The Effects of Interventions Aiming at Optimizing Expectations and Inducing Positive Emotions After an Acute Stressor

NCT ID: NCT02848014

Last Updated: 2017-04-06

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 74 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2016-07-31
• Study Completion Date: 2016-11-30

Brief Summary

The purpose of the study is to determine whether a short psychological intervention aiming at optimizing expectations is able to foster positive emotions and whether an intervention inducing positive emotions is able improve participants' expectations. Furthermore, the investigators will examine whether both interventions are effective in buffering the stress response after an acute stressor in a healthy sample compared to a control condition.

Conditions

Healthy Participants

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Expectation

Participants are asked to think and write about ways how they can positively influence/control the stress during stress induction. They also can think of strategies they used in their past. The purpose of this arm is to improve participants' personal control expectations.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Writing task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Emotion

Participants in this group are asked to write a gratitude-letter to a person they want to thank. The purpose of this arm is to foster positive emotions.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Writing task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Control

Participants in this group are asked to do a neutral writing task. The task is to write a protocol of yesterday's to-dos.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Writing task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Interventions

Writing task

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• fluent in German language

Exclusion Criteria

• chronic disease
• mental disease
• the evening before the day of the experiment until end of the experiment (the next day): caffeine, alcohol, intensive physical exercise, chewing gum
• acute hay fever
• current intake of psychotropic medication

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Philipps University Marburg

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Winfried Rief

Professor Dr.

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Winfried Rief, Professor

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Philipps University Marburg

Locations

Department of Psychology, Philipps University Marburg

Marburg, Hesse, Germany

Countries

Germany

Other Identifiers

2016-08k

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id