title: Determination of the relationships between psychological stress levels and blood pressure, pulse and respiratory rates, weight and cigarette consumption.
abstract: Stress has often been invoked as the intervening variable between various patterns of environmental and psychological stimulation, and various physiological and non-physiological responses. In an attempt to document this, 71 subjects completed the Staats Stress-Vector Analysis Questionnaire yielding measures on environmental, psychogenic and somatogenic stress dimensions, as well as on an overall net stress measure. These were then correlated against the blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, weight and smoking indices of the respondents, measured under controlled circumstances. No linear correlation was apparent. The respiratory rate tended to be raised in the environmentally and overall stressed individuals as a class, while similar findings relating to weight and pulse rate applied to the psychologically stressed. Reasons are extended for these findings.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Business Administration, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Allman
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zimbler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001835:Body Weight; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011674:Pulse; D012119:Respiration; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*