Public speaking in front of an unreceptive audience increases implicit power motivation and its endocrine arousal signature.
The present study explored the motivational characteristics of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST; Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993). Seventy-two participants either completed the public-speaking component of the TSST or, as a control condition, the friendly TSST (Wiemers, Schoofs, & Wolf, 2013) and wrote picture stories both before and after treatment. Stories were coded for motivational imagery related to power, achievement, and affiliation as well as for activity inhibition, a marker of functional brain lateralization during stress. The TSST had a specific arousing effect on power motivation, but not on other motivational needs, on activity inhibition, or on story length. TSST-elicited increases in power imagery, but not in achievement or affiliation imagery, were associated with a relatively greater salivary alpha-amylase response and with a relatively lesser salivary cortisol response. These findings suggest that the TSST specifically induces power-related stress.
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
Uta S
US
Wiemers
Department of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany. Electronic address: Oliver.Schultheiss@fau.de.
Oliver C
OC
Schultheiss
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.
Oliver T
OT
Wolf
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D055291:Salivary alpha-Amylases / Q000378:metabolism; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
D055291:Salivary alpha-Amylases; D006854:Hydrocortisone
Achievement; Activity inhibition; Affiliation; Alpha-amylase; Cortisol; Implicit motivation; Picture Story Exercise; Power; Saliva; Trier Social Stress Test