Cardiovascular reactivity and interpersonal influence: active coping in a social context

Previous studies have demonstrated that effortful attempts to secure positive outcomes or avoid negative outcomes produce significant increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR). Although these effects of active coping on cardiovascular reactivity are central in current psychosomatic theories, virtually all of the research to date has used impersonal, asocial tasks. Our two studies examined the cardiovascular effects of effortful attempts to influence other people. In Study 1, male subjects attempting to influence the opinions of their discussion partner to improve their own chances of winning money displayed significantly greater SBP, DBP, and HR reactivity. In Study 2, we obtained similar effects on SBP and DBP reactivity in men and women, while both preparing an influence attempt and making that attempt. Furthermore, reactivity levels were larger as the magnitude of incentive for successful persuasion increased. Implications of this interpersonal equivalent of active coping for the development of cardiovascular disease are discussed.     

Perceptions of control, competence, and contingency as influences on the stress-behavior symptom relation in school-age children

Analyzed data from 154 school-age children and their mothers to examine the relations between stress, perceived competence and contingency, and behavior symptoms. Analyses focused on the relative merits of unidimensional vs multidimensional measures of control in predicting symptoms. The stress of undesirable life events and behavior symptoms were related in the expected direction. Multiple regression models with R2 ranging from .11 to .14 (all ps less than .0002) included significant main effects for stress, competence, and control. Analyses supported the relative superiority of the multidimensional measure of control. Models containing main effects and interaction terms were of equivalent magnitudes in accounting for variance in symptom scores. Findings support the idea of perceived control as a moderator of the stress-illness relation and are consistent with earlier suggestions that simple main effects models may be the most useful in examining these relations.     

Visual fixation and postural sway in children

Adults are able to use a visual target to reduce quiet-standing postural sway (Lee & Lishman, 1975). The present study was designed to determine whether children, under varying postural conditions, are also able to use a visual target to reduce postural sway. A second purpose was to determine the ability of children to visually fixate under different postural conditions. An inability to visually fixate may limit the usefulness of a visual target. The results indicate that, like adults, children are able to reduce sway in the presence of a visual target. Young children are less able than older children and adults to visually fixate. In addition, children show more spontaneous visual saccades in the no-target condition than in the target condition and more saccades in the Romberg stance than in a feet-together stance. The fact that saccades decrease with increasing age, even in the seated, head-stabilized condition, precludes the possibility that increased instability of the young children is the only cause of increased number of saccades.     

Autobiographical memory in a case of multiple personality disorder

Previous research on multiple personality disorder (MPD) has been concerned with between-personalities amnesia, and little attention has been paid to within-personality memory function. This study examined the autobiographical memory of a multiple personality patient, I.C., with cueing procedures that have proven useful in previous studies of normal and abnormal memory. Results indicated that I.C. was able to retrieve autobiographical episodes from the recent past, although her performance differed in several respects from that of matched controls. The study also revealed a striking deficit in I.C.'s autobiographical memory for childhood: She was unable to recall a single episode from prior to the age of 10 in response to various retrieval cues, whereas control subjects had no difficulty recalling numerous childhood episodes. This phenomenon of extended childhood amnesia has not been reported previously in studies of MPD.     

Effects of daily stress on negative mood

This article examines the influence of daily stressors on mental health in a community sample. Ss were 166 married couples who completed diaries each day for 6 weeks. In pooled within-person analyses, daily stressors explained up to 20% of the variance in mood. Interpersonal conflicts were by far the most distressing events. Furthermore, when stressors occurred on a series of days, emotional habituation occurred by the second day for almost all events except interpersonal conflicts. Contrary to certain theoretical accounts, multiple stressors on the same day did not exacerbate one another's effects: rather an emotional plateau occurred. Finally on days following a stressful event, mood was better than it would have been if the stressor had not happened. These results reveal the complex emotional effects of daily stressors, and in particular they suggest that future investigations should focus primarily on interpersonal conflicts.     

Eyewitness accuracy and confidence: within- versus between-subjects correlations

Previous researchers using between-subjects comparisons have found eyewitness confidence and accuracy to be only negligibly correlated. In this study, we examined the predictive power of confidence in within-subject terms. Ninety-six subjects answered, and made confidence ratings for, a series of questions about a crime they witnessed. The average between-subjects and within-subject accuracy-confidence correlations were comparably low: r = .14 (p less than .001) and r = .17 (p less than .001), respectively. Confidence is neither a useful predictor of the accuracy of a particular witness nor of the accuracy of particular statements made by the same witness. Another possible predictor of accuracy, response latency, correlated only negligibly with accuracy (r = -.09 within subjects), but more strongly with confidence (r = -.27 within subjects). This pattern was obtained for both between-subjects and within-subject comparisons. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.