A failure to effectively regulate emotions elicited by a stressful life event contributes to symptoms of psychopathology. This regulatory failure may result from a deficit in executive control. For some individuals, executive control is impaired following stress exposure. Thus, for some individuals, when executive control is needed to regulate emotions during a stressful event, executive control is impaired. The overarching aim of the current study was to examine how the influence of stress on executive control may contribute to vulnerability to symptoms of psychopathology. This was achieved through three primary components: (1) examining the relation between physiological stress response systems and executive control following an acute stress induction, (2) assessing whether executive control under stress is related to state rumination or the ability to use reappraisal, and (3) examining whether executive control under stress prospectively predicts psychopathology symptoms during a stressful time of life. First-year college students (N = 78) were randomly assigned to complete either a laboratory stress induction or a control task. Executive control was measured before and after the stress induction/control task. Physiological stress response was measured via mean change in pre-ejection period (ΔPEP), mean change in skin conductance level (ΔSCL), cortisol reactivity, and salivary alpha amylase (sAA) reactivity. Reappraisal ability was measured by self-reported negative emotion when instructed to reappraise while viewing aversive images. State rumination was assessed via self-reported levels of rumination following the reappraisal task. Participants reported baseline symptoms and, at the end of the semester, follow-up symptoms of depression, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic, and alcohol use disorder. Our results provide preliminary evidence for an association between peripheral physiological measures, ΔPEP and ΔSCL, and executive control impairment under stress. This provides important information about how physiological stress response systems may contribute to executive control impairment. Although our results did not support our hypothesis that executive control under stress predicts state rumination, we found that executive control under stress predicts reappraisal ability. Finally, results indicate that executive control under stress prospectively predicts a general factor of psychopathology. The current study provides preliminary support for our framework suggesting that impairment in executive control under stress, which may be evident in level of physiological activation, contributes to impaired reappraisal ability, and may place individuals at risk for experiencing symptoms of psychopathology during a time of life stress. Future research should examine the causal nature of this relationship with the goal of determining whether the ability to maintain executive control under stress may be a viable target for intervention.

Last modified

• 04/13/2018

Creator

• Meghan Quinn

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/N2DM6Q

Subject

• Psychology

Keyword

• Clinical psychology

Date created

• 2017-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright