The Human Stress Response in a Simulated ED Setting

Participants will be asked to respond in detail to three scenarios. This is a standard social stressor task. Participants may be prompted by an experimenter. However, the participant will receive no verbal nor nonverbal feedback.

Participants will be asked to imagine and then describe both feelings and bodily sensations experienced at their most stressful ED visit, in order to help them more fully re-experience the situation. In this regard, the second condition is more similar to stress imagery employed by Sinha et al, which elevated cortisol to a greater degree than a social stressor task. Participants may be prompted by an experimenter. However, the participant will receive no verbal nor nonverbal feedback.