Psychosocial correlates of eczema in a non-treatment-seeking population

Data from the Vietnam Experience Study were used to examine psychosocial correlates of eczema. Based upon the results of dermatologic examinations, three groups of male veterans were identified: (a) subjects with eczema (n = 80), (b) subjects with tinea (n = 282), and (c) subjects with no medical diagnosis (n = 176). These three groups were compared on measures of anxiety, depression, hostility, and social support. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule (Version III-A) was used to determine diagnoses of anxiety and depression and level of social support. MMPI Scales 2 and 7, the Wiggins content scale of Depression, and the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale were used to assess anxiety, depression, and hostility. Eczema subjects did not differ from tinea or no-disease control groups on dependent measures. These results are contrasted with previous studies of treatment-seeking patients, which showed greater prevalence of anxiety and depression among individuals with eczema. Directions for future research are suggested.This paper is taken from the first author's dissertation.     

Effects of Aggressive and Nonaggressive Rock Songs on Projective and Structured Tests

The differences between hostility scores on projective and objective tests as a function of listening to aggressive or nonaggressive rock music were studied. While taking the Thematic Apperception Test (Cards 1, 3BM, 4, 9BM, and 10) and the Buss-Durkee (1957) Hostility Scale, subjects (N = 90) randomly assigned to one of three groups listened to a rock song with (a) nonaggressive music and non-aggressive lyrics, (b) aggressive music and nonaggressive lyrics, or (c) aggressive music and aggressive lyrics. TAT stories were scored for aggressive content according to Hafner and Kaplan's (1960) hostility rating scale. Hostility scores did not differ between groups. The findings are congruent with other investigators' reports that subjects do not pay attention to rock lyrics. Previous findings that music affects the emotional quality of TAT stories and hostility scores on the Buss-Durkee scale were not supported.     

Influence of age, sex, and family on Type A and hostile attitudes and behaviors.

We describe the influence of age, sex, and family on Type A and hostility indices that have been related to rates of coronary heart disease (CHD). The sample consisted of 120 girls and 95 boys (ages 6 to 18 years) and 141 women and 120 men (ages 31 to 62 years) from 142 families residing in an upper middle class community. Results showed little familial aggregation of Type A and hostility. Adults had higher Structured Interview (SI) Potential for Hostility ratings than did children, whereas children had higher Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-derived Hostility scores and SI Anger-In ratings than did adults. Male adults and male children had higher SI Potential for Hostility ratings and MMPI-derived Hostility scores than did their female counterparts. The heightened hostility of males may account, in part, for their heightened risk of CHD relative to females'.     

A Study of Belief in the Accuracy of Newspaper Reports

An examination of the relationship of scores on Siegel's Manifest Hostility Scale (MHS) to Verbal Hostility, Fantasy Hostility, and Hostile Feeling responses to cartoon situations was undertaken, while controlling for sex of subject, sex of experimenter, and the social desirability (So-R) and ego strength/defensiveness (K) scales of the MMPI. MHS scores were significantly related to the three modes of hostility response, while sex of subject and sex of experimenter were not. Adjustment of the dependent variable means for So-R did not cancel MHS effects on Verbal or Fantasy Hostility, but adjustment for K cancelled the significant relationship between MHS scores and Fantasy Hostility and Hostile Feeling responses. Covariation of both K and So-R out of Verbal Hostility cancelled its relationship to MHS scores. Ego strength/defensiveness thus may be more significantly related to hostile responding than social desirability.     

A Multitrait Multimethod Measurement Approach to the Traits (or States) of Anxiety,Depression and Hostility

This study tested the convergent and discriminant validities of various psychological techniques used for the measurement of the affects of anxiety, depression and hostility. The subjects were 29 psychiatric patients and 25 normal controls, all males. Subjects were interviewed and rated for the three affects and given an extensive battery of tests. Anxiety and depression measures from ratings, checklists, and questionnaires demonstrated good convergent validity but poor discriminant validity. The projective methods did not demonstrate much convergent validity. Hostility was separable from anxiety and depression but the tests showed poor convergent validity for hostility. In the normals, fantasy hostility (TAT) and admitted hostility (Multiple Affect Adjective Check List) showed some convergence, but in the patients there was no congruence between these two levels.     

Effects of aggressive and nonaggressive rock songs on projective and structured tests

The differences between hostility scores on projective and objective tests as a function of listening to aggressive or nonaggressive rock music were studied. While taking the Thematic Apperception Test (Cards 1, 3BM, 4, 9BM, and 10) and the Buss-Durkee (1957) Hostility Scale, subjects (N = 90) randomly assigned to one of three groups listened to a rock song with (a) nonaggressive music and nonaggressive lyrics, (b) aggressive music and nonaggressive lyrics, or (c) aggressive music and aggressive lyrics. TAT stories were scored for aggressive content according to Hafner and Kaplan's (1960) hostility rating scale. Hostility scores did not differ between groups. The findings are congruent with other investigators' reports that subjects do not pay attention to rock lyrics. Previous findings that music affects the emotional quality of TAT stories and hostility scores on the Buss-Durkee scale were not supported.     

Locus of Control and Hostility: Sex Differences

The Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External locus of control scale and the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire were administered to 35 male and 35 female college students. In both the total sample and the female sample, significant correlations were observed between locus of control and hostility with an external locus of control being associated with greater hostility. Although locus of control was significantly related to all of the hostility scores in the female sample, the male sample generally showed no significant relationship between locus of control and hostility. The sex differences in the data and the possibility of item overlap between the locus of control and hostility measures are discussed.     

Two models of adolescent self-mutilation

Currently little research exists examining the theoretical underpinnings of self-mutilation (SM) in community samples of adolescents. Two models, the hostility and anxiety reduction models, were simultaneously tested in order to determine whether SM in adolescence was characterized by greater feelings of anxiety and hostility. Four hundred and forty students were screened for the presence of SM. Sixty-one students who indicated that they hurt themselves as well as a comparison group of non-SM students completed the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and an interview. Results indicate support for the hostility model of SM. Students who SM reported significantly more anxiety and more intropunitive and extrapunitive hostility. In addition, prior to self-mutilating feelings of both hostility and anxiety were described. Results are discussed with reference to both theoretical models.     

Decomposing coronary-prone behavior: Dimensions of type a behavior in the Videotaped Structured Interview

This study examined the factorial structure of data generated in the Videotaped Structured Interview for assessment of Type A behavior. Based on the literature, it was argued that there are at least three distinct concepts of Type A behavior, focused on competitiveness and pressured drive, speech characteristics, and hostility, respectively. These three concepts were clearly represented among the factors from factor analyses based on data from 282 subjects. Three factors represented speech and psychomotor characteristics, where the first reflected interactions between subject and interviewer (e.g., response latency, interruptions), the second tempo of speech (accelerating, dysrhythmic and rapid speech), and the third oral gestures (e.g., expiratory sighs). Hostility was reflected in two factors, one defined by emotional intensity (e.g., anger when recalling paat event) and the other hostility expressed towards the interviewer. Pressured drive dominated a content factor reflecting self-awareness of Type A behavior. Finally, there was one factor related to psychomotor tension. Through further factor and item analyses, it was possible to combine these factors into three homogeneous and moderately intercorrelated subscales of Type A behavior reflecting Hostility, Speech Characteristics, and Self-Awareness of Type A behavior. These scales showed good interrater agreement and stability over two years. The Self-Awareness Scale was highly correlated with self-report measures of Type A behavior. The Hostility Scale, on the other hand, was moderately related to measures of Type A behavior, anger and hostility, but was unrelated to anxiety. The Speech Characteristic Scale, finally, was virtually unrelated to psychometric measures.     

Extent of Hostility in Educated Indian Unemployed Youth: A Micro Analysis

This study was designed to ascertain the level of hostility in educated unemployed youth (N = 150) as against employed youth (N = 150) at micro level by employing an Indian adaptation of the Buss-Durkee Hostility Scale. Results of statistical comparison revealed a significant difference between the two groups in terms of hostility and its various dimensions barring indirect aggression, negativism, and verbal aggression. However, both the groups tended to have a moderate amount of hostility and its dimensions. The results further showed the relative standing of the two groups on the dimensions of hostility, positing the job-seekers as possessing a high sense of guilt and low indirect aggression, and the employed youth, being high on irritability, and, like their counterparts, low on indirect aggression. Also, the study indicated a correlation among the dimensions of hostility with one another and with the total scale scores.     

The comparability of two hostility measures in a normal group

Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire (HDHQ) and Personality Deviance Scale (PDS) scores were obtained from a group of normal females in order to compare the major hostility dimensions of extrapunitiveness and intropunitiveness. Statistically significant correlations resulted but only of a moderate order even when the apparently more pathological subscales were omitted from the HDHQ.     

Comparative study of hostility in depressive patients with and without a suicide attempt history

Hostility in association with depression seems to be connected to suicidal behavior. This study aimed to evaluate hostility and its dimensions in relation to depression in patients who suffered from diagnosed depression with and without a suicide attempt history. The study included 168 participants; 58 patients with depression and suicide attempt history, 55 patients with depression without a suicide attempt history and 55 healthy controls. Hostility was assessed with the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire, while depression with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Patients with depression and a suicide attempt history compared with the patients without attempt history presented statistically significantly higher total hostility (28.71 ± 6.43 vs 24.20 ± 7.66), extroverted hostility (17.16 ± 4.37 vs 14.15 ± 4.63), acting out hostility (6.03 ± 2.09 vs 4.73 ± 1.93), and self criticism (6.95 ± 2.12 vs 5.89 ± 2.32). No statistically significant differences were found between the two clinical groups in depression according to the BDI. Moreover depressive patients with suicide attempt history scored higher in all the hostility dimensions than the controls. Therefore, it could be suggested that hostility and especially its extrapunitive dimensions are associated with suicidal behavior, since no differences in depression were recorded between the two clinical groups.     

Construct validity of the Holtzman Inkblot Anxiety and Hostility scores

The group version of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT), the IPAT Anxiety Scale Questionnaire (ASQ), the Manifest Hostility Scale (MHS), and the Hand Test (HT) were administered to 72 college subjects in an attempt to clarify the nature of the HIT Anxiety (Ax) and Hostility (Hs) scores. The Ax score was found to correlate significantly with the ASQ total score which represents both overt and covert anxiety. The Hs score was found to correlate significantly with the MHS, which is sensitive to moderate levels of verbal hostility, but not with the HT Acting Out Ratio (AOR), which is strictly a measure of overt aggressiveness. The HIT Ax and Hs scores were concluded to relate most closely with measures that encompass a wide spectrum of the variable in question.     

Delays in seeking cancer diagnosis in relation to beliefs about the curability of cancer in patients with different disease locations

This study is aimed at investigating factors leading to delayed oncologic examinations versus immediate consultation with a physician in patients with various cancers. We analysed the results of a study of patients (n?=?291) reporting for their first oncologic examinations. We conducted structured interviews containing social, demographic and clinical data, the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory and Harris and Guten's health appraisal scores. Based on an analysis of decision-making trees, the results indicate that it is possible to predict beliefs regarding the curability of cancer and immediate versus delayed reporting to a physician. Delayed reports may be predicted on the basis of two factors: (1) a belief that cancer is incurable combined with increased state anxiety, ‘good’ or ‘very good’ self-appraisal of health and low depression; and (2) a belief that cancer is incurable accompanied by increased anxiety and depression. The characteristics of patients delaying a visit to the oncologist suggest the existence of three independent factors leading to both considerable (longer than nine months) and minor (up to one month) delays in seeking treatment.     

Hostility predicts metabolic syndrome risk factors in children and adolescents.

The authors tested in 134 African American and European American children whether hostility measured at study entry predicted the metabolic syndrome risk factors an average of 3 years later. Hostility was measured with the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (W. W. Cook & D. M. Medley, 1954) and with ratings of Potential for Hostility from interview responses. Metabolic syndrome was based on having at least 2 of the following risk factors above the 75th percentile of scores for their age, race, and gender group: body mass index, insulin resistance index, ratio of triglycerides to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and mean arterial blood pressure. Children who exhibited high hostility scores at baseline were likely to exhibit the metabolic syndrome at the follow-up. The results highlight the potential importance of early prevention and intervention of behavioral risk factors for cardiovascular disease.     

A Method for Quantifying Human Relations,Hostility, and Anxiety Applied to TAT Productions

Fifteen well-adjusted couples and 15 poorly-adjusted couples produced joint stories in response to four TAT cards. The tape-recorded protocols were transcribed and content analyzed for three variables using the Gottschalk-Gleser Anxiety, Hostility Directed Outwards, and Human Relations Scales. As predicted, the average score on Human Relations for the well-adjusted group of couples was significantly higher than the average score on this scale for the poorly-adjusted group. The prediction of higher hostility on the part of the poorly-adjusted couples was likewise confirmed. No significant differences in anxiety between the two groups were found. Differences in the “pull” of the cards for the dimension of hostility and anxiety were reported.     

Linkages between facial expressions of anger and transient myocardial ischemia in men with coronary artery disease

The authors examined whether facial expressions of emotion would predict changes in heart function. One hundred fifteen male patients with coronary artery disease underwent the Type A Structured Interview, during which time measures of transient myocardial ischemia (wall motion abnormality and left ventricular ejection fraction) were obtained. Facial behavior exhibited during the ischemia measurement period was videotaped and later coded by using the Facial Action Coding System (P. Ekman & W. V. Friesen, 1978). Those participants who exhibited ischemia showed significantly more anger expressions and nonenjoyment smiles than nonischemics. Cook-Medley Hostility scores did not vary with ischemic status. The findings have implications for understanding how anger and hostility differentially influence coronary heart disease risk.     

Dyadic predictors of outcome in a cognitive-behavioral program for patients with generalized anxiety disorder in committed relationships: a "spoonful of sugar" and a dose of non-hostile criticism may help

The present study tested whether pre-treatment levels of partner hostility and non-hostile criticism predicted outcome in an individual cognitive-behavioral therapy package for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Eighteen patients with a principal or co-principal diagnosis of GAD were randomly allocated to a treatment condition (n=8) or a delayed treatment condition (n=10). In addition, the patients and their partners were videotaped discussing the patients’ worries. These videotapes were later coded for levels of partner hostility and non-hostile criticism directed at the patients. Treatment resulted in statistically and clinically significant change at post-test. Finally, partner hostility predicted worse end-state functioning whereas partner non-hostile criticism predicted better end-state functioning.     

High School Conceptual Level as an Indicator of Young Adult Adjustment

It was found that the conceptual level (CL) and intelligence scores of 90 twelfth-grade girls from Southern Ontario were related to 3-year follow-up data. Canonical correlation analysis revealed the presence of two variates underlying the relationship between CL and intelligence to follow-up measures. The first variate, defined primarily by intelligence, was related to student (rather than working) status and occupational aspiration. The second variate, defined primarily by CL, was related to aspects of life satisfaction, presence of anxiety, depression, and hostility, and number of reported problems. Further analysis indicated that higher intelligence in Grade 12, controlling for CL, was a unique predictor of follow-up student status and higher occupational aspiration. CL, controlling for intelligence, predicted greater life satisfaction, lower anxiety, depression, and hostility, and fewer problems. The hypothesis that CL scores collected during high school are related to indicators of adjustment in young adulthood was supported.     

Hostility and health: Mediating effects of belief systems and coping styles

The present study investigates the relationship between hostility, health, belief systems, and ways of coping with anger, anxiety, and sadness in a college student sample. Hostility is of interest in the health psychology literature because it has been associated with coronary heart disease, other illnesses, and general mortality. The results reveal that relative to their low-hostility counterparts, individuals scoring high on the Cook and Medley Hostility Scale report poorer physical health and a belief system characterized by vindictiveness, pessimism, unrealistic expectations of the self and others, and a desire to avoid difficulties. They were also more likely to employ confrontive and escape-avoidance coping styles when dealing with anger and escapeavoidance strategies in coping with anxiety and sadness. Irrational beliefs and escapeavoidance coping with anger were found to play a mediating role in the relationship between hostility and health. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.