Anger-out had a significant main effect on pre-ejection period change, and anger-in interacted with anger-out and hostility to significantly affect both pre-ejection period and interbeat interval.
Cross-Sectional (n=49)
Do additive and/or interactive relationships among psychological traits (anger, hostility, anxiety) affect cardiac reactivity to stress in undergraduate men?
Interactions among psychological traits such as anger and hostility are important predictors of specific indexes of sympathetic arousal and cardiac reactivity to stress.
The majority of studies investigating the relationships between psychological characteristics and cardiovascular reactivity to stress use a research strategy in which discrete traits are evaluated in isolation. The present study examined the effects of additive and/or interactive relationships among traits on cardiac reactivity to a mental arithmetic task. In addition, impedance cardiographic techniques were employed to examine potential relationships between such psychological traits and a specific measure--pre-ejection period (PEP)--of sympathic influence on the heart. Forty-nine undergraduate men performed a mental arithmetic task while continuous measures of PEP and interbeat interval (IBI) were collected. The subjects then completed questionnaires measuring anger expression, hostility, and trait anxiety. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) showed a significant main effect for anger-out on PEP change from baseline, but not for IBI. Results also showed that anger-in interacted with anger-out and hostility to affect both PEP and IBI changes significantly. Other results indicated that subjects in the high anger-in/low anger-out and high anger-in/low hostility groups did not show significant PEP change, although they nevertheless showed significant IBI change. These results highlight the importance of the consideration of interactions among traits in predicting cardiac reactivity and of the importance of measuring specific indexes of sympathetic arousal.
Burns et al. (Mon,) conducted a cross-sectional in Healthy (n=49). Psychological traits (anger expression, hostility, trait anxiety) was evaluated on Cardiac reactivity (pre-ejection period and interbeat interval changes from baseline). Anger-out had a significant main effect on pre-ejection period change, and anger-in interacted with anger-out and hostility to significantly affect both pre-ejection period and interbeat interval.
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