Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between anger dimensions and cardiovascular reactivity. 202 university students were asked to complete Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BAQ) and 32 of them (13 male and 19 female) were asked to take part in the experiment.
After the rest period, the subjects executed mirror-drawing task two times: they performed the task normally (control condition) and they were harassed during their task performing (interpersonal stress condition).
Factor analysis for BAQ revealed 3 factors: “anger expression”, “anger experience”, and “assertiveness”. Correlation coefficient between 3 factors and cardiovascular changes from control condition to interpersonal stress condition indicated that “anger expression” were related to increasing systolic blood pressure significantly.
These results are in agreement with recent cross-sectional studies in Japan, suggesting that “anger expression” may be related to coronary heart disease. There is a possibility that episodic anger expression with interpersonal conflict can cause coronary heart disease.
