Dispositional Optimism and Cardiovascular Reactivity Accompanying Anger and Sadness in Young Adults

Abstract

Background Dispositional optimism, a generalized expectation for positive outcomes, appears to promote physical health and well-being, including positive effects on cardiovascular disease outcomes. Mechanisms may involve adaptive responses to psychological stressors that dampen their physiological impact. Purpose This study investigated (i) whether individual differences in optimism are associated with attenuated cardiovascular reactivity (CVR); (ii) whether the CVR moderating effect of optimism differs for two stress emotions, anger and sadness; and (iii) whether separate measures of optimism and pessimism, and the more commonly used measure that combines them, differ in their relationships with CVR. Methods The Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) was used to provide an overall dispositional optimism score and subscale scores separately assessing optimism and pessimism. These predictors were examined in relation to cardiovascular responses evoked by a stressful autobiographical recall task. Task instructions were manipulated within subjects to produce anger and sadness. CVR measures were systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) and heart rate (HR). Results Dispositional optimism was inversely associated with SBP and HR (but not DBP) elevations while participants related both anger- and sadness-inducing events. There was some indication that these associations were stronger for sadness than for anger, and that the LOT-R optimism subscale was a better predictor of…