used. The study used salivettes, refrigerator, electronic drug exposure monitor and a PowerView software program in order to reveal the actual sampling time. It also used cortisol and psychological measures in order to understand the mental status of the participants and how it contributed to the secretion of cortisol. In collecting data, saliva sample were obtained and refrigerated in particular sessions depending on the type of study that was under observation. Findings In performing the analyses, Greenhouse Geisser Correction was used to give the significance of the test. The major findings of the study were that the levels of cortisol were higher on a competition day as compared to those that were obtained on the control day. It was also found out that the patterns of cortisol increased over time on the competition day but decreased overtime on the control day. Another finding was that the cortisol levels were higher at the beginning of the competition as compared to the middle or the end of it. The responses however did not change across repeated competition. It was also found that individual dancers had higher cortisol secretion as compared to group dancers and the cortisol levels were found to increase and fell overtime. Discussion From the results of the study, it is clear that some hypotheses got support while others did not. One of the hypotheses that received support from the findings was that the competitive nature of ballroom dancing served as a real-life stimulus that affected the HPA Axis and resulted to cortisol response. Another hypothesis that was relevant with findings was that threat to a central goal through evaluation led to the activation of the psychological stress system. However the hypothesis that cortisol elevation was due to the physical strain of the ballroom dancing differed with the results. This is because it was found out that physical strain did not account for HPA activation. The findings of the study are relevant because they relate with past research such as that of Dickerson and Kennedy that psychological stressors had more impact on HPA activation. The study relates to past laboratory studies that were performed that showed the necessity of social evaluation towards evoking cortisol secretion on a motivated task. The findings that availability of a goal and unpredictability led to more cortisol secretion relates to the theory of self-preservation and to the research questions. It is also clear the finding of competitive nature of dancing relating to cortisol secretion answers one of the research questions. Strengths Focusing on how the study was carried out and other factors involved, the study contains several strengths. One of the strength of the study is that is that it carried out several studies in order to come up with conclusions. By changing the audience, judges, and even the conditions, then it means that effective results were found and the existence of biasness was minimized. Another strength is that the research went further to find out the particular parameters involved in the production of cortisol which is beyond the previous researches that were done. This means that the research proved to be of value to future researches. Limitations Even if the study used all possible methods to come with effective results, it also had its own limitations. One of the limitations of the study was that its analyses were limited due to lack of accessibility to the pyschophysiological responses of the participants during their first tournaments. Another limitation was that the study lacked the objective ability to access the physical strain of the dancers during the competition and the training. This can indicate that the research could not lack biasness in analyzing the results of both outcomes. The questions of the study were also limited in that they were suited to the feasibility of the study and were meant to give the results relating to the research. In conclusion, it is therefore vital that future research be more elaborate and in depth in order to give clear and effective results that can be used to test the self-preservation theory. Attention should also be given to finding ways that physical strain can be measured in order for the future results to be accurate and dependable as possible. References Rohleder, N, Beulen, E., Chen, E. & Kirschbaum, C (2007). Stress on the dance floor: The cortisol stress response to social-evaluative threat in competitive ballroom dancing. Personality and Social Psychological Bulletin. 33(1) Read More