Endocrine response patterns after uncontrollable experimental stress: an application of CFA

According to biological stress theories cortisol increases (C+) and testosterone decreases (T-) characterize uncontrollable (UC) stress and the opposite pattern is observed in controllable (CON) stress. The influence of CON/UC on hormone responses to a mental (d2) and a physical (E) short-term stressor was tested by two-sample configural frequency analysis in a cross-over design on 74 healthy males assigned to either CON or UC conditions. Areas under the response curves of saliva C and T were computed and dichotomized (+/-). The evaluation of bivariate response patterns (C/T) revealed that the combination C+T- was significantly more prevalent after UC than after CON with both stressors. The pattern C-T+ constituted a significant discrimination type between CON and UC across both stressors.