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Hostility and Cardiovascular Reactivity During Marital Interaction

From the Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (T.W.S., L.C.G.).

Address reprint requests to: Timothy W. Smith, PhD, Department of Psychology, 390 S. 1530 E. Rm 502, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0251. Email: tsmith{at}psych.utah.edu

OBJECTIVE: Prior studies demonstrate that hostile persons respond to social stressors with heightened cardiovascular responses. This study examined the effects of individual differences in hostility and two experimentally manipulated social stressors on cardiovascular reactivity during marital interaction.

METHODS: Sixty couples participated in a discussion task under conditions of high or low evaluative threat and while either agreeing or disagreeing with each other. Individual differences in hostility were assessed with the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Participants’ appraisal of their spouses’ behavior during the interaction task was assessed with a standardized measure. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate responses were recorded.

RESULTS: Among husbands, hostility was associated with greater systolic blood pressure reactivity under high, but not low, threat. Appraisals suggested that this might be due to husbands’ efforts to assert dominance in the interaction. Wives’ hostility scores were unrelated to cardiovascular reactivity, but wives disagreeing with hostile husbands showed greater heart rate reactivity.

CONCLUSIONS: Heightened cardiovascular reactivity to stressful marital interactions among hostile men provides additional evidence of the viability of this psychophysiologic mechanism as a link between hostility and health. The lack of effects among wives suggests sex differences in the social psychophysiology of hostility. Interpersonal concepts and methods are useful in the study of psychosocial risk factors and mechanisms.

Key Words: hostility • cardiovascular reactivity • marital interaction • dominance

Abbreviations: AQ = aggression questionnaire; bpm = beats per minute; CHD = coronary heart disease; CVR = cardiovascularreactivity; DBP = diastolic blood pressure; HR = heart rate; SBP = systolic blood pressure; SD = standard deviation.

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