Social situations, even those that are non-threatening, can trigger blood pressure increases in individuals with hostile dispositions, according to a new study. Previous studies tended to focus on how hostile individuals respond to harassment and anger-provoking situations.
"Examining the physiological responses of hostile individuals to situations other than harassment is important because the majority of daily experiences are not marked by deliberate provocation, even among those who are hostile," said lead author Mary C. Davis, PhD, of Arizona State University in Tempe.
"We know relatively little about how these more common and subtle interpersonal exchanges influence an individual¹s perception and physiological responding," she added.
Davis and colleagues categorized 80 male and female study participants as either high or low in hostility based on their responses to a test measuring suspiciousness, resentment, and cynical mistrust.
Each study participant then took part in a brief discussion of capital punishment with an individual who had been trained to remain calm while presenting an opinion opposite from that of the study participant.
High-hostile individuals showed greater increases in diastolic blood pressure (the second number in a blood pressure reading) and blood vessel constriction than did low-hostile individuals during this "mild social stressor," Davis and colleagues found. Their findings are published in the January/February 2000 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
The blood pressure of the hostile study participants increased even before the start of the discussion, during the preparation period. This finding "points to the likelihood that those characterized by high levels of mistrust and suspicion anticipate trouble in interpersonal situations, even before they have any overt indication that there is cause for alarm," said Davis.
Davis and colleagues also found blood vessel constriction variations within the hostile group, when they measured participants¹ need to control the interaction. Hostile study participants with high scores on a test measuring the need for interpersonal control had greater increases in blood vessel constriction during the discussion, relative to their hostile peers with low scores, they found.
Both hostile men and women exhibited comparable increases in blood pressure and vessel constriction, the researchers found. "To our knowledge, this is the first study to document that the hemodynamic responses underlying blood pressure increases to social stress are generally comparable among hostile men and women," said Davis.
The study was funded in part by grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Joel E. Dimsdale, MD, at (619) 543-5468.
Posted by the Center for the Advancement of Health < http://www.cfah.org >. For information about the Center, call Petrina Chong, < pchong@cfah.org > (202) 387-2829.
Journal
Psychosomatic Medicine