Changes in vitality in response to acute stress: an investigation of the role of anxiety and physiological reactivity

Background: Feeling alive and invigorated, or vitality, is examined within the framework of a stress paradigm. The current study investigated whether endocrine and cardiovascular responses to acute psychological stress predict declines in vitality. Methods: A sample of 90 undergraduate students completed an in-lab stressor. We measured anxiety, state vitality, cortisol levels, heart rate, and blood pressure before the task, and measured changes...