2. Abstract The purpose of this study is to find an efficient way in creating and maintaining stress in a clinical environment in order to ensure that the future experiment, “Acupuncture’s Effect on Recalling Traumatic Experiences” can be conducted accurately. Participants will be asked to simple but frustrating math problems orally administered by the researcher, which will create stress. Math problems will be categorized via easy, medium and hard, and frequency of problems will depend on difficulty (numerous easy problems, few hard problems). Heart rate fluctuations of participants will be taken to measure anxiety, and likert scales will be administered. Speilberger State-Trait Inventories which will check for underlying anxiety disorders that participants may or may not be aware of. Anticipated data will probably show that participants who are given a few, hard math problems will have a higher heart rate than other participants.
3. Introduction Anxiety – feeling of nervousness or fear triggered by stress Excessive anxiety in individual known as “anxiety disorder” PTSD – one such anxiety disorder Increasing rate/lack of resources to deal with it[1] Acupuncture used widely in the East and only recently began to be used in the West Only because West was unable to accept it scientifically, accepted it because of Gate Control Theory [10] Used to relieve stress; British dentists used to treat their patients [8] Acupuncture is not only CAM used In studies, herbal therapy has been shown to be most used in the world [2][3] TENS (trancutaneous-electrical nerve stimulation) is used like acupuncture (stress/pain relief) [4][5] Also been shown to stimulate static neural repair [6]
4. Introduction (cntd.) In the experiment, heart rate used to quantitatively garner data Often used in studies involving anxiety as it offers a purely mechanical reading[7] Participant cannot control heart rate [7] Study by University of Turin shows typical heart rate for age group used in experiment ranges from 74.5 bpmto 80.6 bpm, with bpm decreasing with age in a study of over 2000 teenagers [9] Females also tended to have higher heart rate than males [9]
5. Problem Statement and Hypothesis What is the most effective way of creating anxiety using arithmetic? If a large amount of easy math problems are given to participants, then they will experience more symptoms of anxiety compared to participants that do a small amount of difficult math problems.
6. Variables IV – Difficulty/frequency of math problems DV – Heart rate and responses to likert scales by participants Constants – High school from which participants were selected from, math problems used for each difficulty, time allotted for participants to complete math, heart rate monitoring device used to record heart rates, STAI given to participants, likert scales given to participants, and questions asked of participants Control - Participants that did moderately difficult math problems
7. Materials 15 participants Electric heart rate/blood pressure monitor Set of math problems tailored to age group and education level of participants Timer Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Likert Scale Analysis sheet Consent forms Lab notebook Answers to math problems Calculator
8. Procedure Previously gave all participants Spielberger State-Trait Inventories before the day of the experiment Gathered all materials Had all participants wait on one room Had one participant enter the testing room Asked participant to relax completely Collected Spielberger State-Trait Inventory from participant Gave participant Likert Scale Analysis sheet Asked participant to fill out “Pre-Experimental” section of Likert Scale Analysis sheet, which asked participant about current level of anxiety Set up electric blood pressure/heart rate monitor to participant’s arm Took resting heart rate of participant
9. Procedure Asked participant what difficulty of math he/she wanted Gave participant set of math problems according to selected difficulty and a blank answer sheet to write answers on Set timer for 4 minutes As participant began doing first problem mentally, clock began Every minute for the duration of the experiment, heart rate of the participant was recorded by the researcher using heart rate monitor Participants were quickly asked to rate anxiety on a scale of 1-5 once every minute of the experiment
10. Procedure After 4 minutes had elapsed, participant was notified and had answer sheet taken away Remainder of Likert Scale Analysis sheet was filled out by participant Participant was free to go Repeated experiment with remaining 14 participants, ensuring that each difficulty (easy, moderate and hard) had been done by 5 participants All data was recorded in electronic database on computer
12. Conclusion Hypothesis was completely incorrect Difficult math problems: 7.3 bpm, compared to easy math problems’ 3.6 bpm Average resting HR and average total HR were recorded only to find difference between the two Heart rates of participants can depend on many factors (were not recorded/controlled)
13. Conclusions (cntd.) Responses to likert scales recorded/observed Participants with difficult math problems reported having highest level of anxiety throughout experiment (2.7) Agrees with heart rate However, participants with easy math problems reported being more anxious than control (2.3 to 1.8) Does not agree with respective HRs
14. Discussion/Future Work Several errors Background of participants was not recorded/controlled Faulty/improperly used equipment Time alotted for participants to complete tests/do problems of test Many were not able to reach final stages Will be used in researcher’s final experiment Any other experiments that require creation of anxiety without delving into personal lives of participants
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