Abstract

Two groups of student-volunteers, who were passing half-term and end-of-term examinations, were studied. The experimental group (n=14) underwent 30 sessions of relaxation training between the examinations, the control group (n=13) did not. The training consisted of sessions lasting 45 min, 5 days a week. In each term, before an after the examinations, the activities of the adrenergic and the pituitary adrenal systems were determined by measuring urinary excretion of free adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol. Besides, before the examinations all students passed questionnaire-based psychological tests (anxiety level, intelligence, perception, concentration). In the first term, an increased adrenaline excretion was observed in both groups in response to examinations, while in the second term - only in the control group. In that latter case cortisol excretion was also observed. In the experimental group, the relaxation training resulted in a significantly better performance in the intelligence, perception, and concentration tests. The presented results suggest that relaxation training helps controlling emotions and counteracting negative strains, and has a favorable effect on psychohormonal reactions. Verf.-Referat