The Effects of Acute Social Stress on Behavioral Psychological Flexibility and Coping Strategies

Introduction to Stress and Flexibility

Stress is a major predictor of well-being and health, with acute psychosocial stress arising from social evaluation or exclusion.
Socialization requires reflexive responses and mental processes, but stress can impair these, leading to rigid behavior or maladaptive coping, as seen in mental health disorders.

Behavioral Flexibility

Behavioral flexibility: ability to modify actions according to context.
Psychological inflexibility: inability to adapt to changing circumstances.
Experiential avoidance: lack of acceptance of uncomfortable emotions, leading to inaction or escapism.

Coping Strategies

Effective coping strategies rely on behavioral and psychological flexibility.
Lazarus' model: Problem-focused coping (tackling the source of stress) vs. emotion-focused coping (managing internal distress).
Approach (similar to problem-focused) vs. avoidance (distraction or denial) coping strategies.

Study Design

Research focus: acute social stress effects on flexibility.
Hypotheses:

1. Acute psychosocial stress will decrease behavioral flexibility.

2. Differences in reward (correct choices) vs. incorrect choices.

3. Negative correlation between behavioral flexibility and maladaptive coping (experiential avoidance).

Methodology

Experimental study design: acute stress group vs. control group.
Stress condition: singing in front of experimenters (audio and video recorded).
Control condition: reading lyrics.
Behavioral flexibility measurement: Reversal learning task (computerized task with two abstract images).

Reversal Learning Task:

Participants choose between two images; one is “correct” per trail.
Reinforcement (win) block: points gained for correct choice, positive sound.
Punishment (loss) block: points lost for incorrect choice, negative sound.
Behavioral flexibility measured by ability to adapt to changes.

Self-Report Measures

Brief cope: measures coping strategies.
Acceptance and action questionnaire:
Measures psychological inflexibility.
Perceived stress scale: measures chronic stress levels.

Results

Preliminary data (n=13):
Acute stress increased behavioral flexibility in the punishment condition.
Wednesday choices were more frequent in the punishment and reinforcement block.
Correlation between behavioral flexibility and experiential avoidance was not significant.

Conclusion

Causal implications can be made with experimental data versus correlational.
Limitations: small sample size, loss of participants in the two part in-person study.
Behavioral and psychological flexibility may reduce the risk of developing mental health conditions during life transitions.