The Contribution of Perceived Fitness to Physiological and Self-Reported Responses to Laboratory Stress

This study sought to evaluate the contribution of perceived physical fitness beyond the contributions of gender, body mass index (BMI), defensiveness, and estimated aerobic fitness on both physiological and self-reported stress responsivity to laboratory-induced stress. Ninety healthy individuals (45 males, 45 females) participated in the experiment. Participants completed a laboratory procedure measuring cardiovascular responses (i.e. pulse rate and blood pressure) and self-reported rating of anxiety (i.e. the anxiety scale from the Multiple Affective Checklist–Revised—MAACL–R) while performing stressful laboratory tasks (i.e. the Stroop Color Naming Test and Serial 7's). Estimated aerobic fitness (i.e. VO₂max using the Bruce protocol) as well as perceived fitness (using a 10-point Likert scale) were also determined. Multiple regression and effect size results revealed that perceived fitness significantly contributed to the variance associated with both physiological and self-reported responses to laboratory stress. Specifically, perceived fitness significantly added to the variance beyond that attributed to gender, BMI, defensiveness, and estimated aerobic physical fitness while assessing pulse rate and MAACL–R anxiety scores. Overall results support the view that perception of fitness may be an important factor above and beyond aerobic fitness in its association with physiological and self-reported responses to stress.     

The Influence of Perceived Versus Aerobic Fitness on Psychological Health and Physiological Stress Responsivity

This study sought to evaluate the association between perceived and aerobic physical fitness and both psychological functioning and physiological stress responsivity. Sixty nonsymptomatic participants (30 males, 30 females) participated in the experiment. Participants completed a series of personality and mood questionnaires as well as a laboratory procedure measuring cardiovascular responses (i.e., heart rate and blood pressure) while performing stressful laboratory tasks (i.e., the Stroop Color Naming Test and a sham IQ test). Aerobic fitness (i.e., VO ₂ max using the Bruce protocol) as well as perceived fitness were also determined. Results suggest that perceived fitness was generally associated with positive personality and mood variables while aerobic fitness was not. Overall results support the view that perception of fitness may be as important or perhaps even more important than aerobic fitness in its association with psychological but perhaps not physical functioning.     

The Association Between Cardiovascular Stress Responsivity and Perceived Stress Among Subjects with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Temporomandibular Joint Disorder: A Preliminary Analysis

This study sought to evaluate the association between perceived and cardiovascular stress responsivity among subjects with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Temporomandibular Disorder (TMJ). Eight participants with IBS, eight participants with TMJ and 16 nonsymptomatic comparison participants took part in the experiment. Participants completed a series of personality and mood questionnaires as well as a laboratory procedure measuring aerobic fitness, cardiovascular responses (i.e., pulse rate and blood pressure), and perceived stress while performing stressful laboratory tasks (i.e., the Stroop Color Naming Test and a speech task). Although IBS and TMJ participants did not vary significantly from comparison participants in blood pressure or heart rate during the laboratory procedures, IBS and TMJ participants reported experiencing the laboratory tasks as more stressful than comparison participants. Although preliminary due to the small sample size, results suggest that IBS and TMJ sufferers may be more sensitive to perceived stress than others.     

Type A behavior, family history of hypertension, and cardiovascular responsivity among black women

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of Type A behavior and family history of hypertension on cardiovascular reactivity to mental stress in a group of employed black women. Measures of heart rate and of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were taken at rest, during a mental arithmetic task, and during the Type A Structured Interview (SI). Results indicated that the Type A behavior pattern was associated with SBP and DBP hyperresponsivity during the SI but not during mental arithmetic. Additionally, certain speech components of the Type A pattern, as well as features of the potential-for-hostility component, were also related to cardiovascular responses during the SI. Family history of hypertension did not influence the cardiovascular parameters either alone or in combination with Type A behavior. The results suggest that many of the cardiovascular response characteristics of the Type A pattern that have been observed in predominantly white samples also hold true for blacks. Replication of these findings with other subgroups of blacks, such as young females and middle-aged males, will help document the generality of these findings within the black population.     

Perceived Fitness and Responses to Laboratory Induced Stress

This study sought to evaluate the contribution of perceived physical fitness beyond the contributions of gender, body mass index (BMI), and estimated actual physical fitness on both physiological and self-reported stress responsivity to laboratory induced stress. Seventy-two nonsymptomatic participants participated in the experiment. Participants completed a laboratory procedure measuring cardiovascular responses and self-reported rating of calmness while performing stressful laboratory tasks. Estimated aerobic fitness (VO_{2 max}) as well as perceived fitness were also determined. Perceived fitness significantly contributed to the variance associated with self-reported responses to laboratory stress as well as with some of the physiological measures. Perceived fitness significantly added to the variance beyond that attributed to gender, body mass, and estimated actual physical fitness while assessing systolic blood pressure and calmness. Overall, the results support the view that perception of fitness may be an important factor above and beyond aerobic fitness in its association with responses to stress.     

Granting forgiveness or harboring grudges: implications for emotion, physiology, and health

Interpersonal offenses frequently mar relationships. Theorists have argued that the responses victims adopt toward their offenders have ramifications not only for their cognition, but also for their emotion, physiology, and health. This study examined the immediate emotional and physiological effects that occurred when participants (35 females, 36 males) rehearsed hurtful memories and nursed grudges (i.e., were unforgiving) compared with when they cultivated empathic perspective taking and imagined granting forgiveness (i.e., were forgiving) toward real-life offenders. Unforgiving thoughts prompted more aversive emotion, and significantly higher corrugator (brow) electromyogram (EMG), skin conductance, heart rate, and blood pressure changes from baseline. The EMG, skin conductance, and heart rate effects persisted after imagery into the recovery periods. Forgiving thoughts prompted greater perceived control and comparatively lower physiological stress responses. The results dovetail with the psychophysiology literature and suggest possible mechanisms through which chronic unforgiving responses may erode health whereas forgiving responses may enhance it.     

Type a behavior,irritability, and cardiovascular response

Previous research suggests that high levels of hostility may augment the cardiovascular reactivity and risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) associated with Type A behavior. In contrast, other research indicates that the tendency to deny or suppress anger is associated with enhanced cardiovascular reactivity and risk of CHD. To delineate further the combined role of anger processes and Type A behavior in CHD risk, this study examined the interactive effects of Type A behavior and self-reported irritability on cardiovascular response to a challenging mental task. Type A and Type B college students were further classified as either high or low in self-reported irritability. Type A subjects who were low in self-reported irritability evidenced greater cardiovascular reactivity (i.e., systolic blood pressure and pulse rate) than did Type B subjects low in irritability. However, Type A subjects who were high in irritability tended to demonstrate less cardiovascular response than Type B subjects high in irritability. Further, Type A's low in self-reported irritability evidenced greater cardiovascular response than high-irritability Type A's. It is suggested that reduced reporting of irritability by Type A's may reflect suppression or denial, and further that this reduced reporting is associated with enhanced cardiovascular responsivity.     

Acute effects of alcohol on cardiovascular reactivity to stress in college-age Type A (coronary prone) individuals

Healthy college-age males and females classified as Type A or Type B were randomly assigned to an alcohol (N=24) or a no-alcohol condition (N=24). Subjects were exposed to a verbal stress quiz while blood pressure, heart rate, peripheral vascular response (PVR), and self-reported anxiety indices were monitored. Results indicated that alcohol effected a reduction in resting levels of systolic blood pressure and a tonic reduction in the peripheral vascular response. Alcohol attenuated the systolic blood pressure, heart rate, and PVR to stress and efffected a decrease in anxiety following the Stressor. When analyzed relative to the participants' drinking experience, data indicated that the strongest stress-modulating effect of alcohol was evidenced by Type A subjects who have been identified as long-term drinkers. During recovery from stress Type A subjects identified as short-term drinkers maintained high levels of PVR. Types A and B subjects who did not ingest alcohol evidenced high PVR levels during stress. The findings are discussed in terms of the protective action of moderate chronic alcohol use on cardiovascular disease risk reduction in persons evidencing the coronary-prone behavior pattern.     

Does anxiety or cardiovascular reactivity have a causal role in hypertension?

Anxiety, stress, and cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) are variously believed to play a role in sustained hypertension. Although acute anxiety or stress elicits acute pressor responses, there is little support for their significant role in sustained hypertension. Anxiety correlates poorly with CVR, and blood pressure levels and anxiolytics do not sustain blood pressure lowering in subjects with hypertension-associated anxiety. Chronic anxiety disorders tend to be characterized by relatively low blood pressure and prevalence of sustained hypertension. Blood Pressure Regulation in hypertension is normal, and normo- and hypertensives have similar ambulatory blood pressure variability. Laboratory CVR fails to predict variability in natural environments, hyperreactors do not exhibit increased variability in natural environments, and the increased variability and ambulatory reactivity that is "accounted for" by laboratory responses is small. These findings do not support the belief that hypertension is related to a summation of heightened pressor responses over time. Antihypertensives normalize elevated blood pressures but do not alter CVR in the laboratory or variability in natural environments, probably because of a dual central regulation of resting and reactive blood pressures. Psychological stress responses result from selective neuronal activation rather than from generalized sympathetic neural responses or dysregulation. Differences in blood pressure responses during various emotions are only quantitative, with no specificity of sympathoadrenal or emotional responses to stressors. It may be time to regard reactive cardiovascular responses as physiological, rather than as psychological, and to require much stronger evidence to confirm causal roles of anxiety, stress, and reactivity in sustained hypertension.     

Type A behavior pattern, parental history of hypertension, and cardiovascular reactivity in college males

Two risk factors for cardiovascular disorders, parental history of hypertension and the Type A behavior pattern, were investigated concurrently with respect to cardiovascular reactivity to challenging situations. Sixty-four college males were given both the Structured Interview (SI) and Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) for the Type A behavior pattern and a family health questionnaire to determine parental history of hypertension. The students were monitored for blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and pulse transit time (PTT) response to four tasks: cold pressor, isometric handgrip exercise, a reading comprehension task, and backwards digit span. Type As based on SI classification had significantly higher HR levels across all tasks than did Type Bs, as well as higher diastolic BP levels in the cold pressor task. No main effects for Type A-B using JAS classification were found. Positive parental history students had higher HR and shorter PTT levels across all the tasks. Type A and parental history did interact in a limited way on some tasks, but the interactions were also dependent on the Type A classification used.     

Vigilance, active coping, and cardiovascular reactivity during social interaction in young men.

This study of 72 undergraduate men examined the effects of two determinants of cardiovascular response-active coping and vigilance-on blood pressure and heart rate responses to social stressors. Observation of a future debate partner (i.e., vigilance) evoked larger increases in blood pressure than did observation of a less relevant person, apparently through the combination of increases in cardiac output and vascular resistance. Preparation and enactment of efforts to exert social influence (i.e., active coping) evoked heightened blood pressure and heart rate responses through increased cardiac contractility and output. Thus, both vigilance and active coping in social contexts increased cardiovascular reactivity, but apparently through different psychophysiological processes.     

Humor As a Stress Moderator in the Prediction of Blood Pressure Obtained during Five Stressful Tasks

In five consecutive stressful tasks we examined the role of humor as a potential stress moderator using systolic and diastolic blood pressure as an indication of cardiovascular reactivity. In all five tasks, the Coping Humor Scale interacted with sex in the prediction of blood pressure. The same pattern was found in response to each of the five tasks: Females who were higher in coping humor exhibited lower systolic blood pressure than females scoring lower on coping humor, while the reverse characterized males; males who scored high on the coping humor scale exhibited higher systolic blood pressure than males scoring low on that scale. Similar though less robust results were found when the Situational Humor Response Questionnaire was used as the measure of humor. In the Cold Pressor Task, which involves pain and endurance, interactions were found between humor, sex, and trials indicating a stress-moderator effect. The absence of interactions indicating stress moderation in most of the analyses with the other four stress tasks suggests that humor may play more of a role in moderating the impact of uncontrollable and passively experienced stressors. Tasks requiring more active, problem-solving behavior may be less amenable to the beneficial effects of humor. The findings do not clearly resolve the questions about the role of humor in effecting responses to stress. However, they do suggest that the subjects' sex may be an important consideration when evaluating the impact of humor as a stress moderator.     

Gender,attachment, and relationship duration on cardiovascular reactivity to stress in a laboratory study of dating couples

Stress related to relationship events has been a strong predictor of cardiovascular reactivity. This four‐phase laboratory study used a multiple‐nested design to examine variations in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and rate‐pressure product (RPP: pulse rate [PR] × systolic blood pressure [SBP]) as a function of stress appraisal using 33 college‐aged dating couples. Individual participants filled out questionnaires designed to assess the length of their relationships (couple‐level factor), gender and attachment styles (individual‐level factors); watched a film clip depicting relationship distress; discussed relationship problems; then received instruction for relaxation. Individuals’ self‐reported stress and negative affect levels (experimental phase‐level factors), DBP, SBP, and PR were also measured at each study phase. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that relationships with longer duration were associated with higher levels of DBP and RPP as perceived stress levels increased. Also, as perceived stress levels increased, men or individuals high in the anxiety dimension of attachment showed higher DBP and RPP reactivity, whereas individuals high in the avoidance dimension of attachment showed lower RPP reactivity. As the negative affect level increased, individuals high in the avoidance dimension of attachment showed lower RPP reactivity. Findings imply that under relationship stress, individuals high in avoidance or anxiety dimensions of attachment may be vulnerable to a range of physical symptoms, such as cardiovascular disease or hypertension.     

不同干预方法对应激时身心状态的影响

选取72名被试,随机分配到对照组、腹式呼吸组和忽视调节组中。采用重复一个因素的三因素混合实验设计,测量被试基线期、干预期、应激期、恢复期的指温、收缩压和应激前后的主观感受,探讨不同干预方法对应激的干预效果。结果表明,腹式呼吸能够降低男生的心血管反应,忽视调节能够降低女生的主观体验,同时也表明,个体生理反应升高并不必然伴随主观体验的升高。     

Gender differences in cardiovascular and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to psychological stress in healthy older adult men and women

Gender differences in the neuroendocrine and cardiovascular response to psychological stress may contribute to the gender differences in the prevalence of diseases associated with hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis reactivity such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and hypertension. We measured plasma ACTH, cortisol, heart rate (HR), and blood pressure (BP) responses in 8 men and 8 women (55-75 years) exposed to the Matt Stress Reactivity Protocol (MSRP), a psychological challenge. The MSRP elicited significant increases in HR, systolic-, and diastolic BP, ACTH and cortisol (all p<0.01). Men had significantly greater cortisol and diastolic BP responses compared to women (p<0.05). Additionally, a positive correlation between the ACTH and cortisol responses was only found in the males (r=0.71, p<0.05). There were no group differences in HR, systolic BP, or ACTH responses. We conclude, that among older adults, men respond to psychological stress with greater increases in cortisol, compared to women. This greater activation of the HPA axis could translate into an elevated risk for CVD, diabetes and hypertension and may be related to the higher prevalence of these diseases in males. Gender differences in brain structures and/or cognitive processes may be responsible for these sexually dimorphic stress responses.     

Individual differences in cardiovascular reactions to stress and cigarette smoking

The present study examined the stability of cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress and cigarette smoking, and the extent to which cardiovascular reactions to stress were predictive of cardiovascular reactions to smoking. Thirty subjects were given an initial test involving two repetitions of mental arithmetic stress and paced smoking while blood pressure and heart rate were measured. Two months later, 26 of these subjects were retested in the same paradigm. Large and stable individual differences were observed in cardiovascular reactivity to both stress and smoking. Moreover, for systolic and diastolic blood pressure, but not heart rate, reactions to stress were modestly correlated with reactions to cigarette smoking. These results are consistent with the possibility that level of reactivity to cigarette smoking may constitute a risk factor for coronary heart disease, and that one or more common variables may mediate the magnitude of blood pressure reactivity to both stress and cigarette smoking.     

Task-related arousal of type A and type B persons: level of challenge and response specificity

To determine whether different levels of challenge had differential effects on the arousal levels of Type A and Type B persons, 30 Type A and 30 Type B male subjects worked on an intelligence test task (digits backwards recall) that was easy, moderately difficult, or extremely difficult. Arousal was measured in terms of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, pulse volume, skin resistance, and subjective arousal. Results indicated that while working on the extremely difficult task, the Type A subjects evidenced reliably higher systolic blood pressure than did the Type B subjects (p = 0.1; difference = 7.52 mm of Hg) and that there were not reliable differences between the subjects in systolic blood pressure at other levels of challenge or on other measures of arousal.     

Motivational Systems and Stress-Related Cardiovascular Reactivity

This study examined the relation of motivational systems to patterns of autonomic responses to stress. Specifically, we examined patterns of physiological response resulting from differential activation of motivational systems for behavioral approach and behavioral inhibition. We also examined the relation of these motivational systems to threat and challenge responses to potential stress. Self-report, cardiac measures (i.e., pre-injection period, or PEP, and heart rate, or HR), and blood pressure (i.e., systolic blood pressure, or SBP, and diastolic blood pressure, or DBP) measures reliably distinguished between an experimental condition facilitating behavioral approach and an experimental condition facilitating coactivation of behavioral approach and behavioral inhibition systems. Vascular (e.g., total peripheral resistance, or TPR) and electrodermal (e.g., electrodermal response, or EDR) measures, however, did not vary by condition. We discuss the results in relation to other research on motivational factors as they relate to stress and cardiovascular reactivity.     

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.     

Stress reactivity and exercise training in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Examined the influence of ovarian function on psychophysiological stress responses and determined if aerobic exercise reduced stress reactivity. Fifty premenopausal and postmenopausal women initially were subjected to a public speaking task and an ice-on-the-forehead procedure, during which time their blood pressure and heart rate were monitored and continuous blood samples were obtained. Subjects also underwent aerobic fitness evaluations with a maximum-exercise treadmill test. Subjects were then randomly assigned to a 12-week exercise program of either aerobic exercise (e.g., walking and jogging at a prescribed exercise intensity) or non-aerobic strength and flexibility training and were then reevaluated. Results indicated that postmenopausal women exhibited lower resting epinephrine levels but greater epinephrine reactivity to the speaking task compared to the premenopausal women. There were no differences between premenopausal and postmenopausal women with respect to cardiovascular or catecholamine responses during the cold challenge. Premenopausal and postmenopausal women also achieved comparable improvements in aerobic fitness. However, results of the mental stress testing were complex and provided only partial support for the role of aerobic exercise in reducing stress responses.