Neuropsychological and psychophysiological correlates of anger expression styles

Abstract

The proposed research will investigate the effects of self-reported anger expression style on cerebrally lateralized physiological responses to a neuropsychological stressor and a painful stimulus. Specifically, this research examined changes in systole and grip strength in response to a verbal fluency task, a figural fluency task and exposure to a cold pressor. Significant group by trial interaction effects were found for mean number of perseverative errors on neuropsychological measures (F(1,54) = 10.89, p < 0.05), systolic blood pressure following administration of a verbal fluency measure(F(1,54) = 5.86, p < 0.05), and non-verbal fluency measure (F(1,54) = 13.68, p<.001), heart rate following administration of verbal (F(1,54) = 5.86, p < 0.05), and non verbal fluency measures (F(1,54) = 13.68, p<.001), and grip strength following exposure to the cold pressor (F(1,54) = 13.69, p < 0.001). Results are discussed in terms of functional cerebral systems and potential implications for physiological models of anger.