Journal
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 89, Issue 1, Pages 99-106Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.09.009
Keywords
HPA axis; Psychosocial stress; Sex difference; Subjective stress; Menstrual cycle; TSST
Funding
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) [67071]
- German Research Foundation
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Men and women differ in regard to psychosocial stress responses. Biological and contextual factors are known to mediate these differences; however, few studies investigated their interaction. In the present study, we examined contributions of both contextual and biological factors to the stress response of young healthy adults. Men and women were exposed to a modified version of Trier Social Stress Test. The participants gave a speech in front of a panel of judges, composed of either male or female panelists. Both men, and women presented a cortisol increase only when exposed to opposite sex panelists. Interestingly, this effect was only observed in women in their follicular phase. This finding showed that the induction of a psychosocial stress response does not strictly rely on direct social evaluation, but also depends on the sex composition of the panel. Implications for future studies are discussed. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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