With this thesis the PhD-candidate aims to enrich the body of evidence concerning the relation between stress and health, and the mediating role of (un)conscious perseverative cognitions (which is... Show moreWith this thesis the PhD-candidate aims to enrich the body of evidence concerning the relation between stress and health, and the mediating role of (un)conscious perseverative cognitions (which is captured in the extended perseverative cognition hypothesis). The main aim of this thesis was to find direct evidence for the extended PC hypothesis in real life. She examined whether reducing (un)conscious perseverative cognitions, or worry, improved stress-related physiological activity and subjective health complaints. Show less
Self‐esteem moderates the relationship between stress and (cardiovascular) health, with low self‐ esteem potentially exacerbating the impact of stressors. Boosting self‐esteem may therefore help to... Show moreSelf‐esteem moderates the relationship between stress and (cardiovascular) health, with low self‐ esteem potentially exacerbating the impact of stressors. Boosting self‐esteem may therefore help to buffer against stress. Subliminal evaluative conditioning (SEC), which subliminally couples self‐ words with positive words, has previously been successfully used to boost self‐esteem, but the existing studies are in need of replication. In this article, we aimed to replicate and extend previous SEC studies. The first 2 experiments simultaneously examined whether SEC increased self‐ esteem (Experiment 1, n = 84) and reduced cardiovascular reactivity to a stressor in high worriers (Experiment 2, n = 77). On the basis of these results, the 3rd experiment was set up to examine whether an adjusted personalized SEC task increased self‐esteem and reduced cardiac activity in high worriers (n = 81). Across the 3 experiments, no effects were found of SEC on implicit or explicit self‐esteem or affect or on cardiovascular (re)activity compared to a control condition in which the self was coupled with neutral words. The results do not support the use of the subliminal intervention in its current format. As stress is highly prevalent, future studies should focus on developing other cost‐effective and evidence‐based interventions. Show less
