Investigating Cardiovascular Reactivity and Recovery of Young Adults During Grief-Recall, With Self-Affirmation as Potential Intervention
University of South Florida
Summary
Self-affirmation (SA) theory proposes that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-image of being worthy, stable, and capable. Self-affirmation (SA) manipulations have been shown to effectively increase self-worth as well as reduce cardiovascular reactivity while enhancing cardiovascular recovery in response to stress. While SA is discussed as a way to alleviate grief, its effect on cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) and recovery to grief recall has yet to be studied within laboratory settings. This study proposes an experimental design to examine how an in-lab manipulation promoting self-affirmation can improve patients' cardiovascular responses during and after a grief recall procedure. The investigators hypothesized that grief severity (a continuous variable) interacts with condition (a categorical variable with two levels, i.e., SA intervention vs. control) to predict CV reactivity and recovery as outcomes. Primary Objective 1: To investigate effects of self-affirmation intervention on cardiovascular responses among grieving participants during and after grief recall. Secondary Objective 1: To investigate the relationship of grief severity with psychological stress.
Description
Background Grief refers to individual's emotional response to real, perceived, and anticipated loss, and is known to induce various psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety and physical symptoms such as nausea, tension, or fatigue. If a grief reaction is prolonged and left untreated, it could lead to prolonged grief disorder and affect individuals' daily lives. More severe consequences, such as heightened mortality rates, have been observed among bereaved populations, particularly in relation to accidental, violent, and alcohol-related causes, where excess mortality ranges from 5…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Individuals aged 18 and older who have experienced the death of family member and/or friend within the last 2 to 18 months. * Participants must also be fluent in English as all procedures will be conducted in English. Exclusion Criteria: \- Individuals with a history of cardiovascular disease or disorders, those who report being pregnant, or are taking medication which may alter/affect cardiovascular and/or cognitive processes.
Interventions
- BehavioralValue-affirmation
Participants who are randomly assigned to the value-affirmation condition will be presented with 11 values and qualities to rank in order of importance from 1 to 11. Values presented including: being creative / artistic, government or politics, independence, learning and gaining knowledge, athletic ability, belonging to a group (such as your community, cultural group, or school club), music, career, spiritual or religious values, sense of humor. Participants will then be asked to write about their top-ranked value/quality and how it makes them feel good about themselves for 10 minutes.
Location
- University of South Florida, Psychology and Communication Sciences and Disorders Lab BuildingTampa, Florida