Performance during presentations: A question of challenge and threat responses?

• Published in: Contemporary educational psychology Vol. 73; p. 102168
• Main Authors: Schickel, Marco, Minkley, Nina, Ringeisen, Tobias
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-04-2023
• Subjects: Challenge; Concentration; Cortisol; Presentation performance; Self-efficacy; Threat; Cortisol; Presentation performance; Concentration; Self-efficacy; Threat; Challenge
• ISSN: 0361-476X; 1090-2384
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2023.102168

•Biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat applied to presentation performance.•Data analysis of three sources (self-report, physiological data, behavioral ratings)•Challenge and threat show opposing gradients over time but can occur independently.•Declining cortisol and lower threat are related to better presentation performance.•Self-efficacy reduces cortisol release and enhances the perception of challenge.
The current study investigated how changes in psychological (cognitions and emotions) and physiological (cortisol concentrations) threat/challenge responses develop over the course of a presentation and whether initial intensity levels and their changes are related to self-efficacy and presentation performance. Based on the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), 123 students held video-recorded presentations about their dream job, which were evaluated by three raters. Selfefficacy was measured before the TSST, saliva cortisol concentrations and psychological threat and challenge responses three times during the TSST. Data were analyzed with latent growth modeling. Threat and cortisol increased during the presentation, while challenge decreased. The growth curve coefficients of challenge correlated negatively with the respective coefficients of threat. Also, initial intensity of challenge responses correlated positively with corresponding cortisol concentrations. Higher self-efficacy was associated with higher initial intensity of challenge responses, lower corresponding concentrations of cortisol, and a smaller cortisol increase, but neither with the growth curve coefficients of threat responses nor with presentation performance. Better performance was associated with lower initial intensity of threat and a smaller increase in cortisol. Threat responses and increasing cortisol concentration appear to inhibit presentation performance, while self-efficacy may strengthen challenge responses and reduce corresponding levels of cortisol concentration as well as its increase.