PHYSIOLOGICAL, BEHAVIORAL, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HYPERTENSIVES AND INDIVIDUALS AT RISK FOR DEVELOPING HYPERTENSION
Abstract
An initial objective of this project was to obtain normative blood pressure data on college age men. The sample included 1502 white, non-smoking males between the ages of 18 and 24. Approximately 10% of this sample had blood pressure equal to or greater than 140 over 90 mmHg. Approximately 20% had at least one hypertensive parent. The primary objective of this project was to integrate the two empirical approaches of the psychosomatic theory of hypertension by comparing hypertensives with two groups of normotensives differentiated on the basis of parental hypertension. Subjects in all three groups were further classified as high and low reactors based on systolic blood pressure reactivity to a cognitive task. Participants were 117 white, non-smoking college age males. All subjects performed mental arithmetic and participated in a self-disclosure interview. For one half of the subjects, the experimenter was a "research assistant" (low social status), while for the other half, the experimenter was a "doctor" (high social status). Physiological, behavioral, and psychological measures were obtained. Hypertensives with exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity were more reactivce than hypertensive with low reactivity in response to mental arithmetic. Regardless of hypertensive status or parental history of high blood pressure, high reactors continued to show heightened SBP reactivity throughout the study. Results from the behavioral and psychological measures indicated that the high social status experimenter inhibited spontaneous self-disclosure among hypertensives. Individuals with heightened reactivity reported engaging in less self-disclosure than low reactors, while low reactors reported engaging in more cognitive and behavioral coping strategies, as measured by the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Together, these results suggest that hypertensives (in some situations) and individuals with exaggerated systolic blood pressure reactivity use low self-disclosure to cope with some stressfully appraised situations, while low reactors use more adaptive coping strategies.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
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