Stress and Coping in Lecturing: A Study on Stability of Stress Responses, Individual Differences and Stress Moderators

摘要

The research presented in the thesis first aimed to describe the physiogical and psychological responses to the stress of lecturing in student teachers who practiced lecturing at a post-secondary institution for about three months. Of special interest was the adaptation across the practice period in which coping will take place. The second aim of the present research was to explain individual differences in the responses to and coping with the stress of lecturing with stable personal characteristics which were hypothesized to act as stress moderators. The student teachers, all participated in a teacher education program, and were measured in both real lectures at the post-secondary institution and in standardized lectures at the training institute, at the beginning of and at the end the practice period at the post-secondary institution. Stress responses were operationalized as increases in heart rate, cortisol excretion, and subjective anxiety. The stability of the stress responses was of special interest as this stability is considered crucial for hyperreactivity in order to be considered a potential marker or mediator of pathology. Individual differences in responses to, and coping with intrinsically motivating stressor(s) counteract stability of the responses. (Copyright (c) I.L.D. Houtman,'s Gravenhage, 1990).