Abstract
Chronically hostile persons may be at greater risk of cardiovascular illness, perhaps because of their more pronounced physiologic responses to interpersonal stressors. The present study of married couples examined the association between Cook and Medley Hostility (Ho) Scale scores and cardiovascular reactivity while couples were engaged in a discussion task with or without an incentive to exert control over their partner. Cynical hostility was associated with greater heart rate (HR) reactivity among husbands in both conditions and with greater systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity among husbands attempting to influence their wives. Further, husbands' cynical hostility was associated with greater SBP reactivity in their wives. Wives' cynical hostility was unrelated to their own or their husbands' reactivity. These results underscore the importance of social contexts in the association between hostility and psychophysiologic processes and suggest that the motive to exert social control may be important for hostile persons.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allred, K. D., and Smith, T. W. (1991). Social cognition in cynical hostility.Cognitive Therapy and Research 15: 399–412.
Averill, J. R. (1982).Anger and Aggression: An Essay on Emotion, Springer-Verlag, New York.
Barefoot, J. C., Dahlstrom, W. G., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1983). Hostility, CHD incidence, and total mortality: A 25-year follow-up of 255 physicians.Psychosom. Med. 45: 59–63.
Barefoot, J. C., Siegler, I. C., Nowlin, J. B., Peterson, B., Haney, T. L., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1987). Suspiciousness, health, and mortality: A follow-up study of 500 older adults.Psychosom. Med. 49: 450–457.
Barefoot, J. C., Dodge, K. A., Peterson, B. L., Dahlstrom, W. G., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1989). The Cook-Medley Hostility Scale: Item content and ability to predict survival.Psychosom. Med. 51: 46–57.
Barefoot, J. C., Peterson, B. L., Dahlstrom, W. G., Siegler, I. C., Anderson, N. B., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1991). Hostility patterns and health implications: Correlates of Cook-Medley scores in a National Survey.Health Psychol. 10: 18–24.
Benjamin, L. (1967). Facts and artifacts in using analysis of covariance to “undo” the law of initial values.Psychophysiology 4: 187–206.
Blumenthal, J. A., Barefoot, J., Burg, M. M., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1987). Psychological correlates of hostility among patients undergoing coronary angiography.Br. J. Med. Psychol. 60: 349–355.
Brown, P. C., and Smith, T. W. (1992). Social influence, marriage, and the heart: Cardiovascular consequences of interpersonal control in husbands and wives Health Psychol (in press).
Cook, W. W., and Medley, D. M. (1954). Proposed hostility and pharisaic-virtue scales for the MMPI.J. Appl. Psychol. 38: 4–418.
Costa, P. T., Jr., Zonderman, A. B., McCrae, R. R., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1986). Cynicism and paranoid alienation in the Cook and Medley Ho Scale.Psychosom. Med. 48: 283–285.
Dembroski, T. M., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1989). Definition and assessment of coronary-prone behavior. In Schneiderman, N., Weiss, S. M., and Kaufman, P. G. (eds.),Handbook of Research Methods in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine, Plenum, New York.
Dembroski, T. M., MacDougall, J. M., Costa, P. T., and Crandits, G. A. (1989). Components of hostility as predictors of sudden death and myocardial infarction in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial.Psychosom. Med. 51: 514–522.
Friedman, H. S., and Booth-Kewley, S. (1987). Personality, Type A behavior, and coronary heart disease: The role of emotional expression.J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 53: 783–792.
Hardy, J. D., and Smith, T. W. (1988). Cynical hostility and vulnerability to disease: Social support, life stress, and physiological response to conflict.Health Psychol. 7: 447–459.
Hearn, M. D., Murray, D. M., and Luepker, R. V. (1989). Hostility, coronary heart disease, and total mortality: A 33-year follow-up study of university students.J. Behav. Med. 12: 105–121.
Hecker, M. H. L., Chesney, M. A., Black, G. W., and Frautschi, N. (1989). Coronary-prone behaviors in the Western Collaborative Group Study.Psychosom. Med. 51: 153–164.
Houston, B. K., and Kelley, K. E. (1989). Hostility in employed women: Relation to work and marital experiences, social support, stress, and anger expression.Personal Soc. Psychol. Bull. 15: 175–182.
Joesoef, M. R., Wetterhall, S. F., DeStefano, F., Stroup, N. E., and Fronek, A. (1989). The association of peripheral arterial disease with hostility in a young, healthy veteran population.Psychosom. Med. 51: 285–289.
Klein, H. M., and Willerman, L. (1979). Psychological masculinity and femininity and typical and maximal dominance expression in women.J. Personal Soc. Psychol. 37: 2059–2070.
Koskenvuo, M., Kapiro, J., Rose, R. J., Kesaniemi, A., Sarna, S., Heikkila, K., and Langinvainio, H. (1988). Hostility as a risk factor for mortality and ischemic heart disease in men.Psychosom. Med. 50: 330–340.
Leon, G. R., Finn, S. E., Murray, D., and Bailey, J. M. (1988). The inability to predict cardiovascular disease from hostility scores or MMPI items related to Type A behavior.J. Consul. Clin. Psychol. 56: 597–600.
Levenson, R. W., and Gottman, J. M. (1983). Marital interaction: Physiological linkage and affective exchange.J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 45: 587–597.
Levenson, R. W., and Gottman, J. M. (1985). Physiological and affective predictors of change in relationship satisfaction.J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 49: 85–94.
Manuck, S. B., Morrison, R. L., Bellack, A. S., and Polefrone, J. M. (1985). Behavioral factors in hypertension: Cardiovascular responsibility, anger, and social competence. In Chesney, M. A., and Rosenman, R. H. (eds.),Anger and Hostility in Cardiovascular and Behavioral Disorders, Hemisphere, New York.
Matthews, K. A. (1988). CHD and Type A behaviors: Update on and alternative to the Booth-Kewley and Friedman quantitative review.Psychol. Bull. 104: 373–380.
McCranie, E. W., Watkin, L. O., Brandsma, J. M., and Sisson, B. D. (1986). Hostility, coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence, and total mortality: Lack of association in a 25-year follow-study of 478 physicians.J. Behav. Med. 9: 119–125.
Ostfield, A. M., Lebovitis, B. Z., Shekelle, R. B., and Paul, O. (1964). A prospective study of the relationship between personality and coronary heart disease.J. Chron. Dis. 17: 266–276.
Pickering, T. G. (1985). Should studies of patients and undergoing coronary angiography be used to evaluate the role of behavioral risk factors for coronary heart disease?J. Behav. Med. 8: 203–213.
Pope, M. K., Smith, T. W., and Rhodewalt, F. (1990). Cognitive, behavioral, and affective correlates of the Cook and Medley Hostility Scale.J. Personal. Assess. 54: 501–514.
Sallis, J. F., Johnson, C. C., Trevorrow, T. R., Kaplan, R. M., and Hovell, M. F. (1987). The relationship between cynical hostility and blood pressure reactivity.J. Psychosom. Res. 31: 111–116.
Seeman, T. W., and Syme, S. L. (1987). Social networks and coronary artery disease: A comparison of the structure and function of social relations as predictors of disease.Psychosom. Med. 49: 3451–354.
Shekelle, R. B., Gale, M., Ostfeld, A. M., and Paul, O. (1983). Hostility, risk of coronary heart disease, and mortality.Psychosom. Med. 45: 109–114.
Siegman, A. W. (1990). Components of hostility and cardiovascular reactivity. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association annual meeting. Boston.
Siegman, A. W., Dembroski, T. M., and Ringel, N. (1987). Components of hostility and the severity of coronary artery disease.Psychosom. Med. 49: 127–135.
Smith, M. A., and Houston, B. K. (1987). Hostility, anger, expression, cardiovascular responsibility, and social support.Biol. Psychol. 24: 39–48.
Smith, T. W., and Allred, K. D. (1989). Blood pressure responses during social interaction in high- and low-cynically hostile males.J. Behav. Med. 12: 135–143.
Smith, T. W., and Frohm, K. D. (1985). What's so unhealthy about hostility? Construct validity and psychosocial correlates of the Cook and Medley Ho scale.Health Psychol. 4: 503–520.
Smith, T. W., and Pope, M. K. (1990). Cynical hostility as a health risk: Current status and future directions.J. Soc. Behav. Personal. 5: 77–88.
Smith, T. W., Pope, M. K., Sanders, J. D., Allred, K. D., and O'Keeffe, J. L. (1988). Cynical hostility at home and work: Psychosocial vulnerability across domains.J. Res. Personal. 22: 525–548.
Smith, T. W., Allred, K. D., Morrison, C. A., and Carlson, S. D. (1989). Cardiovascular reactivity and interpersonal influence: Active coping in a social context.J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 56: 209–218.
Smith, T. W., Sanders, J. D., and Alexander, J. F. (1990a). What does the Cook and Medley Hostility Scale measure? Affect, behavior and attributions in the marital context.J. Personal Soc. Psychol. 58: 699–708.
Smith, T. W., Baldwin, M., and Christensen, A. (1990b). Interpersonal influence as active coping: Effects of task difficulty on cardiovascular reactivity.Psychophysiology 27: 429–437.
Suarez, E. C., and Williams, R. B., Jr. (1989). Situational determinants of cardiovascular and emotional reactivity in high and low hostile men.Psychosom. Med. 51: 404–418.
Suarez, E. C., Williams, R. B., Jr., Harlan, E. S., and Peoples, M. C. (1990). The relation of hostility and harassment to cardiovascular responses in young women. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Medicine, Chicago.
Weidner, G., Friend, R., Ficarrotto, T. J., and Mendell, N. R. (1989). Hostility and cardiovascular reactivity to stress in women and men.Psychosom. Med. 51: 36–45.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smith, T.W., Brown, P.C. Cynical hostility, attempts to exert social control, and cardiovascular reactivity in married couples. J Behav Med 14, 581–592 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00867172
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00867172