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The aim of this study was to investigate whether and how a specific situation elicits stress, provokes the activation of state-neuroticism, and leads to a higher perception of stress during the period of Christmas. Additionally, the investigation among different age groups was assumed to show different patterns in the sensibility of the manipulation in the experiment. The results showed interesting differences among the different age groups as well as interesting inputs for discussion. Moreover, this study aims to show how psychological theories might be experimentally investigated using a given condition in our social environment.

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Annalisa Stefanelli studied psychology at the University of Basel (2008-2010) and at the University of Zürich (2010-2012) with the focus on developmental and differential psychology. Actually she works on her dissertation at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich in the field of environmental decisions.

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