Conflict and collaboration in middle-aged and older couples: II. Cardiovascular reactivity during marital interaction.

Marital strain confers risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), perhaps though cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stressful marital interactions. CVR to marital stressors may differ between middle-age and older adults, and types of marital interactions that evoke CVR may also differ across these age groups, as relationship contexts and stressors differ with age. The authors examined cardiovascular responses to a marital conflict discussion and collaborative problem solving in 300 middle-aged and older married couples. Marital conflict evoked greater increases in blood pressure, cardiac output, and cardiac sympathetic activation than did collaboration. Older couples displayed smaller heart rate responses to conflict than did middle-aged couples but larger blood pressure responses to collaboration—especially in older men. These effects were maintained during a posttask recovery period. Women did not display greater CVR than men on any measure or in either interaction context, though they did display greater parasympathetic withdrawal. CVR to marital conflict could contribute to the association of marital strain with CVD for middle-aged and older men and women, but other age-related marital contexts (e.g., collaboration among older couples) may also contribute to this mechanism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crime, hostility, wife battering, and the heart: On the Meehan et al. (2001) failure to replicate the Gottman et al. (1995) typology.

Comments on the J. C. Meehan, A. Holtzworth-Munroe, and K. Herron (2001) failure to replicate the J. M. Gottman et al. (1995) results of 2 different types of batterers, defined by heart rate reactivity: Type 1 men lowered their heart rate from baseline to the high-conflict marital discussion, and Type 2 men increased their heart rate from baseline to the high-conflict marital discussion. Discussion is about criminality-psychopathy literature associated hypoarousal and hyporeactivity and the hostility-cardiovascular disease literature, which reports associated hyperreactivity and hostility related to cardiovascular disease. The Type 1-Type 2 distinction should be referred to these two venerable literatures. This article proposes the hypothesis that the Meehan et al. study failed to replicate Gottman et al. because it used a low-conflict marital discussion rather than the high-conflict discussion Gottman et al. used. This article reviews a study that did use a high-conflict marital task and found results generally supporting the Gottman et al. findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Second Failure to Replicate the Gottman et al. (1995) Typology of Men Who Abuse Intimate Partners...and Possible Reasons Why.

The present study attempts to replicate Gottman et al.'s (1995; see record 1995-44075-001; and Jacobson & Gottman, 1998) psychophysiological study that classifies partner assaultive men into two distinct groups: heart rate (HR) decelerators (Type 1 batterers) and HR accelerators (Type 2 batterers). Current results indicate no significant differences between Type 1 and Type 2 batterers on the antisocial spectrum of behaviors. Resting HR, rather than HR change, was negatively related to the antisocial spectrum of behavior for batterers with severe, clinical levels of violence only. Reasons for subsequent failures to replicate the Type 1 versus Type 2 distinctions may be attributable to unusually high autonomic arousal during baseline in the original study. Consideration of resting HR and the use of dimensional as opposed to categorical approaches in analyzing the heterogeneity of batterers are proposed as possible solutions to clarifying inconsistencies across laboratories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychophysiological Profiles of Batterers: Autonomic Emotional Reactivity as It Predicts the Antisocial Spectrum of Behavior Among Intimate Partner Abusers.

On the basis of studies finding heart rate deceleration among severely violent (SV) batterers (J. M. Gottman et al., 1995) and unsuccessful psychopaths (S. S. Ishikawa, A. Raine, T. Lencz, S. Bihrle, & L. Lacasse, 2001), this study compares the physiological reactivity of SV batterers (n = 35) with low-level violent (LLV) batterers (n = 37) and nonviolent men (n = 21) during 2 laboratory tasks. Men's heart rate and skin conductance level were recorded during baseline, a conflict discussion, and a standardized anger induction. Results suggest that autonomic hyporeactivity is a risk marker for antisocial features among SV men, whereas autonomic hyperreactivity is a risk marker among LLV men. Psychophysiological responding appears to be a stronger correlate of general antisocial behavior than of intimate partner abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between cardiac reactivity in the laboratory and in real life.

Objective: An excessive cardiovascular response to acute stress is a probable risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) disease. Such reactivity is usually assessed from the CV response to laboratory stressors. However, if it is a risk factor, correlated responses must occur in real life. Design: In the present study, we investigated the relationship between the heart rate (HR) response to five laboratory stressors and HR reactivity in the field. Measures: HR variation, the response to a real life stressor (public speaking), and the increase in HR with periods of self-reported tense arousal. Ambulatory HR, activity and posture were measured continuously over a 7-hr period. Results: The HR increase to laboratory stressors did not relate to HR variation consistently, but it did relate to the other two field measures. Conclusion: The results suggested that a tendency to increased HR reactivity may be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease when combined with exposure to stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heart rate arousal and excitement in gambling: Winners versus losers.

People sometimes claim they gamble for excitement rather than money. The authors examined in a laboratory analog whether excitement is generated by the expectancy of winning money. Eighty male undergraduate students watched a videotaped horse race with an exciting neck-to-neck finish. Half bet $1 for a chance of winning $7 if they picked the winning horse; the other half predicted the winning horse without wagering. Winning and losing were experimentally manipulated. Participants with a chance to win money showed greater heart rate (HR) elevations and reported more subjective excitement while watching the race compared with those who did not wager. Of students who wagered, the winners showed higher HRs after the end of the race than did those who lost, even though differences in subjective excitement were not statistically significant. The findings suggest that the expectancy of winning money is an important contributing factor to the excitement associated with gambling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychophysiological reactions to films by chronic schizophrenics: II. Individual differences in resting levels and reactivity.

Resting skin-resistance, heart-rate, and reactivity data to 1 of 2 tension-arousing films were obtained from 2 normal comparison groups and a sample of drug-free chronic schizophrenics. The schizophrenics were subdivided into 3 subsamples on the basis of the number of deviant associations given to a word-association test. The resting skin-resistance data failed to discriminate between normals and schizophrenics; however, meaningful differences were found among the schizophrenic subsamples such that increasing thought disturbance was associated with increasing basal resistance levels. Basal heart-rate data did indicate faster heart rate for all schizophrenic subsamples compared with both normal groups. Reactivity data also indicated different results for the 2 indexes. Skin-resistance indexes failed to indicate any differences between schizophrenics and normals or among the schizophrenic samples. 1 heart-rate index suggested less reactivity for schizophrenics than for normals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cardiac autonomic reactivity and recovery in predicting carotid atherosclerosis: The cardiovascular risk in young finns study.

The present study examined the association of cardiac autonomic task-induced reactivity and recovery to preclinical atherosclerosis. Thirty-three men and 33 women aged 24-39 years participated in the ongoing epidemiological Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study. The authors measured heart rate (HR), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and preejection period (PEP) during the mental arithmetic and speech tasks in 1999. Carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by measuring the thickness of the common carotid artery intima-media complex (IMT) with ultrasound in 2001. Higher HR, RSA, and PEP reactivity were associated with lower IMT values even after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors (lipid levels, obesity, and blood pressure). In addition, better HR recovery after the mental arithmetic task was associated with lower IMT values, and this association persisted after all adjustments. Thus, higher task-induced cardiac autonomic reactivity and better HR recovery were related to less preclinical atherosclerosis. The authors concluded that cardiac pattern of reactivity and quick recovery may be associated with better cardiovascular health, and therefore all reactivity occurring in challenging situations should not automatically be considered as potentially pathological. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Matters of the variable heart: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia response to marital interaction and associations with marital quality.

Maintenance of relationship quality requires self-regulation of emotion and social behavior, and women often display greater effort in this regard than do men. Furthermore, such efforts can deplete the limited capacity for self-regulation. In recent models of self-regulation, resting level of respiratory sinus arrhythmia, quantified as high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), is an indicator of self-regulatory capacity, whereas transient increases in HF-HRV reflect self-regulatory effort. To test these hypotheses in marriage, 114 young couples completed measures of marital quality and a positive, neutral, or negative initial marital task, preceded and followed by resting baseline assessments of HF-HRV. Couples then discussed a current marital disagreement. Resting HF-HRV was correlated with marital quality, suggesting that capacity for self-regulation is associated with adaptive functioning in close relationships. For women but not men, the negative initial task produced a decrease in resting HF-HRV. This effect was mediated by the husbands' negative affect response to the task and their ratings of wives as controlling and directive. When the subsequent disagreement discussion followed the negative initial task, women displayed increased HF-HRV during the discussion but a decrease when it followed the neutral or positive task. The valence of the initial task had no effect on men's HF-HRV during disagreement. Negative marital interactions can reduce women's resting HF-HRV, with potentially adverse health consequences. Women's reduced health benefit from marriage might reflect the depleting effects on self-regulatory capacity of their greater efforts to manage relationship quality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in healthy male paramedics during a workday and a nonworkday": Erratum.

Reports an error in "Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in healthy male paramedics during a workday and a nonworkday" by Iris B. Goldstein, Larry D. Jamner and David Shapiro (Health Psychology, 1992, Vol 11[1], 48-54). On page 52, the sentence "For example, the paramedics stood 16.44 times more while home than while at the station" should read "For example, the paramedics stood more while home than while at the station." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1992-29445-001.) Compared ambulatory blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in 30 White male paramedics (aged 20-43 yrs) during a 24-hr workday and a 24-hr nonworkday. During the 24-hr period as a whole, there were no BP differences between the workday and the nonworkday, but HR was higher during the nonworkday than during the workday. Systolic BP (SBP) recorded in the ambulance on the workday was elevated 9.8 mm Hg, compared with SBP recorded in a car on the nonworkday; it was also 7.2 mm Hg higher at the scene of an accident and at the hospital than during nonworkday activities. Ratings of moods in diaries indicated that paramedics felt more unhappiness, stress, and sadness and less feelings of pleasantness at work than at home. Rather than being elevated for the entire 24-hr period, work BP seemed to reflect the relatively high stress associated with specific situations in the work of a paramedic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maritally violent men's heart rate reactivity to marital interactions: A failure to replicate the Gottman et al. (1995) typology.

In an attempt to replicate the J. A Gottman et al. (1995) batterer typology, 58 men who had engaged in moderate-to-severe marital violence in the past year were studied. The sample was split into Gottman et al.'s Type 1 men (i.e., whose heart rates decreased, from baseline, during a marital conflict task) and Type 2 men (i.e., whose heart rates increased). The groups did not differ in the manner predicted on measures of marital violence, antisocial or aggressive-sadistic personality, drug dependence, criminality, general violence, childhood exposure to interparental violence, behavior during marital interactions, or relationship stability. Contrary to expectations, wives of Type 1 men rated their husband as more jealous and angry and reported more marital distress. In the only finding consistent with Gottman et al., Type 2 men scored higher on a measure of dependent personality. Implications for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social interaction moderates the relationship between depressive mood and heart rate variability: Evidence from an ambulatory monitoring study.

Objective: There is considerable evidence that depressive mood is related to lower parasympathetic control of the heart, thus increasing cardiovascular risk. However, little is known about social factors (e.g., social affiliation) that might moderate this relationship. Design: The authors examined whether cardiac autonomic control in healthy individuals with depressive symptoms could be altered by social interaction. Therefore, the authors conducted a 22-hr ambulatory monitoring study with a sample of 63 adults. Main Outcome Measures: Depression was assessed by questionnaire. Heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), physical activity, and negative affect were recorded throughout one day via portable monitoring devices. Results and Conclusion: Multilevel analyses revealed that depression was related to elevated negative affect and higher heart rate throughout the day. Moreover, there was a tendency toward lower HRV in individuals with higher depression scores. This association, however, was moderated by social context. When depressive participants were alone they evidenced lower HRV and higher negative affect, but not when they were engaged in social interactions with a partner, family members, or friends. These findings suggest that the relation between depression and cardiac autonomic control could be altered by social interaction, thus possibly buffering adverse health effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of specific emotions in children's responses to interparental conflict: A test of the model.

Mothers, fathers, and their 6-year-old children (N?=?164) participated in a study testing key tenets of the specific emotions model of marital conflict. Parents reported their marital conflict strategies, were observed interacting with their children, and rated children's behavioral adjustment. Children reported their emotional reactions to specific interparental conflicts. Results support the specific emotions model. Children's behaviors mirrored the marital or parental behaviors of same-gender parents. Indirect effects of marital aggression through parental behavior were detected, and marital and parental behaviors interacted to predict girls' externalizing. Girls' anger, sadness, and fear increased with fathers' marital aggression. Fear and the anger by fear interaction predicted girls' internalizing. Fathers' marital aggression interacted with anger to predict externalizing and interacted with fear to predict internalizing behavior in boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creative mythconceptions: A closer look at the evidence for the "mad genius" hypothesis.

Many people believe that the “mad genius” notion, which has been a favorite cultural fixture for centuries, is based on established scientific fact. Much of the evidence for the connection between great creativity and great pathology, particularly affective disorder, comes from the writings of psychiatrists Nancy Andreasen and Arnold K. Ludwig and psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison. For two decades, their studies and books have been widely referenced in both the popular and professional press without critique or comment and often without much detail, suggesting that few people have spent much time with the originals. This article examines their most influential works, encouraging readers to evaluate this evidence for themselves, because the author believes that many of their claims have had unfortunate implications for the perception of creativity and the credibility of psychological research in general. The author considers the inherent difficulties of generating any scientific findings in this area, and concludes by discussing the signs of a hopeful trend to celebrate, rather than pathologize, people with exceptional gifts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support at work, heart rate, and cortisol: A self-monitoring study.

This study assessed the influence of work social support on self-monitored heart rate, blood pressure, and salivary cortisol recorded on 3 work days and 2 leisure days from 61 nurses and 32 accountants (40 men, 53 women). Heart rate and blood pressure were higher during the day at work than in the evening or on leisure days. Cortisol was higher on leisure than work days and was lower in the evening than in the day. Low social support at work was associated with elevated heart rate during the daytime and evening of work days, an effect that persisted after controlling for psychological distress, age, sex, smoking, and physical activity. Work social support was not related to cortisol on work days, but on leisure days cortisol was elevated among individuals reporting high social support. There were few differences between men and women, and no important occupational effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When Accuracy Hurts, and When It Helps: A Test of the Empathic Accuracy Model in Marital Interactions.

This study tested predictions from W. Ickes and J. A. Simpson's (1997, 2001) empathic accuracy model. Married couples were videotaped as they tried to resolve a problem in their marriage. Both spouses then viewed a videotape of the interaction, recorded the thoughts and feelings they had at specific time points, and tried to infer their partner's thoughts and feelings. Consistent with the model, when the partner's thoughts and feelings were relationship-threatening (as rated by both the partners and by trained observers), greater empathic accuracy on the part of the perceiver was associated with pre-to-posttest declines in the perceiver's feelings of subjective closeness. The reverse was true when the partner's thoughts and feelings were nonthreatening. Exploratory analyses revealed that these effects were partially mediated through observer ratings of the degree to which partners tried to avoid the discussion issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naturalistic monitoring of the affect-heart rate relationship: A day reconstruction study.

Objective: Prospective studies have linked negative affect with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. This study aims to identify if cardiovascular activity in day-to-day settings is related to affect levels as assessed using the Day Reconstruction Method (Kahneman, Krueger, Schkade, Schwarz, & Stone, 2004). Design: 186 people underwent baseline physiological testing and were monitored naturalistically for an entire day. Multilevel models were the principal analyses used. Main Outcome Measures: We utilized an online day reconstruction survey to produce a continuous account of affect, social interactions, and activity patterns during waking hours. Ambulatory heart rate (HR) was assessed during the same period. Personality, health behavior, consumption, self-reported activity, and baseline physiological characteristics were assessed to isolate the relationships between affect and HR. Results: Negative affect predicted an elevated ambulatory HR and tiredness predicted a lower HR. Associations between negative affectivity and increased cardiovascular reactivity were maintained after taking account of baseline physiological factors, health behavior, and personality. Conclusion: Negative affect in everyday life is a reliable predictor of HR. Combining day reconstruction with psychophysiological and environmental monitoring is a minimally invasive method with promising interdisciplinary relevance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Role of Claustrum in Pavlovian Heart Rate Conditioning in the Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) : Anatomical, Electrophysiological, and Lesion Studies.

The role of the claustrum in Pavlovian heart rate (HR) conditioning was studied in the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) by (a) mapping claustral projections to the prefrontal cortex (PFC), (b) recording claustral single-unit discharge to sensory stimulation and conditioning stimuli during HR conditioning, and (c) assessing the effects of claustral damage on HR conditioning. Contralateral and ipsilateral claustral projections to the PFC were found. Claustral cells responded to nonsignal stimulation with increased discharge and also showed conditioned stimulus-evoked increases in discharge during Pavlovian HR conditioning. Moreover, claustral lesions diminished the magnitude of the HR-conditioned response without affecting the cardiac-orienting response to the conditioned stimulus or the cardiac-unconditioning response to the unconditioned stimulus, suggesting a role for the claustrum in associative learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blood lead (Pb) levels: A potential environmental mechanism explaining the relation between socioeconomic status and cardiovascular reactivity in children.

Objective: A number of studies have shown an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and cardiovascular reactivity to acute stress. In addition, the authors recently reported that higher early childhood blood lead (Pb) levels are associated with significantly greater total peripheral (vascular) resistance (TPR) responses to acute stress. It is not known whether the SES-TPR association is mediated by underlying differences in blood lead levels. Design: Participants were 9.5-year-old children (N = 122) with established early childhood blood lead levels. Main Outcome Measures: Family SES was measured using the Hollingshead Index, blood lead levels were abstracted from pediatrician and state records, and children's cardiovascular responses to acute stressors were measured in the laboratory with impedance cardiography and an automated blood pressure monitor. Results: Lower family SES was shown to be associated with significantly higher blood lead levels as well as significantly heightened systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and TPR responses to acute stress tasks. A mediational analysis confirmed that Pb was a significant mediator of the SES-TPR reactivity association; some evidence also suggested moderation. Conclusion: These results suggest the importance of considering the chemical environment as well as social and psychological environment when evaluating cardiovascular effects of low SES. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual orientation and the second to fourth finger length ratio: A meta-analysis in men and women.

The ratio of the lengths of the second and fourth fingers (2D:4D) may serve as a marker for prenatal androgen signaling. Because people are typically unaware of their 2D:4D, its use allows possible effects of early sex hormone regimes and socialization to be disentangled. We conducted a meta-analysis on relationships between 2D:4D and sexual orientation in men and women in 18 independent samples of men and 16 independent samples of women. Collectively, these samples comprised 1,618 heterosexual men, 1,693 heterosexual women, 1,503 gay men, and 1,014 lesbians. In addition to identifying the normative heterosexual sex difference in 2D:4D for both hands, we found that heterosexual women had higher (more feminine) left- and right-hand 2D:4D than did lesbians, but we found no difference between heterosexual and gay men. Moderator analyses suggested that ethnicity explained some between-studies variation in men. These results add to a literature suggesting that early sex hormone signaling affects sexual orientation in women, and highlight the need for further research exploring the relationships among 2D:4D, sexual orientation, and ethnicity in men. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)