Robert J. Gatchel’s research while affiliated with University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler and other places

This chapter discusses the links between stress and the adrenal medulla, and the methodologic problems associated with measuring this activity. It reviews research documenting the effects of a number of stress-relevant variables on catecholamine (CA) secretion and also discusses the implications of this research. When confronted with danger, the ability of an organism to fight or flee is quickly readied through increased release of epinephrine (E) and overall sympathetic arousal. E, which is secreted by the adrenal medulla, and norepinephrine, a sympathetic neurotransmitter and adrenal medullary hormone, stimulate heart rate, increase blood pressure, selectively constrict blood vessels to channel blood to the appropriate organs, and otherwise support sympathetic arousal. This arousal, in turn, prepares the organism for fight or flight confrontations with stressors. As a result, the organism can meet the stressor at full strength or retreat quickly. In general, the adrenal medullary response is induced by events or situations that deviate from one's habitual environment.

Previous research on the effects of unemployment has focused upon both anticipation of job loss and long-term unemployment, typically using self-report and some biochemical measures of response to unemployment stress. The present study was concerned with behavioral and biochemical responses to unemployment. It was also designed to examine a somewhat different time course of unemployment than has been used in previous work. Results indicated that stress accompanies unemployment; looking at people who had been unemployed for up to four months, those who had been unemployed for greater lengths of time performed more poorly on a behavioral task and exhibited higher levels of urinary norepinephrine and epinephrine than did persons unemployed for shorter time periods or subjects who were employed.

38 Three Mile Island (TMI) residents (mean age 33.3 yrs) were compared with 32 people (mean age 35.8 yrs) living near an undamaged nuclear power plant, 24 people (mean age 34.1 yrs) living near a traditional coal-fired power plant, and 27 people (mean age 30.9 yrs) living in an area more than 20 miles from any power plant. A number of self-report measures of psychological stress were evaluated by administering the Symptom Checklist-90 and the Beck Depression Inventory more than 1 yr after the nuclear accident. Two behavioral measures of stress were obtained: performances on a proofreading task and an embedded-figures task. Urinary catecholamine levels were assayed to examine chronic stress-related sympathetic arousal. Results indicate that Ss in the TMI area exhibited more symptoms of stress more than 1 yr after the nuclear accident than did Ss living under different circumstances. Although the intensity of these problems appears to be subclinical, the persistence of stress may be cause for some concern. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The present study assessed the impact of audience size (0, 2, or 6) and expertness level (expert present/absent) on 30 high and low speech-anxious subjects while they were giving a speech. Anxiety level was measured via self-reported nervousness, physiological change (heart rate and skin conductance), and overt motor behavior. It was found that while high speech-anxious subjects were relatively more anxious and depressed after speaking before a larger audience, low speech-anxious subjects were relatively less anxious and depressed before a larger audience. In addition, when given a choice, high anxious subjects reported a general preference for speaking alone while the low anxious subjects preferred having three or more people present. However, both groups showed similar physiological increases during preparation for speaking and during the actual speaking episode. These data are interpreted as evidence for a possible "exhibitionistic" effect in low anxious subjects, and are further interpreted in light of the two-factor model of emotion proposed by Schacter and Singer (1962).

Symptom reporting, task performance, and urinary catecholamine excretion were studied in a group of people living near the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and in control populations. More than a year after the accident, living near the damaged reactor was associated with elevations in all indices of stress compared with control levels. Social support mediated these stress indices such that higher levels were associated with fewer psychological and behavioral symptoms of stress. Biochemical measures showed a different pattern of results.

This study examined differences in the physiological and cognitive response patterns among peptic ulcer, rheumatoid arthritis, and healthy group subjects to two types of stressors-slides of autopsies and imagined scenes involving conflicts and attitudes proposed to be associated with the two psychosomatic disorders. Ten subjects were assessed in each group. Results indicated that the ulcer patients demonstrated a heart rate accelerative trend, while arthritic and normal subjects showed significant deceleration, in response to the aversive slides of autopsies. Ulcer patients also reported paying less attention to the slides, and experiencing more anxiety when viewing them, relative to the other subjects. In response to the imagined scenes, the arthritic patients responded with more heart rate acceleration, apparently because of the greater emotional imagery produced by the scenes in these subjects. Finally, self-report and interview data did not lend support to a derivative of the specificity-of-attitude model of psychosomatic disorders.

Forty-two speech-anxious undergraduate students (21 female, 21 male) were administered either heart rate biofeedback training, speech skills training, or a combination of both to aid in the alleviation of speech anxiety. Physiological (heart rate, tonic skin conductance level, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure), overt motor, and self-report measures of anxiety were assessed during a pretreatment speech and two posttreatment speeches. Results indicated that all treatments were effective in lowering overt motor and self-report components of anxiety. However, only the biofeedback and combined group subjects demonstrated significantly less heart rate increase while speaking before an audience during the posttreatment assessment. Two individual difference variables examined in this study--cognitive/autonomic focus of anxiety and subjective confidence in treatment--were not found to significantly influence treatment effectiveness. Finally, factor analyses of the physiological data suggested that heart rate changes play a large role in the physiological component of anxiety.

The recent literature on the role played by biofeedback in the modification of human heart rate is reviewed. Emphasis is placed on research pertinent to the issue of whether biofeedback is more productively conceived as a reinforcer of an operant response or as a source of information enabling the development of a voluntary motor skill. Criticisms of the operant paradigm are answered, and limitations of the motor skills analogy are discussed. It is concluded that the operant conditioning paradigm best accounts for most available data on the role of biofeedback in heart rate control, and that it is superior to the motor skills model because it is more parsimonious and makes fewer untestable assumptions.