Biofeedback-based stress management training with a population of business managers

A biofeedback-based stress management training program was experimentally evaluated using populations of middle-level managers from a large corporation. The training program, once-weekly 1-hour sessions for 6 weeks, combined frontal and other site EMG biofeedback, progressive relaxation and breathing exercises, cognitive stress management, and generalization techniques. Control groups participated in either the assessment procedures only or the assessment procedures and six once-weekly discussions of stress and the job on both an individual (two sessions) and group (four sessions) basis. Significant effects were found in self-report measures, state and trait anxiety, experience of stress; in physiological measures, basal frontal EMG and frontal EMG during recovery from stress, and finger temperature; and in ratings of overall job performance. However, no consistent advantage for the training group or either control group was found. Several possible explanations for the failure of the biofeedback-based stress management training condition to achieve a consistent advantage over the control conditions are presented.