Abstract
Studies of hemodynamic and neuroendocrine reactions to behavioral stimuli comprise a substantial portion of laboratory research in cardiovascular behavioral medicine. It is widely thought that exaggerated physiologic responses to psychological challenge, or stress, may be implicated in the etiology or clinical expression of certain cardiovascular disorders, including coronary heart disease and essential hypertension (Manuck & Krantz, 1986). As described in the previous chapter, behaviorally elicited physiologic reactions vary in their magnitude and patterning, in part, as a function of the nature of the eliciting stimuli (i. e., stimulus specificity). It is also well established that individuals exposed to the same experimental stimulus exhibit marked variability in cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses. The present chapter addresses several issues relating to the latter phenomenon, individual differences in psychophysiologic reactivity. Considered specifically are three attributes of individual differences that have significance for current hypotheses linking cardiovascular and neuroendocrine reactivity to aspects of cardiovascular disease: (1) the temporal stability of individual differences in psychophysiologic reactivity; (2) the reproducibility of these individual differences under varying stimulus conditions; and (3) the generalization of individual differences in physiologic responses from laboratory evaluations to measurements obtained in field (or natural) settings. Consideration of these issues is preceded by a discussion of common aspects of protocols used in psychophysiologic assessment, as well as of related matters regarding the quantitative expression of individual differences in reactivity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Arena, J. G., Blanchard, E. B., Andrasik, F., Cotch, P., & Myers, P. (1983). Reliability of psychophysiological assessment. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21, 447–460.
Bunnell, D. E. (1982). Autonomic myocardial influences as a factor determining inter-task consistency of heart rate reactivity. Psychophysiology, 19, 442–448.
Carroll, D., Turner, J. R., Lee, H. J., & Stephenson, J. (1984). Temporal consistency of individual differences in cardiac response to a video game. Biological Psychology, 19, 81–93.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Engel, B. T., & Bickford, A. F. (1961). Response-specificity: Stimulus-response and individual-response specificity in essential hypertensives. Archives of General Psychiatry, 5, 478–489.
Faulstich, M. E., Williamson, D. A., McKenzie, S. J., Duchmann, E. G., Hutchenson, K. M., & Blouin, D. C. (1986). Temporal stability of psychophysiological responding: A comparative analysis of mental and physical Stressors. International Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 65–72.
Fredrikson, M., Danielson, T., Engel, B. T., Frisk-Holmberg, M., Strom, G., & Sundin, O. (1985). Autonomic nervous system function and essential hypertension: Individual response specificity with and without beta adrenergic blockage. Psychophysiology, 22, 167–174.
Giordani, B., Manuck, S. B., & Farmer, J. F. (1981). Stability of behaviorally-induced heart rate changes in children after one week. Child Development, 52, 533–537.
Glass, D. C., Lake, C. R., Contrada, R. J., Kehoe, K., & Erlanger, L. R. (1983). Stability of individual differences in physiologic responses to stress. Health Psychology, 4, 317–342.
Hastrup, J. L. (1986). Duration of initial heart rate assessment in Psychophysiology: Current practices and implications. Psychophysiology, 23, 15–18.
Lacey, J. I., & Lacey, B. C. (1962). The law of initial value in the longitudinal study of autonomic constitution: Reproducibility of autonomic responses and response patterns over a four year interval. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 98, 1257–1290, 1322-1326.
Lacey, J. I., Kagan, J., & Lacey, B. C. (1963). The visceral level: Situational determinants and behavioral correlates of autonomic response patterns. In P. H. Knapp (Ed.), Expression of emotions in man. New York: International University Press.
Lawler, K. A. (1980). Cardiovascular and electrodermal response patterns in heart rate reactive individuals during psychological stress. Psychophysiology, 17, 464–470.
Lovallo, W. R., Pincomb, G. A., & Wilson, M. F. (1986). Heart rate reactivity and type A behavior as modifiers of physiological response to active and passive coping. Psychophysiology, 23, 105–112.
Manuck, S. B., & Garland, F. N. (1980). Stability of individual differences in cardiovascular reactivity: A thirteen month follow-up. Physiology and Behavior, 24, 621–624.
Manuck, S. B., & Krantz, D. S. (1984). Psychophysiologic reactivity in coronary heart disease. Behavioral Medicine Update, 6, 11–15.
Manuck, S. B., & Krantz, D. S. (1986). Psychophysiologic reactivity in coronary heart disease and essential hypertension. In K. A. Matthews, S. B. Weiss, T. Detre, T. M. Dembroski, B. Falkner, S. B. Manuck, & R. B. Williams (Eds.), Handbook of stress, reactivity, and cardiovascular disease. New York: Wiley-Interscience.
Manuck, S. B., & Schaefer, D. C. (1978). Stability of individual differences in cardiovascular reactivity. Physiology and Behavior, 21, 675–678.
Manuck, S. B., Kaplan, J.R., & Clarkson, T. B. (1983). Behaviorally induced heart rate reactivity and atherosclerosis in cynomolgus monkeys. Psychosomatic Medicine, 45, 95–108.
Matthews, K. A., Manuck, S. B., & Saab, P. G. (1986). Cardiovascular responses of adolescents during a naturally occurring Stressor and their behavioral and psychophysiological predictors. Psychophysiology, 23, 198–209.
Matthews, K. A., Rakaczky, C. J., Stoney, C. M., & Manuck, S. B. (1987). Are cardiovascular responses to behavioral Stressors a stable individual difference variable in childhood?. Psychophysiology, 24, 464–473.
McKinney, M. E., Miner, M. H., Ruddel, H., McIlvain, H. E., Witte, H., Buell, J. C., Eliot, R. S., & Grant, L. B. (1985). The standardized mental stress protocol: Test-retest reliability and comparison with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Psychophysiology, 22, 453–463.
Obrist, P. A. (1981). Cardiovascular psychophysiology. New York: Plenum Press.
Rombouts, R. (1982). The reproducibility of cardiovascular reactions during cognitive tasks. Activitas Nervosa Superior, Suppl. 3(Pt. 2), 283–294.
Shapiro, A. P., Nicotero, J., Sapira, J., & Scheib, E. T. (1968). Analysis of the variability of blood pressure, pulse rate and catecholamine responsivity in identical and fraternal twins. Psychosomatic Medicine, 47, 90 (Abstract).
Wilder, J. (1957). The law of initial values in neurology and psychiatry: Facts and problems. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 125, 73–86.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Manuck, S.B., Kasprowicz, A.L., Monroe, S.M., Larkin, K.T., Kaplan, J.R. (1989). Psychophysiologic Reactivity as a Dimension of Individual Differences. In: Schneiderman, N., Weiss, S.M., Kaufmann, P.G. (eds) Handbook of Research Methods in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine. The Springer Series in Behavioral Psychophysiology and Medicine. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0906-0_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0906-0_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0908-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0906-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive