Hostility, emotional expression, and hemodynamic responses to laboratory stressors: Reactivity attenuating effects of a tendency to express emotion interpersonally

• Published in: International journal of psychophysiology Vol. 68; no. 3; pp. 177 - 185
• Main Authors: Kline, Keith A., Fekete, Erin M., Sears, Cary M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier B.V 01.06.2008; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Analysis of Variance; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Blood Pressure; Cardiovascular reactivity; Emotional expression; Expressed Emotion - physiology; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Heart Rate; Hemodynamic; Hemodynamics - physiology; Hostility; Humans; Interpersonal; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Middle Aged; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Sex Factors; Social Support; Stress, Psychological - etiology; Stress, Psychological - physiopathology; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Hostility; Emotional expression; Interpersonal; Hemodynamic; Cardiovascular reactivity; Laboratory study; Expressed emotion; Reactivity; Social interaction; Hemodynamics; Interpersonal relation; Stress
• ISSN: 0167-8760; 1872-7697
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2008.01.005

The present study examined the interactive effects of hostility and a predisposition towards emotional expression or suppression in interpersonal situations. We also attempted to partially replicate findings from a recent investigation which provided evidence of lower myocardial and greater vascular responses in high-hostile relative to low-hostile individuals. Undergraduate students ( n = 99) participated in a protocol consisting of rest periods, speech preparation and presentation, a social-evaluative mental arithmetic task, and a stress interview. After classifying participants into high/low hostility by high/low interpersonal emotional expression groups using median-splits, high-hostile individuals showed lower HR and SBP responses to speech preparation and reported greater threat appraisal and negative affect than low-hostile participants. High-hostile interpersonal expressors and male interpersonal expressors displayed lower DBP and TPR reactivity, respectively, than high-hostile or male suppressors. High-hostile expressors also reported lower levels of positive affect than high-hostile suppressors, and expressors reported lower threat appraisals than suppressors, irrespective of hostility. Findings are discussed in terms of an absence of conflict or ambivalence over interpersonal emotional expression for high-hostile expressors and are suggestive of potential health benefits of expressing emotion interpersonally for at-risk groups.