Abstract
This study examined the relations of one’s own total trait hostility and one’s spouse’s hostility as influences on cardiovascular (CV) responses to couple interactions (including conflict discussions) in 45 married couples aged 24—50. Systolic blood pressure and cardiac index (CI) reactivity to conflict discussion and recovery after conflict was greater in low hostile males if they were interacting with high hostile wives (p < .02). Vascular resistance index (VRI) reactivity to interactions was greater in high hostile husbands with high hostile wives (p < .05). Women showed no adverse CV effects of having a hostile spouse when their own hostility was low. Instead, seeming to anticipate the subsequent couple interactions, wives from duos in which both partners were high in hostility had higher baseline VRI levels and lower baseline CI compared to wives from duos in which both were low in hostility (ps < .05), and they simply maintained these group differences with no greater CV reactivity during the interactions. Findings suggest that CV responses before, during, and after marital discussions, particularly those characterized by conflict, may be influenced not only by one’s own hostility but by the hostility of one’s partner as well.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, N. B., McNeilly, M., & Myers, H. (1991). Autonomic reactivity and hypertension in blacks: A review and proposed model. Ethnicity & Disease, 1, 154–170.
Baker, B., Paquette, M., Szalai, J., Driver, H., Perger, T., Helmers, K., et al. (2000). The influence of marital adjustment on 3-year left ventricular mass ambulatory blood pressure in mild hypertension. Archives of Internal Medicine, 160, 3453–3458.
Barefoot, J. C., Larsen, S., von der Lieth, L., & Schroll, M. (1995). Hostility, incidence of acute myocardial infarction, and mortality in a sample of older Danish men and women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 142, 477–484.
Benotsch, E., Christensen, A., & McKelvey, L. (1997). Hostility, social support, and ambulatory cardiovascular activity. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 20, 163–176.
Bray, G. A. (1984). The role of weight control in health promotion and disease prevention. In Behavioral health (pp. 632-656). New York: Wiley.
Broadwell, S. D., & Light, K. C. (1999). Family support and cardiovascular responses in married couples during conflict and other interactions. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 6, 40–63.
Brown, P. C., & Smith, T. W. (1992). Social influence, marriage, and the heart: Cardiovascular consequences of interpersonal control in husbands and wives. Health Psychology, 11, 88–96.
Burg, M. M., & Seeman, T. (1994). Families and health: The negative side of social ties. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 26, 109–115.
Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2003). Social isolation and health with an emphasis on underlying mechanisms. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 46(Suppl. 3), S39–52.
Carmelli, D., Swan, G. E., Hunt, S. C., & Williams, R. R. (1989). Cross-spouse correlates of blood pressure in hypertension-prone families in Utah. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 33, 75–84.
Carmelli, D., Swan, G. E., & Rosenman, R. H. (1985). The relationship between wives& #x2019; social and psychologic status and their husbands& #x2019; coronary heart disease. A case-control family study from the Western Collaborative Group Study. American Journal of Epidemiology, 122, 90–100.
Carmelli, D., Swan, G. E., & Rosenman, R. H. (1986). Cross-family correlates of blood pressure in the Western Collaborative Group Study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 9, 325–340.
Christensen, A., & Smith, T. (1993). Cynical hostility, self-disclosure, and cardiovascular reactivity. Psychosomatic Medicine, 55, 193–202.
Cook, W. W., & Medley, D. M. (1954). Proposed hostility and Pharisaic-virtue scales for the MMPI. Journal of Applied Psychology, 38, 414–418.
Coyne, J., Rohrbaugh, M., Shoham, V., Sonnega, J., Nicklas, J., & Cranford, J. (2001). Prognostic importance of marital quality for survival of congestive heart failure. American Journal of Cardiology, 88, 526–529.
Davis, M., Matthews, K., & McGrath, C. (2000). Hostile attitudes predict elevated vascular resistance during interpersonal stress in men and women. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 17–25.
Denton, W. H., Burleson, B. R., Hobbs, B. V., Von Stein, M., & Rodriguez, C. P. (2001). Cardiovascular reactivity and initiate/avoid patterns of marital communication: A test of Gottman& #x2019;s psychophysiologic model of marital interaction. Journal of Behavioral Medicine,24, 401–421.
Devereux, R. B. (1990). Hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy: Pathophysiological and clinical characteristics. In J. H. Laragh & B. M. Brenner (Eds.), Hypertension: Pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management (pp. 359-377). New York: Raven.
Ewart, C. K., Burnett, K. F., & Taylor, C. B. (1983). Communication behaviors that affect blood pressure: An A-B-A-B analysis of marital interaction. Behavior Modification, 7, 331–344.
Ewart, C. K., Taylor, C. B., Kraemer, H. C., & Agras, W. S. (1984). Reducing blood pressure reactivity during interpersonal conflict: Effects of marital communication training. Behavior Therapy, 15, 473–484.
Ewart, C. K., Taylor, C. B., Kraemer, H. C., & Agras, W. S. (1991). High blood pressure and marital discord: Not being nasty matters more than being nice. Health Psychology, 10, 155–163.
Ferrari, A. V., Radaelli, A., & Centola, M. (2003). Invited review: Aging and the cardiovascular system. Journal of Applied Physiology, 95, 2591–2597.
Georgiades, A., Sherwood, A., Gullette, E. C., Babyak, M. A., Hinderliter, A., Waugh, R., et al. (2000). Effects of exercise and weight loss on mental stress-induced cardiovascular responses in individuals with high blood pressure. Hypertension, 36, 171–176.
Gerin, W., Pieper C., Levy, R., & Pickering, T. G. (1992). Social support in social interaction: A moderator of cardiovascular reactivity. Psychosomatic Medicine, 54, 324–336.
Gottman, J. M. (1990). How marriages change. In G. R. Patterson (Ed.), Depression and aggressions in family interaction (pp. 75-101). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Gottman, J. M. (1991). Predicting the longitudinal course of marriages. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 17, 3–7.
Gottman, J. M., & Krokoff, L. J. (1989). Marital interaction and satisfaction: A longitudinal view. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 57, 47–52.
Gottman, J. M., & Levenson, R. W. (1988). The social psychophysiology of marriage. In P. Noller & M. A. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Perspectives on marital interaction (pp. 182-200). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Gottman, J. M., Markman, H. J., & Notarius, C. I. (1977). The topography of marital conflict: A sequential analysis of verbal and nonverbal behavior. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 39, 461–477.
Hafner, R. J., & Miller, R. J. (1991). Essential hypertension: Hostility, psychiatric symptoms and marital stress in patients and spouses. Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics, 56, 204–211.
Harralson, T., Suarez, E., & Lawler, K. (1997). Cardiovascular reactivity among hostile men and women: The effects of sex and anger suppression. Women& ’s Health, 3, 151–164.
Haynes, S. G., Eaker, E. D., & Feinleib, M. (1983). Spouse behavior and coronary heart disease in men: Prospective results from the Framingham heart study. I. Concordance of risk factors and the relationship of psychosocial status to coronary incidence. American Journal of Epidemiology, 118, 1–22.
Hibbard, J., & Pope, C. (1993). The quality of social roles as predictors of morbidity and mortality. Social Science & Medicine, 36, 217–225.
Hinderliter, A. L., Light, K. C., Girdler, S. S., Willis, P. W., & Sherwood, A. (1996). Blood pressure responses to stress: Relation to left ventricular structure and function. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 18, 61–66.
Houston, B. K. (1994). Anger, hostility and psychophysiological reactivity. In A. W. Siegman & T. W. Smith (Eds.), Anger, hostility, and the heart (pp. 97-115). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Houston, B. K., Babyak, M. A., Chesney, M. A., Black, G., & Ragland, D. R. (1997). Social dominance and 22-year all-cause mortality in men. Psychosomatic Medicine, 59, 5–12.
Jamner, L. D., Shapiro, D., Goldstein, I. B., & Hug, R. (1991). Ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in paramedics: Effects of cynical hostility and defensiveness. Psychosomatic Medicine, 53, 393–406.
Julius, S., & Nesbitt, S. (1996). Sympathetic overactivity in hypertension. A moving target. American Journal of Hypertension, 9, 113S-120S.
Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Malarkey, W. B., Chee, M., Newton, T., Cacioppo, J. T., Mao, H., et al. (1993). Negative behavior during marital conflict is associated with immunologic down-regulation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 55, 395–409.
Kurylo, M. (2000). Hostility and cardiovascular reactivity in women during self-disclosure. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 7, 271–286.
Levenson, R.W., & Gottman, J. M. (1983). Marital interaction: Physiological linkage and affective exchange. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 45, 587–597.
Levenson, R. W., & Gottman, J. M. (1985). Physiological and affective predictors of change in relationship satisfaction. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 49, 85–94.
Levy, D., Garrison, R. J., Savage, D. D., Kannel, W. B., & Castelli, W. P. (1990). Prognostic implications of echocardiographically determined left ventricular mass in the Framingham Heart Study. New England Journal of Medicine, 322, 1561–1566.
Light, K. C., & Sherwood, A. (1989). Race, borderline hypertension, and hemodynamic responses to behavioral stress before and after beta-adrenergic blockade. Health Psychology, 8, 577–595.
Light, K. C., Turner, J. R., Hinderliter, A. L., & Sherwood, A. (1993). Race and gender comparisons: I. Hemodynamic responses to a series of stressors. Health Psychology, 12, 354–365.
Lund-Johansen, P. (1980). Hemodynamics in essential hypertension. Clinical Science, 59, 343–354.
Lynch, J. J., Thomas, S. A., Paskewitz, D. A., Malinow, K. L., & Long, J. M. (1982). Interpersonal aspects of blood pressure control. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease, 170, 143–153.
Malarkey, W. B., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Pearl, D., & Glaser, R. (1994). Hostile behavior during marital conflict alters pituitary and adrenal hormones. Psychosomatic Medicine, 56, 41–51.
Matthews, K., Owens, J., Kuller, L., Sutton-Tyrell, K., & Jansen-McWilliams, L. (1998). Are hostility and anxiety associated with carotid atherosclerosis in healthy postmenopausal women? Psychosomatic Medicine, 60, 633–638.
Mayet, J., & Hughes, A. (2003). Cardiac and vascular pathophysiology in hypertension. Heart, 89, 1104–1109.
Medalie, J. H., Snyder, M., Groen, J. J., Neufeld, H. N., Goldbourt, U., & Riss, E. (1973). Angina pectoris among 10,000 men: 5 year incidence and univariate analysis. American Journal of Medicine, 55, 583–594.
Miller, G. E., Dopp, J. M., Myers, H. F., Stevens, S. Y., & Fahey, J. L. (1999). Psychosocial predictors of natural killer cell mobilization during marital conflict. Health Psychology, 18, 262–271.
Newton, T. L., & Bane, C. M. H. (2001). Cardiovascular correlates of behavioral dominance and hostility during dyadic interaction. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 40, 33–46.
Powch, I., & Houston, B. (1996). Hostility, anger-in, and cardiovascular reactivity in White women. Health Psychology, 15, 200–208.
Schwartz, G. E., Weinberger, D. A., & Singer, J. A. (1981). Cardiovascular differentiation of happiness, sadness, anger, and fear following imagery and exercise. Psychosomatic Medicine, 43, 343–364.
Shapiro, D., Goldstein, I. B., & Jamner, L. D. (1996). Effects of cynical hostility, anger out, anxiety, and defensiveness on ambulatory blood pressure in black and white college students. Psychosomatic Medicine, 58, 354–364.
Sheffield, D., & Carroll, D. (1996). Task-induced cardiovascular activity and the presence of a supportive or undermining other. Psychology and Health, 11, 583–591.
Sherwood, A., Allen, M. T., Fahrenberg, J., Kelsey, R. M., Lovallo, W. R., & van Doornen, L. J. (1990). Methodological guidelines for impedance cardiography. Psychophysiology, 27, 1–23.
Sherwood, A., Dolan, C. A., & Light, K. C. (1990). Hemodynamics of blood pressure responses during active and passive coping. Psychophysiology, 27, 656–668.
Siegman, A. W., Townsend, S. T., Civelek, A. C., & Blumenthal, R. S. (2000). Antagonistic behavior, dominance, hostility, and coronary heart disease. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 248–257.
Sinha, R., Lovallo, W. R., & Parsons, O. A. (1992). Cardiovascular differentiation of emotions. Psychosomatic Medicine, 54, 422–435.
Sirois, B. C., & Burg, M. M. (2003). Negative emotion and coronary heart disease: A review. Behavior Modification, 27, 83–102.
Smith, T. W. (1992). Hostility and health: Current status of a psychosomatic hypothesis. Health Psychology, 11, 139–150.
Smith, T. W., & Brown, P. C. (1991). Cynical hostility, attempts to exert social control, and cardiovascular reactivity in married couples. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 14, 581–592.
Smith, T. W., & Frohm, K. D. (1985). What& #x2019;s so unhealthy about hostility? Construct validity and psychosocial correlates of the Cook and Medley Ho scale. Health Psychology, 4, 503–520.
Smith, T. W., & Gerin, W. (1998). The social psychophysiology of cardiovascular response: An introduction to the special issue. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 20, 233–246.
Smith, T. W., Sanders, J. D., & Alexander, J. F. (1990). What does the Cook and Medley hostility scale measure? Affect, behavior, and attributions in the marital context. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 58, 699–708.
Suarez, E., Kuhn, C., Schanberg, S., Williams, R., Jr., & Zimmerman, E. (1998). Neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, and emotional responses of hostile men: The role of interpersonal challenge. Psychosomatic Medicine, 60, 78–88.
Suarez, E. C., Sherwood, A., & Hinderliter, A. L. (1998). Hostility and adrenergic receptor responsiveness: Evidence of reduced beta-receptor responsiveness in high hostile men. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 44, 261–267.
Suarez, E. C., & Williams, R. B. (1990). The relationship between dimensions of hostility and cardiovascular reactivity as a function of task characteristics. Psychosomatic Medicine, 52, 558–570.
Suin, R. M. (2001). The terrible twos—anger and anxiety: Hazardous to your health. American Psychologist, 56, 27–36.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Broadwell, S.D., Light, K.C. Hostility, conflict and cardiovascular responses in married couples: a focus on the dyad. Int. J. Behav. Med. 12, 142–152 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1203_3
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1203_3