Elevated blood pressure and personality: A meta-analytic review.

Jorgensen, Randall Steven; Johnson, Blair T.; Kolodziej, Monika E.; Schreer, George E.

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.120.2.293

Cited by 230 publications

(164 citation statements)

References 191 publications

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“…In a sample of several thousand medical patients, for example, Schwartz, Krupp, and Byrne (1971) found that participants who minimized their conscious feelings of anxiety reported more organic problems, whereas those who focused on them reported more psychological problems. A recent meta-analysis found that defensive constriction of emotional experience was the best predictor of essential hypertension (elevated blood pressure of unknown origin) of any personality variable yet studied ( Jorgensen, Johnson, Kolodziej, & Schreer, 1996 ).…”

Section: Defense Against Unpleasant Emotions and Its Physiological Comentioning

confidence: 99%

The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a psychodynamically informed psychological science.

Westen

1998

Psychological Bulletin

342

233

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Although commentators periodically declare that Freud is dead, his repeated burials lie on shaky grounds. Critics typically attack an archaic version of psychodynamic theory that most clinicians similarly consider obsolete. Central to contemporary psychodynamic theory is a series of propositions about (a) unconscious cognitive, affective, and motivational processes; (b) ambivalence and the tendency for affective and motivational dynamics to operate in parallel and produce compromise solutions; (c) the origins of many personality and social dispositions in childhood; (d) mental representations of the self, others, and relationships; and (e) developmental dynamics. An enormous body of research in cognitive, social, developmental, and personality psychology now supports many of these propositions. Freud's scientific legacy has implications for a wide range of domains in psychology, such as integration of affective and motivational constraints into connectionist models in cognitive science.Freud, like Elvis, has been dead for a number of years but continues to be cited with some regularity. Although the majority of clinicians report that they rely to some degree upon psychodynamic 1 principles in their work ( Pope, Tabachnick, & Keith-Spiegel, 1987 ), most researchers consider psychodynamic ideas to be at worst absurd and obsolete and at best irrelevant or of little scientific interest. In the lead article of a recent edition of Psychological Science, Crews (1996) arrived at a conclusion shared by many: " [T]here is literally nothing to be said, scientifically or therapeutically, to the advantage of the entire Freudian system or any of its component dogmas" (p. 63).Despite the explosion of empirical studies of unconscious cognitive processes (see, e.g., Greenwald, 1992 ;Kihlstrom, 1987 ;Schacter, 1992 ), few reference Freud; none cite any contemporary psychodynamic work; and in general, psychodynamic concepts are decreasingly represented in the major psychology journals ( Robins & Craik, 1994 ). The situation is similar in the popular media and in broader intellectual discourse. Publications ranging from Time to the New York Review of Books periodically publish Freud's intellectual obituary, with critics charging that Freud's ideas-such as his dual-instinct theory or his hypotheses about female personality development-are seriously out of date and without scientific merit (e.g., Crews, 1993 ).Many aspects of Freudian theory are indeed out of date, and they should be: Freud died in 1939, and he has been slow to undertake further revisions. His critics, however, are equally behind the times, attacking countenance was last sighted in earnest. Contemporary psychoanalysts and psychodynamic therapists no longer write much about ids and egos, nor do they conceive of treatment for psychological disorders as an archaeological expedition in search of lost memories ( Aron, 1996 ;Gabbard, 1994 ;Horowitz, 1988 ;Kolb, Cooper, & Fishman, 1995 ;Mitchell, 1988 ;Wachtel, 1993 ). People do sometimes describe feelings or behav...

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Section: Defense Against Unpleasant Emotions and Its Physiological Comentioning

confidence: 99%

The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a psychodynamically informed psychological science.

Westen

1998

Psychological Bulletin

342

233

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“…A considerable number of studies (e.g., (Gallacher, Yarnell, Sweetnam, Elwood, & Stansfeld, 1999;Vögele, Jarvis, & Cheeseman, 1997;Vogele & Steptoe, 1992)) also demonstrated that inhibition of anger expression elevated cardiovascular reactions to stress while over anger expression did not. A meta-analysis of 295 relevant effect sizes from studies of suppression obtained from 25,469 participants (Jorgensen, Johnson, Kolodziej, & Schreer, 1996) found that lower affect expression (as well as defensiveness) was associated with higher BP and greater hypertension. …”

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confidence: 99%

Exploring emotion-regulation and autonomic physiology in metastatic breast cancer patients: Repression, suppression, and restraint of hostility

Giese‐Davis

Conrad

Nouriani

et al. 2008

Personality and Individual Differences

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We examined relationships between three emotion-regulation constructs and autonomic physiology in metastatic breast cancer patients (N = 31). Autonomic measures are not often studied in breast cancer patients and may provide evidence of an increase in allostatic load. Patients included participated as part of a larger clinical trial of supportive-expressive group therapy. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were assessed at a semi-annual follow-up. We averaged 3 resting assessments and used measures of Repression, Suppression, Restraint of Hostility, and Body Mass Index as predictors of autonomic response. We found that higher repression was significantly associated with higher diastolic blood pressure, while higher restraint of hostility was significantly associated with higher systolic blood pressure. A repressive emotion regulation style may be a risk factor for higher sympathetic activation possibly increasing allostatic load, while restraint of hostility may be a protective factor for women with metastatic breast cancer.Keywords emotion regulation; emotional expression; autonomic physiology; breast cancer; repression; suppression; hostility Studies have demonstrated that diminished emotional expressiveness is associated with health risks. For example, research has linked repression (low anxiety and high defensiveness) and suppression (deliberate withholding of the expression of negative emotions) with faster cancer progression and shorter survival (Bahnson, 1981;Fox, Harper, Hyner, & Lyle, 1994; GieseDavis & Spiegel, 2003;Greer, 1985;Greer & Morris, 1975;Gross, 1989;Kneier & Temoshok, 1984). In addition, an epidemiological study found that subjects likely to suppress anger were at greater mortality risk from all causes across age, sex, and education groups (Julius, E., Cottington, & Johnson, 1986). In the Julius study, suppressed anger significantly interacted with elevated blood pressure (BP) to predict the highest mortality risk (Julius et al., 1986). Three emotion inhibition processes may be associated with psychological and physiological indices of health in metastatic breast cancer patients: suppression, repression, and restraint of Corresponding Author: Janine Giese-Davis, Ph.D., 401 Quarry Rd., Rm 2318, Stanford, CA 94305-5718. (Phone) 650-498-5160. (Fax) 650-725-3762. jgiese@stanford.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. Repression is a defense mechanism in which a person is unable to remember or be cognitively aware of disturbing wishes, feelings, thoughts, or experiences ((Task Force on DSM-IV, 1994), pp. 756-757). ...

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“…Of these factors, individual differences in the experience and expression of various distressing emotional states-i.e., anger/hostility, depression, anxiety, and cynicism-are routinely discussed and have been found to be associated with numerous adverse health conditions, including coronary heart disease (Kubzansky & Kawachi, 2000;Suls & Bunde, 2005), high blood pressure (Jorgensen, Johnson, Kolodziej, & Schreer, 1996;Patten et al, 2009;Yan et al, 2003), asthma (Huovinen, Kaprio, & Koskenvuo, 2001;Lehrer, Isenberg, & Hochron, 1993;Loerbroks, Apfelbacher, Thayer, Debling, & Sturmer, 2009), stroke (Colantonio, Kasl, & Ostfeld, 1992;Everson, Roberts, Goldberg, & Kaplan, 1998), and diabetes (Anderson, Freedland, Clouse, & Lustman, 2001;Lustman, Frank, & McGill, 1991). However, the role and importance of positive emotions in health is less clear, although emerging evidence suggests that these emotions may serve as a protective factor against illnesses and mortality (Fredrickson, 1998;Pressman & Cohen, 2005;Richman et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations Between Positive and Negative Affect and 12-Month Physical Disorders in a National Sample

Weiser

2012

J Clin Psychol Med Settings

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Associations between positive and negative affect and a range of 12-month physical disorders were investigated in the Midlife Development in the United States Survey, a nationally representative sample of 3,032 adults ages 25-74. These associations were examined, controlling for relevant sociodemographic and psychiatric covariates. High positive affect was associated with decreased risk of physical disorders, whereas high negative affect was associated with increased risk. However, associations between positive affect and physical disorders were partially attenuated following adjustment for concurrent negative affect. Additionally, high affect balance was associated with decreased risk of physical disorders before and after adjustments. These findings underscore the relevance of affective disposition in health status, suggesting that both positive and negative affect may serve as viable health risk parameters.

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Elevated blood pressure and personality: A meta-analytic review.

Cited by 230 publications

References 191 publications

The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a psychodynamically informed psychological science.

The scientific legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a psychodynamically informed psychological science.

Exploring emotion-regulation and autonomic physiology in metastatic breast cancer patients: Repression, suppression, and restraint of hostility

Associations Between Positive and Negative Affect and 12-Month Physical Disorders in a National Sample

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