Abstract/Summary

The aim of the studies in this thesis was to examine whether reminders of values and goals allow people to put stressors into perspective and thus reduce stress. Study 1 of the dissertation tested whether giving participants a chance to self-affirm, which means reminding them of important values other than the stress-causing stimulus, lowers the stressor's significance and makes them want to regulate their stress. In the second study, participants were reminded of important goals (versus less important goals or nothing in the control conditions) to determine whether reminders of important goals lower stress responses. Lastly, in Study 3, participants were instructed to put a stressor into perspective to see whether it would reduce stress on various explicit and implicit measures of stress and coping. The main findings of the thesis show that self-affirmation and instructed perspective taking have the potential to affect the experience of stress, especially when taking into account individual difference variables, such as trait anxiety or habitual perspective taking. The results are discussed in light of existing knowledge, and some recommendations are made for future research and specialists in the fields of social and clinical psychology.