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The Journal of Positive Psychology 01/2012; 7:155-158. · 1.67 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Experimental studies show that training people to attend to negative stimuli makes them more likely to respond with greater anxiety to stress. The present study investigated this effect in students using measures of cardiovascular responses to stress and examined whether individual differences influence the impact of attention training on stress responses. Using a standard dot probe task, 30 participants underwent negative attentional bias training and 34 participants underwent anti-negative training before completing a stressful speech task. Results indicated that, overall, participants exhibited acclimatization to the procedures (indicated by a dip in blood pressure post-training) and normal stress responding (indicated by elevated blood pressure in response to stress; p<.001). However, consideration of participants' scores for neuroticism/emotional-stability revealed important differences in how the intervention impacted on cardiovascular profiles (p=.008). For participants with high neuroticism scores, the negative attentional bias intervention elicited more exaggerated stress responding than the anti-negative intervention. For those with low neuroticism scores (i.e., emotionally stable participants), the anti-negative intervention was associated with elevated post-intervention blood pressure and higher blood pressure reactivity to stress. These findings provide evidence of the impact of attentional bias manipulation on physiological stress reactivity and suggest the effect is highly contingent on individual temperaments.
Anxiety, stress, and coping 08/2011; 25(4):381-95. · 1.55 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Previous research has described patterns of adaptation of cardiovascular responses across prolonged or recurring stress. However, despite important implications for the study of reactivity, relatively little research has directly examined the antecedents or consequences of this adaptation. We present data showing that neuroticism, a personality trait associated with dispositional appraisals of stress, is associated with reductions in HR, CO, and TPR responses across stress exposures. Comparisons of reactivity curves suggest blunted initial stress responses among persons with high neuroticism, and higher initial responses followed by greater decreases among persons with low neuroticism. The data also suggest an association between adaptation of cardiovascular responses and myocardial hemodynamic responding. Such findings shed new light on previous studies detecting healthful correlates of short-term stress responding, and highlight the relevance of adaptation to future cardiovascular reactivity research.
Biological psychology 03/2010; 86(2):129-36. · 4.36 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Previous research has been equivocal as to the impact of smoking status on cardiovascular reactivity to challenge. In addition, little is known about patterns of cardiovascular response habituation-sensitization to repeated challenge, in either smokers or the general population as a whole. The present study sought to clarify whether smokers and non-smokers differ in cardiovascular reactivity to challenge, or in patterns of reactivity to repeated challenge. 28 smokers and 28 anthropometrically matched non-smokers underwent repeated cardiovascular reactivity assessment. Results suggest that smokers had higher diastolic blood pressure (DBP) than non-smokers, and that female non-smokers demonstrated DBP response sensitization. Findings highlight direct associations between smoking and cardiovascular reactivity of potential significance to the etiology of cardiovascular disease.
International journal of psychophysiology: official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology 02/2010; 76(1):34-9. · 3.05 Impact Factor
