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DURHAM, N.C. - For decades, psychologists study of emotional health and well-being has involved contrived laboratory experiments and self-report questionnaires to understand the emotional experiences and strategies study participants use to manage stress.
But those hundreds of studies may have taken for granted a pretty big complicating factor, argues a new study from Duke University and Dartmouth College.
The study, which appears March 12 in
PLOS One, says the background level of anxiety a person normally experiences may interfere with how they behave in the lab setting. The paper is not saying all of this work is wrong, emphasized first author Daisy Burr, a graduate student in psychology and neuroscience at Duke. It s just saying, Hey, there s this really interesting unknown here that we should all be examining.