Literature Review On Cortisol

The hormone cortisol helps the body to manage stress. However, overproduction of cortisol as a response to major stressors can promote disadvantages to overall health. Aggressive behaviors have been shown to be associated with increased cortisol reactivity. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a common laboratory-based protocol used to study stress, provides negative evaluative feedback to study participants by trained judges. While cortisol reactivity of the evaluated participants has extensively been studied, the effects of the mildly aggressive behavior of the judges on cortisol activity has not yet been investigated. In this study, we examine the effect of the behavior of a judging participant in a laboratory-based stress protocol, the …show more content…
To help moderate stress, hormones, the body’s chemical messengers, are secreted throughout the body to encourage adaptation to a stressor (Cannon, 1932). These messengers are essential for the body’s regulation in helping to adapt to not only to the challenges of everyday life, but to major life stressors. Examining cortisol, often described as the stress hormone, is a common way researchers study stress. Researchers have found cortisol levels to increase in response to both “positive stressors” such as physical exercise (Cook et al., 1992) and skydiving (Chatterton, Vogelsong, Lu, & Hudgens, 1997), as well as “negative stressors” that include feeling insulted (Cohen, Nisbett, Bowdle, & Schwarz, 1996). A continued understanding of stress in relation to cortisol reactivity, whether the stressor is acute or chronic, is important to those interested in furthering our knowledge of treatment and prevention methods. For example, in addition to knowing that cortisol helps to moderate physiological changes during daily challenges, previous studies have shown an overproduction of cortisol is linked to unfavorable health outcomes (McEwen, …show more content…
Given that negatively evaluating others is a mild form of relational aggression, confederate judges in the TSST may too experience cortisol reactivity. Relational aggression, a type of aggression, is defined as purposely hurting others through manipulation and in the process, causing damage to the relationship (Crick and Grotpeter, 1995). Research has shown increased cortisol reactivity to be linked to individuals with personalities that illustrate hostile, cynical, and aggressive behavior (Pope and Smith, 1991; Ranjit, 2009). Previous studies have also linked aggression to risk for both short- and long-term health consequences including hypertension (Whitworth, Brown, Kelly, Williamson, 1995), obesity (Rosmond, Dallman, & Bjorntorp, 1998), indicators of atherosclerosis (Eller et al., 2001), and later risk of cardiovascular disease (Brotman el al., 2007; Smith, 2002; Everson & Lewis, 2005). Cortisol reactivity to committing relationally aggressive acts might either causally contribute or serve as a marker of physiological processes in the pathway to poor