Biomedical subjects

L C Gallo

Publications and source records attributed to L C Gallo.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Cardiovascular and electrodermal responses to support and provocation: interpersonal methods in the study of psychophysiological reactivity.

This study examined the joint and independent effects of experimentally manipulated social contexts and individual differences in hostility and perceived social support on physiological responses to a social stressor, while illustrating the use of the interpersonal circumplex for integrative social psychophysiological research. Undergraduate women completed a speech task in a supportive, neutral, or provoking context and completed measures of hostility and perceived social support. The provoking context evoked the largest blood pressure and heart rate (HR) responses, followed by the neutral and the supportive context. Social context also influenced HR and electrodermal reactivity during task preparation. Hostility elicited higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity during preparation, speech, and recovery. Perceived social support interacted with context to affect SBP and HR during speech and preparation. The roles of interpersonal characteristics and contexts in the physiological stress response and the utility of interpersonal methods in studying these associations are discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Do negative emotions mediate the association between socioeconomic status and health?

In this chapter, we examine the possibility that negative emotions contribute to the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and health. A model of the associations among SES, emotion, and health is presented first. We then review the evidence for this model, showing associations of SES with depression, hopelessness, anxiety, and hostile affect and cognition, and of these negative emotions with disease. Notably, most of the data supporting the model provide only indirect evidence that negative emotions serve as a key contributor to the proposed associations. We, therefore, conclude with recommendations for longitudinal research, especially in children, that will more directly and comprehensively examine negative emotions as possible mediators of the SES and health relationship.

Affect↗

PubMed1998

Agency, communion, and cardiovascular reactivity during marital interaction.

The concepts of agency and communion have been used to describe sex differences in vulnerability to specific stressor domains. This study examined blood pressure and heart rate responses of 60 married couples to experimental manipulations of disagreement (i.e., communion stressor) and achievement challenge (i.e., agency stressor). Consistent with predictions, disagreement elicited heightened cardiovascular reactivity among wives, but not husbands. In contrast, the achievement challenge elicited heightened cardiovascular reactivity among husbands, but not wives. Participants' responses to a circumplex measure of interpersonal appraisal were consistent with the interpretation of differential responses to agency and communion stressors. Results are congruent with a situational approach to sex differences in cardiovascular reactivity and illustrate the utility of interpersonal methods in the explication of psychosocial risk for cardiovascular disease.

Adult↗

PubMed1998

Construct validation of health-relevant personality traits: interpersonal circumplex and five-factor model analyses of the Aggression Questionnaire.

The general literature on personality traits as risk factors for physical illness--as well as the specific literature on health consequences of anger, hostility, and aggressive behavior--often suffers from incomplete or inconsistent construct validation of personality measures. This study illustrates the utility of two conceptual tools in this regard--the five-factor model and the interpersonal circumplex. The similarities and differences among anger, hostility, verbal aggressiveness, and physical aggressiveness as measured by the Buss and Perry (1992) Aggression Questionnaire were identified. Results support the interpretation of anger and hostility as primarily reflecting neurotic hostility and antagonistic hostility to a lesser extent. In contrast, verbal and physical aggressiveness can he seen as primarily reflecting antagonistic hostility, and to a lesser extent neurotic hostility. Further, verbal aggressiveness was associated with hostile dominance, whereas hostility was associated with hostile submissiveness. These findings identify potentially important distinctions among these related constructs and illustrate the potential integrative value of standard validation procedures.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1996

Interpersonal control and cardiovascular reactivity: goals, behavioral expression, and the moderating effects of sex.

Cardiovascular responses to stressful stimuli have been implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease. However, the effects of social stressors on short-term changes in blood pressure and heart rate (i.e., cardiovascular reactivity [CVR]) are not well understood. The independent effects of an incentive to exert interpersonal influence and the expression of socially controlling behavior on CVR were examined in 96 undergraduates. For men, both the incentive to exert influence and the enactment of a controlling interpersonal style produced larger increases in systolic blood pressure. By contrast, although the incentive to be influential increased women's CVR, the enactment of a cooperative role produced the largest increases in blood pressure among women. The effects of social dominance on CVR, sex differences in CVR, and interpersonal approaches to the study of these psychophysiological mechanisms are discussed.

Blood Pressure↗

PubMed1993

The circadian rhythm of temperature during light treatment for winter depression.

Circadian rhythm abnormalities have been implicated in winter seasonal affective disorder. We examined the circadian temperature rhythm of 22 patients with winter depression and 10 normal controls who had participated in various high-intensity light treatment experiments. We did not find abnormalities in the baseline phase or amplitude of the temperature rhythm in patients compared to controls. Nor did we find abnormalities in the phase-shifting response to morning light. There was some evidence that the "phase-delayed" half of the patients responded poorly to phase advances produced by morning light, whereas the "phase-advanced" half of the patients responded poorly when their rhythms delayed. However, the antidepressant responses during the best week (week of lowest depression score) were unrelated to temperature rhythm phase shifts. In general, there was not strong support for a relationship between circadian rhythms changes and antidepressant response.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Circadian rhythms during gradually delaying and advancing sleep and light schedules.

The circadian rhythms of the night shift worker show very little phase shift in response to the daytime sleep and night work schedule. One strategy for producing circadian adaptation may be to use appropriately timed exposure to high-intensity light. We attempted to shift the circadian temperature rhythms of seven normal subjects while they followed a sleep schedule that gradually delayed (2 h per day) until sleep occurred during the daytime, as is customary for workers during the night shift. After 5 days, the sleep schedule was gradually advanced back to baseline. High illuminance light (2 h per day) and the attenuation or avoidance of sunlight were timed to facilitate temperature rhythm phase shifts. In general, the temperature rhythm did not shift along with the sleep-wake schedule, but appeared either to free run or remain entrained to the natural 24-h zeitgebers. This study showed how difficult it can be to shift human circadian rhythms in the field, when subjects are exposed to competing 24-hr zeitgebers.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hostility and cardiovascular reactivity during marital interaction.

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.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Educational attainment and coronary and aortic calcification in postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVE: Low socioeconomic status is a risk factor for clinical coronary heart disease, a relatively crude outcome associated with important biases. By avoiding these biases, subclinical assessments could facilitate efforts to understand the association between socioeconomic status and coronary disease. The current study 1) evaluated the nature of the associations between educational attainment and subclinical atherosclerosis and 2) examined if biologic, behavioral, and psychosocial factors mediated these associations. METHODS: Participants were 308 women from the Healthy Women Study who underwent a clinic examination of risk factors either 5 (N = 32) or 8 (N = 276) years after the menopausal transition. Aortic and coronary calcification were measured using electron beam tomography. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis with orthogonal polynomials revealed a marginally significant linear trend for coronary calcification, with the more educated groups showing lower calcification than the less educated groups. A significant linear trend was also observed for aortic calcification. In addition, a marginally significant quadratic trend was observed for aortic calcification so that the effect began to reverse at the highest level of education. Measured risk factors were associated with education and with the calcification outcomes, but they explained little of the associations between educational attainment and coronary or aortic calcification. None of the factors tested met the minimum criterion for mediation. CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that lower education is associated with greater early stage atherosclerosis. Subclinical assessments, such as electron beam tomography, represent useful alternatives for studies of socioeconomic status and coronary artery disease.

Aorta↗