at focuses on Type A behavior and other personality traits has not shown a link to exercise. C.Psychological Stress Response1.Most studies that have tested this relationship have hypothesized that the physiological adaptation that is associated with exercise, influences recovery from psychological stressful events. 2.Two Types of Experiments: Experimental Design and Correlation Designa.Experimental Designi.Participants were randomly placed into either exercising or non-exercising groups. At a 7 to 12 week follow-up, reactivity and recovery from stress was measured.ii.Stress reactivity was measured by such tasks as having the group members perform difficult math problems and several other types of stressful intellectual tasks.iii.Stress recovery was then measured by changes in heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance, and the level of certain chemicals in the body.iv.Most of these studies concluded that exercise increases the ability of the body to recover from psychological stress. v.However, in terms of stress reactivity, the results are inconclusive.b.Correlation Designi.The people studied were divided into groups depending upon there actual level of fitness.ii.The same experiments were conducted as in the Experimental Designiii.Most of these studies found no association between exercise and enhanced psychological stress recovery.iv.However, with regard to stress reactivity, many studies concluded that exercise was related to some physiological measures, but not others. Some studies found a positive effect on blood pressure, while others found the positive relationship was not with blood pressure, but with something else, etc.3.Summarya.Because so many of these studies contradict each other, it is not conclusive whether or not exercise has a positive relationship with stress recovery and/or reactivity. b.However, the most plausible evidence suggests that exercise does help recovery from stress.D.Cognitive Process1."Cognitive" proc...
