The Effectiveness of Attentional Training on Stress and Self-Esteem

Stress has been an immeasurably investigated theme within Neuropsychology since past few years. Attention training is a therapeutic intervention developed by Adrian Wells that involves the training of attentional skills to treat emotional disorders (Wells, 1990). This study investigated whether the Attentional training works as theorised to reduce stress. In addition, self-esteem and stress were investigated as potential moderators of the relationship between Attentional training and/or self-focus on vulnerability to the stressor. Prior research has shown that self-esteem level and self-focus interact such that self-focus predicts vulnerability to stress in people with low self-esteem, but not in those with high self-esteem. In a laboratory setting, 80 undergraduate student participants were exposed to a single session of either an Attention training analogue or a control treatment to see if Attentional training would reduce their stress to a subsequent stressor task.