Does heart rate reactivity predict physiological response to active and passive coping in young men?
Heart rate reactivity appears to be a stable trait over one year that predicts enhanced cardiac, neuroendocrine, and neuromuscular responses to coping tasks.
ABSTRACT We examined the long term predictivity of heart rate reactivity (HRR) and its relation to cardiovascular and biochemical activity during rest and during tasks requiring active and passive coping. HRR was determined in 28 young men by measuring peak heart rate change to cold pressor one year after performing tasks eliciting active and passive coping. Heart rate change to cold pressor was significantly correlated with change to active coping ( r = .65, p <.01) and to passive coping ( r = .53, p <.01). Responses to the tasks were equivalent for Type A and B subjects. On the other hand, high HRRs were significantly more reactive than low HRRs with the effect being most apparent during active coping. HRR appeared to be a trait stable over one year which predicted enhanced cardiac, neuroendocrine, and neuromuscular response.
Lovallo et al. (1986) studied this question.
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