Cardiovascular responses of embarrassment and effects of emotional suppression in a social setting.

The cardiovascular effects of embarrassment and of attempts to suppress embarrassment were examined. In 2 studies, embarrassment was associated with substantial increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure which monotonically increased over a 2-minute embarrassment period. In contrast, heart rate (HR) rose significantly during the 1st minute of embarrassment but returned to baseline levels during the 2nd minute. This pattern of reactivity may be distinctive. The effects of trying to suppress emotion in an interpersonal situation were also tested. Relative to the no-suppression group, suppression participants showed greater blood pressure during embarrassment and during posttask recovery. Suppression did not significantly affect HR. Possible mechanisms for these results, including passive coping, are discussed. Nonverbal behavior was also examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial work characteristics and perceived control in relation to cardiovascular rewind at night.

This study examined the effects of psychosocial work characteristics on cardiovascular rewind at night. Ambulatory 24-hr recordings of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) of 75 borderline hypertensive and 74 normotensive men were related to diary ratings of perceived control (PC) and to scores of psychological demand (P), control (C), and social support (S) at work determined by an occupational classification system. Multiplicative interaction terms for job strain (P?×?C, isostrain (P?×?C?×?S), and Job Strain?×?Perceived Control (P?×?C?×?PC) were calculated. The P?×?C?×?PC interaction predicted diastolic BP at night but not at work. A delayed latency to attain the lowest systolic BP during the night was found for jobs with high job strain and isostrain. Low perceived control and social support were associated with higher HR at work and at night. A logistic regression analysis indicated that the interaction between P?×?C?×?PC and the body mass index was independently associated with borderline hypertension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Railing for Safety: Job Demands, Job Control, and Safety Citizenship Role Definition.

This study investigated job demands and job control as predictors of safety citizenship role definition, that is, employees' role orientation toward improving workplace safety. Data from a survey of 334 trackside workers were framed in the context of R. A. Karasek's (1979) job demands-control model. High job demands were negatively related to safety citizenship role definition, whereas high job control was positively related to this construct. Safety citizenship role definition of employees with high job control was buffered from the influence of high job demands, unlike that of employees with low job control, for whom high job demands were related to lower levels of the construct. Employees facing both high job demands and low job control were less likely than other employees to view improving safety as part of their role orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of psychological hardiness, job demands, and job control on sickness absence: A prospective study.

This study prospectively investigated the effects of psychological hardiness, job control, and job demands on medically certified sickness absence. Data from a questionnaire survey were combined with archival data for sickness absence among 7,239 civilian and military employees of the Norwegian Armed Forces (84.3% male, 69.8% military). A 2-component hurdle regression was used in the statistical analyses of the sickness absence data. After controlling for age, sex, and baseline absence, hardiness predicted both the likelihood of having any sickness absence (odds ratio = 0.97) and the number of absence spells (a 6.5% decrease in the expected count for 1 standard deviation change in hardiness). In addition, an interaction was found among hardiness, job control, and psychological demands. When demands were high, high job control was associated with more absence among employees with low levels of hardiness. Together, these findings point to hardiness as an important individual resource in relation to health, and that it is necessary to consider individual differences when examining the effects of work characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Magnitude and duration of cardiovascular response to anger in Vietnam veterans with and without posttraumatic stress disorder.

This study investigated the cardiovascular responses to a relived anger task in 118 male Vietnam combat veterans (62 with posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and 56 without PTSD). Participants completed standardized diagnostic measures, hostility measures, and a laboratory session in which they relived a self-chosen anger memory while heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were measured continuously using an Ohmeda Finapres monitor. Compared with veterans without PTSD, PTSD veterans took less time to feel anger, had greater mean HR and DBP response during relived anger, and reported greater anger and anxiety during the task. There was a significant relationship between covert hostility and anger response during and after the anger task only in participants with PTSD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An experience sampling study of learning, affect, and the demands control support model.

The demands control support model (R. A. Karasek & T. Theorell, 1990) indicates that job control and social support enable workers to engage in problem solving. In turn, problem solving is thought to influence learning and well-being (e.g., anxious affect, activated pleasant affect). Two samples (N = 78, N = 106) provided data up to 4 times per day for up to 5 working days. The extent to which job control was used for problem solving was assessed by measuring the extent to which participants changed aspects of their work activities to solve problems. The extent to which social support was used to solve problems was assessed by measuring the extent to which participants discussed problems to solve problems. Learning mediated the relationship between changing aspects of work activities to solve problems and activated pleasant affect. Learning also mediated the relationship between discussing problems to solve problems and activated pleasant affect. The findings indicated that how individuals use control and support to respond to problem-solving demands is associated with organizational and individual phenomena, such as learning and affective well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experiences of demand and control during daily life are predictors of carotid atherosclerotic progression among healthy men.

Objectives: The authors previously reported that individuals who rate their daily life as more demanding or less controllable by momentary electronic diary (ED) reports showed greater intima-medial thickness (IMT) by carotid ultrasonography. They now present prospective findings on this relation. Design: Three hundred thirty-five healthy individuals (ages 50-70 at study onset) completed ongoing ratings of activity and mood over a 6-day period, using ED assessments. Main Outcome Measures: Mean bilateral carotid artery IMT was measured at baseline and 36 months later. Results and Conclusion: Mean ratings of high demand and low control were significantly associated with IMT progression among men but not among women. These associations were not explained by traditional risk factors or by measures of occupational stress. Effects were partially accounted for by elevated ambulatory heart rates among those with low ratings of control. These data support the utility of ED-based measures for examining psychosocial risks in the prediction of cardiovascular disease progression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social relationships and ambulatory blood pressure: Structural and qualitative predictors of cardiovascular function during everyday social interactions.

Healthy normotensive men and women (N=102) underwent a 3-day ambulatory blood pressure (BP) assessment in which a BP reading was taken 5 min into each social interaction. After each interaction, participants completed a diary that included structural categorization of the relationship and ratings of the quality of the relationship with the interaction partner. Random regression analyses revealed that interactions with family members and spouses were associated with lower ambulatory BP. Interactions with ambivalent network members (characterized by both positive and negative feelings) were associated with the highest ambulatory systolic BP, an effect that was independent of the familial effects on BP. Although there were psychological correlates associated with both structural and functional aspects of relationships, no evidence was found that these mediated the primary findings involving ambulatory BP. These data highlight the influence of both structural and qualitative aspects of relationships on ambulatory BP and possibly health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life on the line: Job demands, perceived co-worker support for safety, and hazardous work events.

The present study of 334 United Kingdom trackside workers tested an interaction hypothesis. We hypothesized, drawing on the job demands-resources framework, that perceived support for safety (from senior managers, supervisors, and coworkers) as job resources would weaken the relationship between higher job demands and more frequent hazardous work events. Consistent with social impact theory, we predicted that perceived coworker support for safety would be particularly influential when trackside workers faced higher job demands. Moderated multiple regression showed that, of all three sources of perceived support for safety, perceived coworker support for safety was most important for keeping employees safe in the face of high job demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Posttraumatic stress symptoms and subclinical cardiovascular disease in police officers.

The present study examined associations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms with subclinical cardiovascular disease in police officers. A stratified sample of 100 police officers was randomly selected from the Buffalo, New York, Police Department. Cardiovascular disease biomarkers were assessed by ultrasound of the brachial artery (flow-mediated dilation [FMD]). PTSD symptoms were measured with the Impact of Event Scale (IES). FMD was lowest in the severe PTSD symptom category when compared to the mild PTSD symptom category (1.91 vs. 5.15% increase, respectively; p=.21) even after adjustment for lifestyle and demographics. In conclusion, higher PTSD symptomatology in this police sample was associated with a nearly twofold reduction in brachial artery FMD, a biomarker for subclinical cardiovascular disease. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The informational impact of mood on effort mobilization: A study of cardiovascular and electrodermal responses.

The impact of mood on effort quantified as autonomic adjustments was investigated in an experiment. The authors induced positive versus negative moods with either 1 of 2 mood induction procedures (music versus autobiographical recollection) that differed in the extent of required effort. Then participants performed an achievement task after demand appraisals were made. Results were as predicted. During the mood inductions, autonomic reactivity (systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, skin conductance responses) was stronger in the relatively effortful recollection conditions than in the relatively effortless music conditions. Mood valence had no impact here. But in the context of task performance, the authors found (a) mood congruency effects on the demand appraisals that reflected subjectively higher demand in a negative than in a positive mood, and (b) stronger SBP reactivity in a negative mood compared with a positive mood. Furthermore, SBP reactivity during task performance was correlated with achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantitative Versus Emotional Demands Among Swedish Human Service Employees: Moderating Effects of Job Control and Social Support.

The purpose of the current study was to conduct a longitudinal test of the moderating effect of both job control and social support on the relation between job demands and burnout in human service work. To adapt the study to human service work, quantitative as well as emotional demands were examined. A longitudinal survey with a 1-year time interval yielded a panel group encompassing 2,255 employees from the Social Insurance Organization in Sweden. Hierarchical regression analyses were used, controlling for demographic variables and the related dependent variable at Time 1. The analyses were conducted for quantitative and emotional demands separately and revealed main effects. Slightly more main effects were found for emotional demands. In addition, 1 interaction effect was found between emotional demands and job control with regard to emotional exhaustion. In conclusion, the present study shows that emotional demands are as important as, and sometimes more important than, quantitative demands in human service work. Some practical implications and suggestions regarding future research are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of perceived discrimination on ambulatory blood pressure and affective responses to interpersonal stress modeled over 24 hours.

Objective: This research examined the impact of perceived discrimination on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and daily level affect during social interaction. Design: For 24 hrs, adult Black and White participants wore an ABP monitor and completed palm pilot diary entries about their social interactions. Main Outcome Measures: Mean level and time-trend trajectories of blood pressure and heart rate were examined as well as mean level measures of positive and negative affect after stressful and nonstressful social interactions. Results: Analyses showed that, after controlling for important covariates, perceived discrimination predicted the slopes of both wake and nocturnal ABP responses, with those who reported more discrimination having steeper daytime trajectories for systolic and diastolic blood pressure and less nighttime dipping in heart rate over time as compared to those who had reported relatively infrequent discrimination. High levels of perceived discrimination were also related to positive and negative affective responses after stressful encounters. Conclusions: These results suggest that, regardless of race, perceived discrimination is related to cardiovascular and affective responses that may increase vulnerability to pathogenic processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Chronic stress influences cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses during acute stress and recovery, especially in men.

This study tests the influence of chronic stress on cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses to and recovery from acute stressors and whether the effects are gender specific. Sixty-two healthy, middle-aged persons (50% women) performed mental-arithmetic and public-speaking tasks and relaxed thereafter for 1 hr while their cardiovascular and neuroendocrine functions were measured. Participants with higher levels of chronic stress showed lower systolic blood pressure (SBP) and epinephrine (E; men only) and marginally lower levels of norepinephrine (NE) responses to the tasks and showed lower levels of cortisol and marginally lower NE responses during recovery. Relative to women, men had high diastolic blood pressure (DBP) responses to the tasks and high SBP, DBP, and E responses during recovery. Gender differences in cardiovascular disease in midlife may be due to gender differences in inability to recover quickly, in addition to enhanced acute-stress response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining employees' health care costs: A prospective examination of stressful job demands, personal control, and physiological reactivity.

The authors tested the ability of stressful demands and personal control in the workplace to predict employees' subsequent health care costs in a sample of 105 full-time nurses. Both subjective and objective measures of workload demands interacted with personal control perceptions in predicting the cumulative health care costs over the ensuing 5-year period. Tonic elevations in salivary cortisol, moreover, mediated the effects of demands and control on health care costs. Neither the job demands variables nor physiological reactivity measures, however, explained subsequent mental health. The results support findings from the epidemiological literature that demonstrate an important role for employees' control in explaining occupational inequalities in coronary heart disease and mortality. The authors argue that the results also encourage control-enhancing job design interventions by suggesting that their outcomes can benefit both organizations and their members. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and leader effectiveness: A moderated mediation model of leadership self-efficacy, job demands, and job autonomy.

The trait theory of leadership is advanced by a joint investigation of the mediating role of (a) leadership self-efficacy (LSE = leader's perceived capabilities to perform leader roles) in linking neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness with leader effectiveness and (b) the moderating role of job demands and job autonomy in influencing the mediation. Using K. J. Preacher, D. D. Rucker, and A. F. Hayes' (2007) moderated mediation framework, the authors tested the model (over a 2-year period) with matched data from 394 military leaders and their supervisors. Results showed that LSE mediated the relationships for neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness with leader effectiveness. Moderated mediation analyses further revealed that LSE mediated the relationships for (a) all 3 personality variables for only those leaders with low job demands; (b) neuroticism and conscientiousness for only those leaders with high job autonomy; and (c) extraversion, regardless of a leader's level of job autonomy. Results underscore the importance of accounting for leaders' situational contexts when examining the relationships between personality, LSE, and effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do behavioral responses mediate or moderate the relation between cardiovascular reactivity to stress and parental history of hypertension?

To examine whether differences in behavioral responses to stress mediated or moderated the relation between cardiovascular response to stress and parental history of hypertension, 64 healthy undergraduates--16 men with hypertensive parents (PH+), 16 men without hypertensive parents (PH-), 16 PH+ women, and 16 PH- women--participated in a mental arithmetic task, mirror tracing task, and 2 interpersonal role plays. PH+ participants exhibited higher resting heart rates than PH - participants and higher resting systolic blood pressures (SBPs) than PH- women. PH+ participants exhibited greater SBP responses to tasks and engaged in more negative verbal and nonverbal behavior across tasks than PH- counterparts. Differences in behavioral responding neither mediated nor moderated the observed relation between parental history status and SBP response to stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Role of Acceptance and Job Control in Mental Health, Job Satisfaction, and Work Performance.

Acceptance, the willingness to experience thoughts, feelings, and physiological sensations without having to control them or let them determine one's actions, is a major individual determinant of mental health and behavioral effectiveness in a more recent theory of psychopathology. This 2-wave panel study examined the ability of acceptance also to explain mental health, job satisfaction, and performance in the work domain. The authors hypothesized that acceptance would predict these 3 outcomes 1 year later in a sample of customer service center workers in the United Kingdom (N = 412). Results indicated that acceptance predicted mental health and an objective measure of performance over and above job control, negative affectivity, and locus of control. These beneficial effects of having more job control were enhanced when people had higher levels of acceptance. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical relevance of this individual characteristic to occupational health and performance. (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)     

Safety at work: A meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes.

In this article, we develop and meta-analytically test the relationship between job demands and resources and burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes in the workplace. In a meta-analysis of 203 independent samples (N = 186,440), we found support for a health impairment process and for a motivational process as mechanisms through which job demands and resources relate to safety outcomes. In particular, we found that job demands such as risks and hazards and complexity impair employees' health and positively relate to burnout. Likewise, we found support for job resources such as knowledge, autonomy, and a supportive environment motivating employees and positively relating to engagement. Job demands were found to hinder an employee with a negative relationship to engagement, whereas job resources were found to negatively relate to burnout. Finally, we found that burnout was negatively related to working safely but that engagement motivated employees and was positively related to working safely. Across industries, risks and hazards was the most consistent job demand and a supportive environment was the most consistent job resource in terms of explaining variance in burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. The type of job demand that explained the most variance differed by industry, whereas a supportive environment remained consistent in explaining the most variance in all industries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)