Type D personality and Health: Gender Differences in Psychophysiological Responses to Stress Siobhán Howard Department of Psychology

Fight or Flight

The Event Demands vs Resources Psychological Stress RESPONSERESPONSE

Stress: Friend or Foe?

Stress and Health: Sporting Results

Cardiovascular System Vessels contract Heart pumps faster Pumps more volume Increased blood pressure Leads to strain on the cardiovascular vessels Leads to heart disease

Cardiovascular Reactivity Hypothesis Higher reactivity – Higher resting blood pressure 20 years later – Increased risk of cardiovascular disease – Children of hypertensives show higher reactivity

Personality Type?

Type D: Distressed Personality Type Highly anxious and shy person – Measured using psychometric scales People with this personality who have suffered a coronary event, more likely to – Have suffered another coronary event – Increased disability as a result of the event – Be dead 10 years later

Method Participants – 40 male, 36 female (mean age = 20.91, SD = 4.09) Materials – Blood pressure monitor – Psychometric scale to assess Type D – Mental arithmetic task Procedure – 20 minutes to acclimatize to laboratory – 10-minute rest, 5-minute task

Systolic Blood Pressure Exaggerated reactivity F(1,72) = 6.02, p =.017, partial η 2 =.077

Diastolic Blood Pressure F(2.09, ) = 4.17, p =.016, partial η 2 =.055 Exaggerated reactivity

Conclusions Type D personality associated with increased blood pressure reactivity in men – Different pattern evident in women Points towards potential mechanism through which Type D exerts its effects Different effects in men and women