The effects of life crisis on psychological adjustment

In this survey study the question was asked how "life crisis," social conditions, and ratings of quality of life are related to psychological adjustment. The survey included 454 residents, and data were collected on five social conditions: income, education, age, marital status, and religious participation; four ratings of life quality: family, personal life, income, and overall quality of life; the number of recent changes in the lives of the respondents; and two indicators of psychological adjustment. These data were analyzed with multivariate analyses of variance and stepwise regression. Life crisis was associated directly with psychological adjustment. Social conditions and life quality ratings also had significant effects. People with high life-crisis scores reported more psychological distress, and poor social conditions appeared to further exacerbate their adjustment problems. Regardless of the magnitude of the crisis, quality of life ratings had sizable effects on reports of psychological adjustment.     

Lymphocyte subsets, cardiovascular measures and anxiety state before and after a professional examination

Controversies exist regarding the impact of psychological stress on the functioning of the immune system in humans. The aim of the present study, therefore, was to evaluate whether the condition of a pre-exam stress may or not modify resting lymphocyte subsets, as well as blood pressure and heart rate. About 22 medical residents of both sexes not suffering from any medical or psychiatric disorder were included in the study. Anxiety levels were measured by means of the Hamilton rating scale for anxiety (HRSA) and anxiety traits by means of the panic-agoraphobic spectrum self-report (PAS-SR) version and the obsessive-compulsive spectrum self-report (OBS-SR) version. The results showed that systolic blood pressure and heart rate increased significantly just before sitting an examination (t(1)) in all subjects, as compared with a calm situation (t(2)), in parallel with the increase in the HRSA total score, while no significant difference was observed in lymphocyte subsets at the two assessment times. However, men had a higher number of CD4+ cells than women at t(1) and t(2), while women showed a higher heart rate at t(1). In addition, significant correlations between CD4+ lymphocyte count and heart rate at t(1) or HRSA at t(2) were detected. These findings indicate that the acute stress determined by sitting for examination provokes changes in autonomic nervous system parameters, such as blood pressure and heart rate, as well as in the subjective feeling of anxiety, as shown by the increased HRSA total scores, which were not paralleled by modifications of lymphocyte subsets. However, individual differences, related to both sex and personality traits yet to be identified, seem to have an impact in shaping the stress response.     

O2 consumption,heart rate and subjective ratings under conditions of relaxation and active coping

Oxygen consumption, respiratory rate, minute volume, heart rate (HR) and subjective ratings from 12 graduate students were monitored under conditions of relaxation and active coping. The controlled, within-Ss, cross-over design consisted of the two experimental conditions alternating between three control periods. The relaxation condition consisted of an autogenic procedure which the Ss had practiced daily for more than a week. The active-coping condition involved avoidance of an aversive noise during a reaction-time task. In terms of O₂ consumption, there was a slight (3%) but nonsignificant decrease during relaxation. There was a trend for HR to increase during active coping, although this finding was attenuated by the presence of a subset of Ss who responded with a marked and unexpected decrease in HR under this condition. Subjective ratings obtained at 1-min intervals throughout the experiment indicated that the Ss achieved significant levels of subjective relaxation during the procedure. The results of the study failed to support the presence of a hypometabolic state during relaxation as proposed by Benson.     

Task demands and the pressures of everyday life: associations between cardiovascular reactivity and work blood pressure and heart rate.

Associations between cardiovascular stress reactivity and blood pressure and heart rate recorded in everyday life were hypothesized to depend on the stressfulness of the ambulatory monitoring period relative to standardized tasks and on activity levels at the time of measurement. One hundred two female and 60 male school teachers carried out high- and low-demand tasks under standardized conditions and ambulatory monitoring during the working day. Stress ratings during the day were close to those recorded during the low-demand task. Reactions to the low-demand task were significant predictors of ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate independent of baseline, age, gender, and body mass. Associations were more consistent for ambulatory recordings taken when participants were seated than when they were standing and when the ambulatory monitoring day was considered to be as stressful as usual or more stressful than usual, and not less stressful than usual. Laboratory-field associations of cardiovascular activity depend in part on the congruence of stressfulness and physical activity level in the 2 situations.     

Cardiovascular generalization and differentiation: The relationship between heart rate and blood pressure

The present study was designed to study generalization and differentiation and to check the relation between heart rate and blood pressure in cardiovascular conditioning. Five naive mongrel dogs were presented with 10 sec 1000 cps tone regularly reinforced with 0.5-sec shock to a left foreleg. Four other 10-sec tones (600, 800, 1200, 1400 cps), never reinforced, were administered in a randomized and counterbalanced fashion using a differential reinforcing technique. The response measures were heart rate and three indices of blood pressure,i.e., systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressures.“Initial response” of heart rate showed rapid tachycardia to all tones, with no generalization and differentiation among five tones.“Terminal response” clearly indicated generalization gradients that tachycardia to 800 and 1200 cps tones were higher than those to 600 and 1400 cps tones, respectively. Some differences were noted among systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressures, with pulse pressure showing a trend of generalization and differentiation in the“initial response.” No statistical difference, however, was obtained in blood pressure scores. Beat-by-beat analyses of correlations between heart rate and diastolic blood pressure showed that the correlations successively decreased during the“terminal response.” Overall correlations between heart rate and three indices of blood pressure were obtained, with the highest correlation between heart rate and pulse pressure. Considering the above results in relation to the classical conditioning theory, it was tentatively concluded that“initial response” includes non-conditional factors, while“terminal response” reflects mainly a true conditional response, particularly, at a long CS-US interval. This interpretation leads to the hypothesis that conditional response with a short CS-US interval may attain better conditioning scores in terms of the summation effect between a non-conditional factor and a true conditional factor.     

Physiological changes during physical and psychological stress

Changes in urine catecholamines, blood pressure and heart rate during two physical exercise test sessions (35% VO_2max and 50% VO_2max) and one psychological stress session which involved reading under delayed auditory feedback (DAF) were compared. Increases in both the haemodynamic parameters and in the excretion of catecholamines were found in response to all three tests. The changes in adrenaline (A) did not differentiate between the test situations. Noradrenaline (NA) levels were significantly larger for physical exercise conditions and graded according to the relative workload. The ratio ΔNA/ΔA was similar for both physical tests but statistically different for the DAF session. Significant and positive correlations between haemodynamic parameters and catecholamine excretion were found only for the DAF test. These correlations and the differences in catecholamine excretion suggest different bodily responses to physical and psychological stress. These findings may have practical implications in industrial field studies.     

Evaluating differential predictions of emotional reactivity during repeated 20% carbon dioxide-enriched air challenge

The present study explored psychological predictors of response to a series of three 25 second inhalations of 20% carbon dioxide-enriched air in 60 nonclinical participants. Multiple regression analyses indicated that only anxiety sensitivity physical concerns predicted self-reported fear, whereas both physical anxiety sensitivity concerns and behavioural inhibition sensitivity independently predicted affective ratings of emotional arousal. In contrast, the psychological concerns anxiety sensitivity dimension predicted ratings of emotional displeasure (valence), and both psychological anxiety sensitivity concerns and behavioural inhibition sensitivity independently predicted emotional dyscontrol. No variables significantly predicted heart rate. These data are in accord with current models of emotional reactivity that highlight the role of cognitive variables in the production of anxious and fearful responding to somatic perturbation, and help further clarify the particular predictors of anxiety-related responding to biological challenge.     

The Adolescent Behavior Checklist: Validation Using Structured Diagnostic Interviews

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the discriminant validity of scores from the Adolescent Behavior Checklist (ABC), a self-report measure of ADHD symptomatology for adolescents ages 11–17 years. Validity was assessed through correlational, univariate, and discriminant function analyses using three groups: (1) adolescents diagnosed with ADHD, (2) adolescents currently experiencing a mood and/or anxiety disorder, and (3) adolescents with no major psychological disorder. Convergent and divergent validity of the ABC factor scores was demonstrated through correlational results with (1) parent and adolescent report of ADHD symptoms during structured psychiatric interviews and (2) scores on questionnaires measuring related and nonrelated constructs. Univariate analyses indicated that the ADHD group obtained significantly higher scores than did the nonclinical adolescents across all ABC factors. Additionally, the ADHD group scored significantly higher than did the psychiatric controls on the following ABC factors: Conduct Problems, Impulsivity/Hyperactivity, and Social Problems. Results from discriminant analyses supported the reliability of ABC scores in correctly classifying participants into groups. Compared to the Youth Self-Report, the ABC was found to be somewhat better at classifying when used in a multiinformant discriminant analysis. Therefore, overall results from the current study suggest that the ABC is a valid and useful self-report screening measure for ADHD symptoms and related difficulties.     

Response style and the revised NEO personality inventory: validity scales and spousal ratings in a Chinese psychiatric sample

The effects of response style bias on profile scores from the family of NEO scales and the resultant influence of response style on the predictive capacity of these scales continues to be debated. In this study, a large sample of Chinese psychiatric patients were categorized into four response style groups based on their scores from recently developed "validity" scales for the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R). Mean differences and correlations between self-report and spousal ratings of these patients were examined for the NEO PI-R domain and facet scales. Excessive positive self-presentation bias resulted in mean differences between the self-report and spousal ratings for N and E. Correlations between self-report and spousal ratings were reduced in patients engaging in positive self-presentational bias compared to those who were not so categorized on three of the five NEO PI-R scales. However, these results were manifest only in a sub-sample of psychotic patients. Negative self-presentational bias did not affect mean differences or diminish the correlations between the self-report and spousal ratings.     

Instructed versus pharmacological effects of alcohol in alcoholics and social drinkers

Twelve alcoholics and 12 social drinkers were studied in an experiment where instructions about alcohol or placebo were orthogonally crossed with administration of alcohol or placebo in a Balanced Placebo Design. Three subjects were simultaneously observed while watching soccer games on the TV together and having free access to a mixed drink, which in the alcohol conditions contained 150ml of 80% proof vodka. The assessment procedure included several aspects of drinking behavior, behavioral observations during the session, psychiatric ratings and nurse observations before and after each session, ratings for craving, self-reported state anxiety and physiological changes (heart rate and blood pressure). In general, the results showed the alcoholic's behavior to be controlled by instruction-induced expectancies rather than by the actual beverage given, whereas the social drinkers showed tendencies in the opposite direction. The implications of these results for the traditional disease conception of alcoholism and for learning theory approaches are discussed.     

Internalizing and externalizing characteristics of sexually and/or physically abused children

This study evaluates the behavioral consequences of childhood abuse (sexual, physical, or both), with particular focus on prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Three abuse type groups and nonabused controls were contrasted on behavioral rating scales and on structured psychiatric interview data. The participants (109 abused children and 16 normal control children) were recruited from Arkansas Children’s Hospital and local agencies for abused children. As expected, proportionately more females than males were sexually abused. Overall, males were rated as more disturbed than females. Type of abuse did not consistently influence behavioral ratings. Externalizing scores were significantly higher than internalizing scores in all abused groups. PTSD was diagnosed in 50% of the abused children, with a higher rate for boys who had been sexually abused as opposed to physically abused only (58% versus 13%). The most frequent comorbid condition with PTSD was Separation Anxiety. Sexually abused boys were hospitalized for psychiatric treatment at a higher rate than were other abused children.     

Effects of voluntary wheel running on heart rate, body temperature, and locomotor activity in response to acute and repeated stressor exposures in rats

Stress often negatively impacts physical and mental health but it has been suggested that voluntary physical activity may benefit health by reducing some of the effects of stress. The present experiments tested whether voluntary exercise can reduce heart rate, core body temperature and locomotor activity responses to acute (novelty or loud noise) or repeated stress (loud noise). After 6 weeks of running-wheel access, rats exposed to a novel environment had reduced heart rate, core body temperature, and locomotor activity responses compared to rats housed under sedentary conditions. In contrast, none of these measures were different between exercised and sedentary rats following acute 30-min noise exposures, at either 85 or 98 dB. Following 10 weeks of running-wheel access, both groups displayed significant habituation of all these responses to 10 consecutive daily 30-min presentations of 98 dB noise stress. However, the extent of habituation of all three responses was significantly enhanced in exercised compared to sedentary animals on the last exposure to noise. These results suggest that in physically active animals, under some conditions, acute responses to stress exposure may be reduced, and response habituation to repeated stress may be enhanced, which ultimately may reduce the negative and cumulative impact of stress.     

Midi-level measurement of social anxiety in psychiatric and non-psychiatric samples

This paper reports the development and assessment of midi-level behavioral measures of social anxiety in the context of two experiments, one studying an analog student sample, the other a psychiatric sample. Judgments on nine categories of clinically practical midi-level behaviors (e.g. Facial Expression, Orienting, Sense of Timing), based on a review of the literature on human ethology and on pilot research, were compared to global judgments of social anxiety and social skill and to physiological arousal. Intraclass correlations exceeded 0.80 for judgments of the global and midi-level behavioral ratings on both samples. Results of correlational analyses indicated that while there were several significant predictors of global skill and anxiety among the midis, the magnitude of the relationship between midis and globals was stronger for the patient than the student sample. Further analyses based on S's heart rate (HR) reactivity suggested that while global ratings did not significantly predict H R in a high social anxiety situation, one midi-level behavioral rating (self-manipulations) did. The clinical utility of the newly developed measures is discussed with particular attention to their practicality for behavior therapy.     

The effect of choice of exercise mode on psychological responses

Objectives: Choice has been linked to both motivation and psychological responses to exercise. This paper investigates participants’ psychological responses when they completed an exercise session where there was a high-preference exercise mode as opposed to a low-preference exercise mode. High- and low-preference were established by participants indicating their preferred choice of exercise from three standard modes used for aerobic work.Method: Participants were 20 low-active adults who exercised for 20 min on each mode of exercise (high-preference versus low-preference). Affect, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and heart rate (HR) were recorded every 5 min during exercise, and affect and HR were assessed pre-exercise and 5 min post-exercise.Results: Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed condition and time main effects for affect sub-scales and RPE and a time main effect for HR. Affect sub-scales, RPE and HR generally increased over time. RPE, Fatigue and Psychological Distress were higher in the low-preference condition and positive well-being was higher in the high-preference condition.Conclusions: Affect and RPE were influenced by the preferred choice manipulation. Affect was more positive, and RPE lower, in the high-preference versus low-preference condition while work rate remained constant across conditions.     

The effects of attentional training on physiological stress recovery after induced social threat

Social stress has been related to both physiological and psychological responses. The recovery of stress is influenced by the way environmental information is processed, i.e., what information is attended to and how it is interpreted. The present study investigated the effect of attention modification training on physiological stress recovery following induced stress. A group of applicants preparing for a job interview were randomly allocated to an attention training condition versus a control condition. Afterwards, they were asked to give an artificial job interview to a real life jury while being videotaped. Participants in both conditions showed decreased heart rate variability during the job interview, which indicates an overall physiological stress response. However, during a 30-minute follow-up period after the training, indices of heart rate variability showed improved stress recovery only in the attention training condition. Attentional training is proposed as a promising strategy to prevent enduring stress reactions.     

Suppressor effects in the relations of psychological variables to resting blood pressure

The role of suppressor effects in obscuring the relation of psychological variables and blood pressure was studied. Forty-five nonmedicated patients in a family practice rated themselves relative to their peers on a series of characteristics. Two of these, trapped and lonely, exhibited marked suppressor effects in their relationship with each other and resting blood pressure. Self-ratings of lonely exhibited a moderately strong positive association with ratings of trapped (r = .63) while only ratings of lonely showed a significant correlation with resting systolic blood pressure (r = .31). Yet when the suppressor effects of the ratings on feeling lonely were removed in the regression analyses, the ratings on feeling trapped showed a significant positive association with resting systolic pressure (r = .42). Similarly, while neither ratings on feeling lonely or on feeling trapped showed separately a significant association with resting diastolic pressure, when suppressor effects were removed in the regression analyses, the ratings of trapped were significantly associated with diastolic pressure in a positive direction (r = .34) and ratings of lonely were significantly associated in a negative direction (r = .33). The significance of this specific suppressor effect and the implications of suppression for psychosomatic research are discussed.     

Psychological,physical, and interpersonal correlates of emotional expressiveness,conflict, and control

This article examines the relations between emotional expression, conflict over expression, and emotional control and psychological and physical distress. Fifty married couples completed two mail-in surveys containing the Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire (EEQ), the Ambivalence Over Emotional Expression Questionnaire (AEQ), and the Emotional Control Questionnaire (ECQ), as well as measures of psychological and physical well-being. They also made expressiveness and well-being ratings of their spouses. AEQ and ECQ scores were significantly positively correlated with measures of psychological distress and questionnaire measures of physical discomfort. In addition, AEQ scores for items dealing explicitly with anger predicted visits to health-care provider for illness. EEQ scores did not predict either psychological distress or physical symptoms. AEQ scores were also positively correlated with spouse's symptoms and alcohol use. Wives' expressiveness ratings for their husbands were negatively correlated with a number of indices of psychological distress, while husbands' ratings of wives' expressiveness were positively correlated with measures of distress. Generally, expressiveness, inhibition, and conflict over expression in one spouse did not consistently predict well-being of the other. Implications of these findings for future research in the area of emotion and illness as well as in relationship satisfaction are discussed.     

小学教师心理资本与主观幸福感的关系：职业压力的中介作用

抽取北京市8所小学495名小学教师为被试,采用问卷调查的方法收集数据,对小学教师心理资本现状进行描述,并使用结构方程模型探讨小学教师心理资本与主观幸福感之间的关系,以及职业压力在二者关系间的中介作用。结果表明,小学教师心理资本水平普遍较高,男性教师的效能维度得分显著高于女性教师,低教龄教师的韧性维度得分显著低于高教龄教师;小学教师的心理资本与主观幸福感间存在显著正相关关系,心理资本与职业压力、职业压力与主观幸福感之间存在显著负相关关系;职业压力在心理资本与主观幸福感之间起部分中介作用。     

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.     

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.