title: Effort analysis of gender differences in cardiovascular response: Further evidence involving a traditionally feminine incentive.
abstract: Participants were presented a moderately- or impossibly difficult cumulative mental addition task with instructions that they could win a traditionally feminine- or masculine incentive if they achieved a 90% success rate. When the incentive was feminine, systolic blood pressure responses during the task period were stronger under moderately difficult conditions among women, but low irrespective of difficulty among men - creating a gender difference only when difficulty was moderate. By contrast, when the incentive was masculine, systolic-, mean arterial- and, to a lesser degree, diastolic blood pressure responses during the task period were stronger under moderately difficult conditions irrespective of gender. The former finding confirmed expectations and adds substantively to the body of evidence favoring a recent effort analysis of gender influence on CV response to performance challenge. The latter findings conflict with what was first expected, but can be understood in terms of post hoc reasoning extended in light of participants' ratings of the masculine incentive.
authors.affiliation: Orlando VA Medical Center, USA. Electronic address: patabarr19@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barreto
authors.affiliation: University of North Texas, USA. Electronic address: Rex.Wright@unt.edu.
authors.forename: Rex A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.
authors.forename: Kimberlee
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krubinski
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.
authors.forename: Hylton
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Molzof
authors.affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA.
authors.forename: Jinwoo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hur
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D003971:Diastole / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D057227:Femininity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology*; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013599:Systole / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Active coping; Cardiovascular response; Effort; Gender; Incentive value