Mental Activation of Supportive Ties, Hostility, and Cardiovascular Reactivity to Laboratory Stress in Young Men and Women.

Smith, Timothy W.; Ruiz, John; Uchino, Bert N.

doi:10.1037/0278-6133.23.5.476

Cited by 97 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(90 reference statements)

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“…Though not an explicit goal of the current study, it is possible that the current support-giving manipulation, where participants wrote a supportive note to someone in need, may have simply elicited mental representations of others who could provide social support (such as the manipulation used in Smith, Ruiz, & Uchino, 2004, on the effects of receiving support on the stress response). This seems unlikely given that the content of the support letters suggests that participants were really focused on the problem that their friend was going through and on helping them feel better instead of focusing more generally on the supportive qualities of this other person.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Giving support to others reduces sympathetic nervous system‐related responses to stress

Inagaki

Eisenberger

2015

Psychophysiology

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Social support is a major contributor to the link between social ties and beneficial health outcomes. Research to date has focused on how receiving support from others might be good for us; however, we know less about the health effects of giving support to others. Based on prior work in animals showing that stimulating neural circuitry important for caregiving behavior can reduce sympathetic-related responses to stressors, it is possible that, in humans, giving to others can reduce stressor-evoked sympathetic nervous system responding, which has implications for health outcomes. To test the effect of giving support on the physiological stress response, participants either wrote a supportive note to a friend (support-giving condition) or wrote about their route to school/work (control condition) before undergoing a standard laboratory-based stress task. Physiological responses (heart rate, blood pressure, salivary alpha-amylase, salivary cortisol), and self-reported stress were collected throughout the protocol. In line with hypotheses, support giving (vs. control) reduced sympathetic-related responses (systolic blood pressure and alphaamylase) to the stressor. No effects of support giving were found on self-reported psychological stress or cortisol levels. Results add to existing knowledge of the pathways by which support giving may lead to health benefits and highlight the contribution of giving to others in the broader social support-health link.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Giving support to others reduces sympathetic nervous system‐related responses to stress

Inagaki

Eisenberger

2015

Psychophysiology

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“…Women also experience more cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) during conflict discussions and recall, as indexed by increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and HR, than males (e.g., Bloor et al 2004;Smith et al 2004). Similar to the endocrine and immune response correlates, increased CVR in wives during conflict has been shown to be related to the amount of hostile behaviors displayed during the discussion (Ewart et al 1991).…”

Section: Do Women Suffer More From Negative Spousal Interactions?mentioning

confidence: 98%

Toward an Understanding of Gender Differences in the Impact of Marital Conflict on Health

Wanic

Kulik

2011

Sex Roles

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The present paper addresses the consistent finding that men derive more benefit from marriage in terms of both morbidity and mortality compared to women in U. S. society. Based on the evidence that spousal conflict adversely influences physiology and health, with greater negative impact on wives compared to husbands, we propose that the stronger impact of relationship negativity contributes to the decreased marriage benefit for women. Evidence bearing on two explanations for this differential impact of conflict is reviewed. The relationalinterdependence view, proposed by Kiecolt-Glaser and Newton (2001), holds that women are more affected by marital conflict because of their more relationally interdependent self-representations. An alternative view, which we call the subordination-reactivity hypothesis, suggests that women experience greater physiological and psychological reactivity to marital discord because they typically occupy subordinate (lower status and less powerful) positions relative to their husbands. A review of the evidence on the physiological effects of social status is combined with that of the relationship between gender and status, both within society at large and interpersonal relationships specifically, to support the subordination-reactivity hypothesis. Specifically, there is evidence that low social status negatively impacts health and that women generally occupy subordinate status. The relational-interdependence view is re-evaluated and its intersection with the subordination-reactivity hypothesis is explored. Finally, implications and future directions are discussed.

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“…The AQ was chosen because of its psychometric superiority as a measure of hostility compared to other measures such as the BussDurkee Hostility Inventory (BDHI; Buss and Durkee, 1957) and the Cook Medley Hostility Scale (Cook and Medley, 1954). Despite a lack of research examining the AQ as a predictor of CHD, individual differences in AQassessed hostility are associated with expected differences in magnitude and duration of cardiovascular reactivity (Smith and Gallo, 1999;Smith et al, 2004). The AQ Hostility subscale measures hostile cognitions such as mistrust (''I am suspicious of overly friendly strangers'') or perceived slights (''Other people always seem to get the breaks'').…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hostility and sex differences in the magnitude, duration, and determinants of heart rate response to forehead cold pressor: Parasympathetic aspects of risk

Ruiz

Uchino

Smith

2006

International Journal of Psychophysiology

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Mental Activation of Supportive Ties, Hostility, and Cardiovascular Reactivity to Laboratory Stress in Young Men and Women.

Cited by 97 publications

References 65 publications

Giving support to others reduces sympathetic nervous system‐related responses to stress

Giving support to others reduces sympathetic nervous system‐related responses to stress

Toward an Understanding of Gender Differences in the Impact of Marital Conflict on Health

Hostility and sex differences in the magnitude, duration, and determinants of heart rate response to forehead cold pressor: Parasympathetic aspects of risk

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