title: Type D personality and cardiovascular reactivity to an ecologically valid multitasking stressor.
abstract: Previous research investigating the influence of Type D personality on cardiovascular reactivity to stress in healthy young adults is somewhat mixed. The present study sought to investigate this question using an ecologically valid laboratory stressor. Beat-to-beat blood pressure and heart rate were measured in 77 healthy young adults during exposure to multitasking stress. Mood and background stress were both associated with Type D personality when Type D was conceptualised as a dimensional construct, with less robust findings observed using the traditional dichotomous typological approach. However, the continuous Type D construct added limited predictive value of the self-report measures above that of its constituent components, negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI). Further, an inverse relationship between the continuous Type D construct and blood pressure reactivity to multitasking stress was observed. In summary, our findings suggest that Type D personality is predictive of blunted cardiovascular reactivity to stress in healthy individuals when Type D is considered as a dimensional construct and the independent influence of NA and SI is controlled for. Further, our findings suggest that Type D does not predict additional variance in mood and background stress above that of NA and SI when these constituent factors are considered independently.
authors.affiliation: a Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Department of Psychology, Health in Action: Stress Research Group , Northumbria University , Newcastle upon Tyne , UK.
authors.forename: Denise H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kelly-Hughes
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Wetherell
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D064415:Type D Personality; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Type D; blood pressure; heart rate; mood; personality; stress