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

2. Fight or Flight

3. The Event Demands vs Resources Psychological Stress RESPONSERESPONSE

4. Stress: Friend or Foe?

5. Stress and Health: Sporting Results

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

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

8. Personality Type?

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. Diastolic Blood Pressure F(2.09, 150.51) = 4.17, p =.016, partial η 2 =.055 Exaggerated reactivity

13. 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