Cardiovascular Reactivity and Stress

This book is an articulate, concise, contemporary introduction to the study of important variables underlying cardiovascular reactivity. Its strength is in the combination of a scholarly but nonpedantic approach to cardiovascular psychophysiology and a solid understanding of be havioral medicine approaches to the study of hypertension. The topics covered are central to the study of relationships between behavior and cardiovascular reactivity; the list of suggested readings at the end of each chapter provides excellent guidance for more detailed study of specific issues. It has now been more than a dozen years since Plenum Press published Paul Obrist's seminal monograph Cardiovascular Psycho physiology. The volume had a major impact in relating cardiovascular regulation to behaving individuals and in developing thoughtful hy potheses concerning such factors as they might pertain to hypertension. The impact of that work extended across scientific disciplines as well as aross continents. At the time the Obrist book was published, a young psychologist, J. Rick Turner, was completing his Ph. D. thesis in psychol ogy at the University of Birmingham, England, on heart rate reactions to psychological challenge. After continued collaboration for the next several years with his former Ph. D. mentor, Douglas Carroll, Turner joined the Obrist laboratory at the University of North Carolina. Al though Obrist unfortunately died during Turner's tenure in the labora tory, collaboration continued with Kathleen Light and Andrew Sher wood. The enlightened legacy of the North Carolina laboratory can clearly be seen in this text.

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This volume introduces and critically examines the major experiments exploring hypertension, and places them within a behavioral/psychosomatic framework. The balanced treatment and extensive referencing will prove invaluable for students, psychologists and others interested in individual differences, clinicians, and health educators.

Contenu
I: Orientation: Concepts, Systems, and Methods.- 1. Cardiovascular Reactivity and Stress: Introduction and Overview.- 2: The Nervous, Endocrine, and Cardiovascular Systems.- 3. Modeling Stress and Assessing Reactivity in the Laboratory.- 4. Hypertension: The Disease and the Possible Influence of Stress Responses in Its Development.- II. Laboratory Investigation of Cardiovascular Reactivity.- 5. Individual Differences in Cardiovascular Reactivity.- 6. Cardiac-Metabolic Dissociation: Additional Heart Rates during Psychological Stress.- 7. Genetic Determinants of Individual Differences in Cardiovascular Reactivity.- 8. Constitutional, Renal, and Personality Factors as Contributors to Individual Differences in Reactivity.- III. Everyday Reactivity and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease.- 9. Laboratory-Field Generalization of Cardiovascular Activity.- 10. The Risk Identification Protocol.- 11. Other Areas of Cardiovascular Reactivity and Behavioral Medicine Research and Some Final Thoughts.- References.