Effects of emotional imagery on cardiovascular and plasma catecholamine responses in Type A and Type B individuals.
Item
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Title
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Effects of emotional imagery on cardiovascular and plasma catecholamine responses in Type A and Type B individuals.
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Identifier
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AAI8820870
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identifier
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8820870
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Creator
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Hilton, William Frederick, Jr.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Susan Saegert
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Physiological
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Abstract
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Most contemporary approaches investigating risk factors associated with coronary heart disease consider the interaction of psychological and physiological variables. This study examined the cardiovascular, plasma catecholamine, and behavioral responses of 42 Type A and B adult males to a psychological stressor (emotional imagery). Differences in A/B responses to emotional situations that promote stress could reveal other psychosocial or cognitive factors involved in the pathogenesis of CHD. Subjects were instructed to induce affective states by imaging past situations which had made them angry, fearful and distressed. After imaging, subjects described the emotional situations. The three emotional imagery tasks were counterbalanced with subjects randomly assigned to control for sequence effects. Subject's expressions during the emotion task were video taped for subsequent ratings of facial affect by naive judges using semantic differential scales. It was expected that Type A's would express anger freely, but would suppress emotional reactions when relating fear or distress, engendering concomitant physiological dampening. Unexpectedly, Type B's exhibited greater increases in systolic blood pressure and plasma norepinephrine across all emotions. This finding was supported by behavioral measures showing Type B's rated higher on unpleasant affect. These results were discussed in terms of increased facial expressiveness linked to physiological arousal for Type B's and situational control and suppressed facial expression for Type A's.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
