Cynical hostility, anger, and resting blood pressure

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cardiovascular Health
• Behavioral Medicine

Background:

• Research on anger, hostility, and blood pressure (BP) often overlooks their interconnectedness.
• Understanding these relationships is crucial for cardiovascular health.
• Previous studies have not fully explored the combined effects of different anger expressions and hostility on BP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the individual and combined effects of cynical hostility, anger suppression (anger-in), anger expression (anger-out), and anger frequency on resting blood pressure.
• To examine sex-specific differences in the associations between anger, hostility, and BP.
• To control for established physical covariates in the analysis.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and Spielberger anger scales.
• Conducted multiple regression analyses on data from a community sample of 105 men and women.
• Examined main and interactive effects of anger and hostility on systolic and diastolic BP.

Main Results:

• Diastolic blood pressure showed an inverse relationship with anger-in scores in both men and women.
• Systolic and diastolic BP were positively associated with hostility scores exclusively in women.
• No confounding or interactive effects between hostility and anger on BP were observed.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest a sex-specific association between cynical hostility and blood pressure in women.
• This link may stem from a mismatch between the social cognitions of cynically hostile women and societal norms.
• Anger suppression (anger-in) appears to be inversely related to blood pressure across sexes.