VARD: Repressive Coping and the Verbal Autonomic Response Dissociation in a Simulated Medical Stress Situation
Internally funded project
Start date : 20.03.2017
Project details
Scientific Abstract
Looking at the number of surgeries performed each year in Germany, it seems that coping with medical procedures is becoming a more important research field in health psychology. Unfortunately the scope of efficient coping strategies within the medical setting is limited. Hence, the use of repressive coping strategies seems to be quite frequent. Connected to repressive coping, research groups described the phenomena of the verbal autonomic response dissociation (shortly known as VARD). In this project, we investigate the role of anxiety and repressive coping in a simulated medical setting and its connection with physiological respones. The experimental design of the study allows to investigate parameters like heart-rate-variability, blood pressure, salivary alpha amylase and cortisol in reaction to a medical stressor.
