Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 11;13(4):e0195722. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195722. eCollection 2018.
The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and its version for groups (TSST-G) are the gold standard for inducing acute psychosocial stress in human experimental settings and have been used in numerous studies since the early 1990s. The TSST and the TSST-G lead to effects on different physiological and psychological markers, such as salivary cortisol, anxiety, and emotional states. These effects were assessed with quantitative methods comparing pre-test and post-test measures with statistical analyses. But to date, no qualitative analyses have been conducted to examine the meaningful experience of participants during the TSST and the TSST-G. This study is the first to conduct qualitative investigations to further clarify the stressful experience of participants confronted with these procedures. Preliminary results showed as expected that the TSST and the TSST-G effectively induced psychosocial stress, with cortisol levels, cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and arousal increases, and with pleasure and dominance decreases. At the qualitative level, the results evidenced that the two theoretically stressful components of the TSST and the TSST-G, namely social-evaluative threat and uncontrollability, were experienced as stress-inducing by the participants. Two case studies confirmed these findings. But the results also showed on one hand that psychosocial stress is a dynamic phenomenon, with important fluctuations throughout the tasks (mainly for the TSST-G); and on the other hand that despite the similar physiological and psychological responses between the TSST and the TSST-G evidenced by the literature, the experience of the participants was both similar and specific. Use of a qualitative method allowed us to provide a complementary point of view to understand the meaningful experience of participants during these stressful procedures, apprehending the dynamic of the subjective stress experience without disrupting it.
三重社会压力测试（TSST）及其团体版本（TSST-G）是在人类实验环境中诱发急性心理社会压力的金标准，自 20 世纪 90 年代初以来，它们已被广泛应用于多项研究中。TSST 和 TSST-G 会对不同的生理和心理标志物产生影响，例如唾液皮质醇、焦虑和情绪状态。这些影响是通过使用定量方法评估的，比较了测试前后的测量值和统计分析。但是，迄今为止，还没有进行定性分析来研究参与者在 TSST 和 TSST-G 期间的有意义的体验。本研究首次进行定性研究，以进一步阐明参与者在面对这些程序时的紧张体验。初步结果如预期的那样表明，TSST 和 TSST-G 有效地诱发了心理社会压力，导致皮质醇水平、认知焦虑、躯体焦虑和唤醒增加，以及愉悦和支配感降低。在定性层面，结果表明，TSST 和 TSST-G 中的两个理论上有压力的组成部分，即社会评价威胁和不可控性，被参与者体验为有压力的因素。两个案例研究证实了这些发现。但结果还表明，一方面，心理社会压力是一个动态现象，在整个任务中会有重要的波动（主要是针对 TSST-G）；另一方面，尽管文献中证明了 TSST 和 TSST-G 之间存在类似的生理和心理反应，但参与者的体验既有相似之处，也有其独特性。使用定性方法使我们能够提供一个补充的观点，以理解参与者在这些紧张程序中的有意义的体验，理解主观压力体验的动态而不会扰乱它。
