Induced stress, situationally-specific trait anxiety, and dark focus.

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn the absence of direct stimulation for accommodation, the eye assumes an intermediate state of accommodation known as dark focus (DF). While there has been some indirect evidence that DF may be influenced by stress, such an effect has not been demonstrated using direct experimental manipulation. Thirty‐three undergraduate subjects had their DF levels measured under two stress conditions–an experimental condition, where they were told that their responses were being evaluated by the experimenter, and a control condition, where no such evaluation was implied. Subjects also completed the S‐R Inventory of General Trait Anxiousness, a measure of situationally‐specific trait anxiety. One of the five subscales on this instrument assesses evaluation anxiety, the degree to which the individual feels anxious in situations where he/she is being evaluated. It was found that DF increased (i.e., shifted closer to the observer) in the experimental condition. However, the effect was limited to subjects who scored high in evaluation anxiety. It was concluded that such induced stress does have an impact on DF, and that experiments involving stress manipulations must consider the relative sensitivities of subjects to the specific stress situations being used.