Laboratory Tasks in Cardiovascular Research

Abstract

The first out of three examples for applied areas of a differential psychophysiology treated in this and the next two chapters deals with the selection and systematization of laboratory tasks in cardiovascular research in the context of behavioral medicine. The motivation behind such an endeavor is the elucidation of the concept of cardiovascular reactivity as a putative risk factor in cardiovascular disease. Krantz and Manuck (1984) discussed this concept and described it as a multifaceted construct covering these main research areas:

• Research on tasks that arouse specific autonomic cardiovascular components. Knowing which tasks are likely to produce specific cardiovascular activations would lead to a more concise development of laboratory analogs of physicobiological situations eliciting potentially harmful magnitudes and patterns of cardiovascular reactivity. This line of research would naturally extend into differential-psychophysiological studies focusing on the effects of different functional situations varying among persons.

• Research on variables and variable-configurations that are able to measure these cardiovascular activation components. Chapter 9.3 has been devoted to the identification of such variable-configurations. Therefore, the characterization of laboratory tasks will be based on the component operationalizations suggested at the end of Chapter 9.3.

• Research on high-risk compared to low-risk populations or on patients that are already in a medical treatment. This line of inquiry evidently constitutes a necessary complement to research on healthy subjects and could contribute to the validation of the proposed operationalizations of cardiovascular activation components. However, this line of inquiry is beyond the scope of the present treatment.