Cigarette smoking: Effects upon self-rated stress and arousal over the day

Abstract

Feelings of stress and arousal were assessed over a day of cigarette smoking. Smokers reported heightened stress prior to smoking, and reduced stress immediately after smoking (p < .002). Feelings of arousal were also significantly affected by cigarette use, with lower arousal prior to smoking, and increased arousal postsmoking (p < .011). This pattern was found with both "sedative" and "stimulant" smokers, as defined by the Smoking Motive Questionnaire (SMQ). These findings demonstrate that smoking can simultaneously produce both increased arousal and decreased stress. They lend doubt to the arousal modulation theory, which states that smoking leads either to reduced stress, or to increased arousal, but not both together. The present data broadly replicated some earlier findings (O'Neill & Parrott, 1992), and confirmed that smokers experience vacilating feelings of stress and arousal over the day. Thus, while feeling-state improvements often accompany cigarette smoking, they are followed by negative feelings (during nicotine withdrawal), which are alleviated by the next cigarette. These feeling-state changes also provide a clear psychological rationale for the repetitive/addictive nature of tobacco use.