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Increasing State Anxiety

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Shanahan and Hughes hypothesized that ingesting high amounts of caffeine would increase state anxiety and the effects of performance induced stress. Nineteen men and twenty-seven women were randomly assigned into one of four groups. Prior to ingesting the experiment, participants were assessed for state and trait anxiety using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Afterwards, two of the groups were administered highly caffeinated coffee, while the other two were given decaffeinated coffee. The participants were told to drink no caffeinated beverages or ingest any chocolate the morning of the study, as not to alter results. Next, one of the groups in each condition was assigned to complete a high stress activity. The high stress groups had twenty-five minutes to complete a difficult reasoning test, which normally takes thirty-five minutes to complete. To further heighten stress, the participants were told that the test could be easily completed in the allotted time and that another group member would check their answers afterwards. One of the groups in each condition was also assignment to a low stress activity, which was a personality test. These groups were told that there were no wrong answers and that their responses would be anonymous. After completing their respective activities, participants were once again tested for their state anxiety (Shanahan & Hughes, 1986). …show more content…

The participants who ingested higher amounts of caffeine, but completed the low stress activity, demonstrated a slight increase in their state anxiety. These results were consistent with the researchers hypothesis that high caffeine dosage would increase state anxiety and performance induced stress (Shanahan & Hughes,

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