Hostility, anger-in, and cardiovascular reactivity in White women.

Relations between cardiovascular reactivity and cynical hostility, aggressiveness, antagonism, and anger-in were examined in White college women tor conditions of high and low interpersonal stress. High stress was created by having the participants discuss an issue on which they held a strong view with a confederate who adamantly espoused an opposing view. Participants in the low-stress condition discussed an issue on which they held no strong views with a confederate who amicably expressed agreement. Participants higher in cynical hostility exhibited more systolic blood pressure reactivity than individuals lower in cynical hostility in the high interpersonal stress condition only. Also, antagonism was positively related to heart rate reactivity across conditions. However, neither aggressiveness nor anger-in was related to reactivity in either condition. Overall, cynical hostility and a disposition toward disagreeable, manipulative behaviors (i.e., antagonism) but not overt aggressive behavior were found to be related to cardiovascular reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cynical hostility and vulnerability to disease: Social support, life stress, and physiological response to conflict.

34 extremely high and 34 low scorers on the hostility (Ho) scale proposed by W. Cook and D. Medley (1954) were selected from a pool of male undergraduates. Consistent with previous findings, high-Ho Ss reported greater anger proneness and a more cynical view of others than did low-Ho Ss. The high-Ho group also tended to be more hostile and less friendly during role-played interactions involving high and low levels of interpersonal conflict. High-Ho Ss displayed greater diastolic blood pressure reactivity during interpersonal conflict and reported less social support and more negative life events and daily irritants then did low-Ho Ss. Results support the interpretations of the Ho scale as a measure of cynical hostility and are consistent with the hypothesis that hostility is related to disease by way of excessive physiological reactivity and a generally stressful, unsupportive social network. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Major depressive disorder is associated with attenuated cardiovascular reactivity and impaired recovery among those free of cardiovascular disease.

Objective: To examine cardiovascular reactivity and recovery to laboratory stress among a naturalistic sample of individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy control participants. Prospective evidence suggests that MDD confers risk for cardiovascular disease equal to or greater than the risk associated with depressed mood. Enhanced cardiovascular reactivity has been proposed as a mechanism explaining increased risk, but data are inconsistent as to whether depressed individuals exhibit enhanced or attenuated reactivity. Further, few studies have examined appraisal and recovery differences. Design: Participants diagnosed with MDD (N = 25) and healthy control participants (N = 25) engaged in a cardiovascular reactivity protocol including 2 tasks, each followed by a brief recovery period. Main outcome measures: Blood pressure, heart rate, pre-ejection period, cardiac output and total peripheral resistance were assessed. Appraisals of tasks were assessed prior to each task. Results: Depressed participants exhibited significantly less systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac output reactivity during speech, less heart rate reactivity during mirror tracing, and less heart rate recovery after speech and mirror tracing than controls. Depressed participants appraised the tasks as more demanding, threatening, and stressful and reported being less able to cope than controls. Appraisals were related to heart rate reactivity, but appraisals did not mediate the relationship between depression group and reactivity. Conclusion: Impaired recovery rather than exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity may partially explain the increased prospective cardiovascular disease risk in depressed individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thinking about a close relationship differentially impacts cardiovascular stress responses among depressed and nondepressed women.

Objective: Individuals with depression and low social support are at elevated risk for developing cardiovascular disease—presumptively through mechanisms involving dysregulated stress physiology. While depressed individuals often report diminished social support and elevated levels of social distress, few studies have examined how social factors impact stress-related cardiovascular activity in depressed samples. Accordingly, we evaluated the social modulation of stress-related cardiovascular activity in a sample of 38 medically healthy, unmedicated depressed and nondepressed individuals. Methods: Cardiovascular and psychological measures were obtained before and after depressed and nondepressed women engaged in a speech stress task. To evaluate the impact of social factors on stress responses, half of the women completed the speech stress task first, while the other half completed the speech stress after engaging in a relationship-focused imagery task. Results: Nondepressed women who first thought about a close relationship displayed global attenuations in blood pressure throughout the subsequent stress task, consistent with a stress-buffering effect of perceived social support. Conversely, depressed women who first thought about a close relationship displayed global elevations in blood pressure throughout the subsequent stress task, consistent with a stress-enhancing effect of perceived social distress in depressed women. Conclusion: Thinking about a close relationship differentially impacted subsequent cardiovascular activity during an evocative stressor in depressed and nondepressed women. Understanding the social context in which stress is experienced may aid in identifying, and ultimately attenuating, cardiovascular risks observed among patients with major depressive disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived racism and vascular reactivity in black college women: Moderating effects of seeking social support.

This quasi-experimental study explored the association of perceived racism and seeking social support to vascular reactivity in a college sample of 110 Black women. Perceived racism and seeking social support were assessed via self-report, and vascular reactivity was measured before and during a standardized speaking task. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that perceived racism was positively related to changes in systolic blood pressure. These analyses also indicated that seeking social support moderated the relationship between perceived racism and systolic blood pressure changes. This interaction effect persisted after controlling for several potential confounders. Follow-up regression analyses showed that perceived racism was positively associated with reactivity among participants who were low in seeking social support. A significant relationship was not observed between perceived racism and systolic blood pressure changes among participants who were high in seeking social support. Perceived racism and seeking social support were not significantly associated with changes in diastolic blood pressure. These findings highlight the importance of examining psychosocial factors that may mitigate the hypothesized relationship between perceived racism and reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support effects on cardiovascular reactivity: is a stranger as effective as a friend?

OBJECTIVE: We investigated whether the effects on cardiovascular reactivity of social support from an audience member depend only on the behavior of that person or also depend on the relationship between the audience and the actor. That is, is there any added reduction in physiological response if the person who is nodding and smiling supportively is also a friend? METHOD: Ninety subjects gave a speech to an observer. In two of the conditions, this observer was a confederate of the experimenter and a stranger to the subject. This confederate acted in either a supportive or neutral manner during the speech. In the final condition, this observer was a friend, brought by the subject, who was then trained to show support in the same manner as the supportive confederate. The comparison of the two confederate conditions tested the effect of support, holding the relationship constant. The comparison of friend and confederate supportive conditions tested the effect of the relationship, holding the supportive behaviors constant. All participants were female. RESULTS: Both supportive conditions produced significantly smaller cardiovascular increases than the confederate-neutral condition, and the friend-supportive condition produced significantly smaller systolic blood pressure increases than the confederate-supportive (friend-supportive: 7.9 mm Hg: confederate-supportive: 14.9 mm Hg; confederate-neutral: 22.9 mm Hg). Differences for diastolic pressure and heart rate were not significant, although the data followed the same pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Social support from a friend attenuated cardiovascular reactivity in a laboratory setting to a greater degree than support from a stranger. The subjects' construal of the supportive behaviors can have an effect on reactivity, over and above the effects of the actual behaviors themselves.     

The relationship between socioeconomic status, hostility, and blood pressure reactions to mental stress in men: Data from the Whitehall II study.

This study investigated the relationship among blood pressure reactions to mental stress, cynical hostility, and socioeconomic status (SES) in 1,091 male public servants. Occupational grade served to index SES and cynical hostility was assessed using the Cook-Medley scale. (Cook & Medley, 1954). The magnitude of systolic, but not diastolic, blood pressure change scores to stress was positively associated with occupational grade: the higher the grade, the greater the reactions. Mental stress task performance also varied with occupational grade but was unrelated to reactivity. Ratings of task difficulty did not vary with occupational grade. Cynical hostility was negatively related to occupational grade, and, contrary to previous findings, negatively related to systolic blood pressure reactivity. Cynical hostility was also negatively related to mental stress task performance but unrelated to ratings of task difficulty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental Activation of Supportive Ties, Hostility, and Cardiovascular Reactivity to Laboratory Stress in Young Men and Women.

In addition to actual social interactions, internal representations of supportive ties could affect mechanisms linking relationships and health. Undergraduates (41 men, 41 women) wrote about supportive ties or casual acquaintances. Supportive ties were rated as warmer and less controlling than acquaintances, and writing about them evoked reductions in negative affect, especially for low-hostile participants. Compared with the acquaintance condition, the supportive tie condition resulted in reduced heart rate and blood pressure response during a subsequent speech stressor. Among women, the supportive tie condition reduced blood pressure response among low- but not among high-hostile participants. Hence, mental activation of supportive ties altered effects of laboratory stress and might be relevant to the effects of social relations on health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrimination, dispositions, and cardiovascular responses to stress.

Objective: Recent research suggests that past exposure to discrimination may influence perceptions of, and physiological responses to, new challenges. The authors examined how race and trait levels of hostility and optimism interact with past exposure to discrimination to predict physiological reactivity and recovery during an anger recall task. Design: A community sample of 165 normotensive Black and White adults participated in an anger recall task while having their cardiovascular function monitored. Main Outcome Measures: Blood pressure and heart rate indicators of physiological reactivity and recovery. Results and Conclusion: Participants had higher reactivity and slower recovery to the anger recall task when they had high past discrimination, low cynicism, or high optimism. The pattern of effects was similar for both racial groups, but Blacks had more acute reactivity and slower recovery than Whites. These results are consistent with the perspective of discrimination as a chronic stressor that is related to acute stress responses, particularly for Blacks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental toxicity of steviol, a metabolite of stevioside, in the hamster

Family history of hypertension (positive and negative) and gender groups were compared on cardiovascular responses at rest, during stressors and during recovery. Two tasks were employed, mental arithmetic and an anger recall interview. Both levels and reactivity measures of blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output and total peripheral resistance were included. In addition, participants filled out several questionnaires measuring state feelings during the task and recovery periods, trait anger/hostility and emotions. Both men and women with a positive family history of hypertension exhibited higher tonic levels of blood pressure and heart rate at rest, recovery and during both tasks. They also exhibited greater heart rate reactivity during the mental arithmetic task and greater blood pressure reactivity to both tasks when post-math recovery, but not initial rest, was used as a covariate. Positive family history individuals reported less trust and gregariousness, more depression and aggression, less awareness of somatic responses to the tasks and less effort to relax during the post-task rest periods. Finally, significant correlations were found between low anger expression how anger experience and high anger control and task SBP levels in positive family history individuals.     

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)     

Age-related changes in cardiovascular response as a function of a chronic stressor and social support.

The effects of aging, chronic stress, and social support on cardiovascular functioning were examined using a cross-sectional design. 36 family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease victims and 34 control Ss performed 2 active coping tasks while continuous noninvasive measures of cardiovascular activity were monitored. Results revealed that caregivers high in social support displayed typical age-related decreases in heart-rate reactivity, whereas caregivers low in social support displayed age-related increases in heart-rate reactivity. Analyses further indicated that only Ss with low social support were characterized by age-related increases in systolic blood pressure. These results suggest that social support can moderate age-related changes in cardiovascular functioning, particularly in Ss exposed to a chronic stressor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Links between physical fitness and cardiovascular reactivity and recovery to psychological stressors: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of published studies with adult human participants was conducted to evaluate whether physical fitness attenuates cardiovascular reactivity and improves recovery from acute psychological stressors. Thirty-three studies met selection criteria; 18 were included in recovery analyses. Effect sizes and moderator influences were calculated by using meta-analysis software. A fixed effects model was fit initially; however, between-studies heterogeneity could not be explained even after inclusion of moderators. Therefore, to account for residual heterogeneity, a random effects model was estimated. Under this model, fit individuals showed significantly attenuated heart rate and systolic blood pressure reactivity and a trend toward attenuated diastolic blood pressure reactivity. Fit individuals also showed faster heart rate recovery, but there were no significant differences in systolic blood pressure or diastolic blood pressure recovery. No significant moderators emerged. Results have important implications for elucidating mechanisms underlying effects of fitness on cardiovascular disease and suggest that fitness may be an important confound in studies of stress reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in ambulatory blood pressure during daily stress: Evidence for greater blood pressure reactivity with age.

Prior research on age and emotions has found that older adults may show better physiological regulation to stressful stimuli than do younger adults. However, the stress reactivity literature has shown that age is associated with higher cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stress (J. R. Jennings et al., 1997). The authors investigated these conflicting findings further by examining daily ambulatory blood pressure in 428 middle-aged to older adults. Consistent with the age and reactivity literature, relatively old individuals showed significantly greater increases in ambulatory diastolic blood pressure compared with younger individuals when dealing with daily stressors. However, results also revealed that relatively old individuals reported less of an increase in negative affect during daily stress compared with their younger counterparts. The results of this study are consistent with the age-related increase in cardiovascular risk but highlight the complex links between stress and different facets of the aging process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cardiovascular reactivity as a predictor of relapse in male and female smokers.

Examined the role of psychophysiological reactivity to general stressors measured before smoking cessation as a predictor of relapse in individuals who quit for a minimum of 12 hrs and were then followed for a 12-mo interval. The study group consisted of 132 (56.9%) female and 100 (43.1%) male participants in a formal smoking cessation program. The reactivity measures were taken while the Ss were still smoking. Heart rate and blood pressure measurements were taken while Ss were resting, performing mental arithmetic, and delivering a speech and after Ss had been standing for 2 min. In the sample as a whole and for women, a higher level of systolic blood pressure reactivity to the cognitive challenge was associated with a shorter time to relapse. In men, greater systolic blood pressure decline to standing was significantly associated with a shorter time to relapse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oxytocin responsivity in mothers of infants: A preliminary study of relationships with blood pressure during laboratory stress and normal ambulatory activity.

The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) enhances maternal behavior and decreases blood pressure (BP) and stress responses in animals. Thus, the relationship of OT responsivity to BP in 14 breast- and 11 bottle-feeding mothers of infants was examined. Laboratory BP was assessed during baseline, speech preparation, active speech, and recovery on 2 days, 1 in which baseline and speech were separated by 10 min of baby holding and the other by no baby contact. Systolic BP reactivity to speech was lower after baby contact. Plasma OT change from baseline to speech after baby contact defined OT increase, minimal OT change, and OT decrease groups. OT increase mothers were primarily breast-feeders, and they had lower BP throughout both stress sessions and after baby feeding at home than OT decrease mothers, who also had greater BP reactivity to preparation and recovery. These results suggest that oxytocin has antistress and BP-lowering effects in humans. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial predictors of natural killer cell mobilization during marital conflict.

This study examined how specific emotions relate to autonomic nervous and immune system parameters and whether cynical hostility moderates this relationship. Forty-one married couples participated in a 15-min discussion about a marital problem. Observers recorded spouses' emotional expressions during the discussion, and cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immunologic parameters were assessed throughout the laboratory session. Among men high in cynical hostility, anger displayed during the conflict was associated with greater elevations in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cortisol, and increases in natural killer cell numbers and cytotoxicity. Among men low in cynical hostility, anger was associated with smaller increases in heart rate and natural killer cell cytotoxicity. These findings suggest that models describing the impact of stress on physiology should be refined to reflect the joint contribution of situational and dispositional variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resting cardiovascular levels and reactivity to interpersonal incivility among Black, Latina/o, and White individuals: The moderating role of ethnic discrimination.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine cardiovascular responses among Black, non-Hispanic White, and Latina/o participants exposed to a potentially discriminatory situation. The study also examined the moderating role of prior history of discrimination on cardiovascular responses. Design: Black, Latina/o, and White participants engaged in a resting baseline and then interacted with an uncivil White research assistant. Main Outcome Measures: Two measures of prior exposure to discrimination were administered. Participants' blood pressure and heart rate (HR) were monitored throughout the protocol. The primary outcomes were resting cardiovascular function and cardiovascular reactivity to the uncivil interaction. Results: Past discrimination was related to higher resting systolic blood pressure (SBP) among Latina/o participants and lower resting SBP among White participants. Further, past discrimination was related to attenuated SBP and HR reactivity among Latina/o participants but was related to augmented HR reactivity among White participants. Discrimination was not related to resting levels or reactivity among Black participants. Conclusion: This study is the first to examine the relationship between discrimination and cardiovascular responses to interpersonal incivility among Black, Latina/o, and White individuals. Findings suggest that the relationship between discrimination and cardiovascular risk may differ by ethnicity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of social support visibility on adjustment to stress: Experimental evidence.

Previous fieldwork has suggested that visible social support can entail an emotional cost and that a supportive act is most effective when it is accomplished either (a) outside of recipients' awareness or (b) within their awareness but with sufficient subtlety that they do not interpret it as support. To investigate the latter phenomenon, the authors conducted 3 experiments in which female participants were led to expect a stressful speech task and a confederate peer provided support in such a way that it was either visible or invisible (N=257). Invisible support (practical and emotional) reduced emotional reactivity relative to visible and no support. Visible support was either ineffective or it exacerbated reactivity. Explanatory analyses indicated that support was effective when it avoided communicating a sense of inefficacy to recipients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)