| Summary: | Social support has been associated with reduced mortality and morbidity from a
number of causes. To assess possible mechanisms of action relating to cardiovascular
(CV) responsiveness, 90 male and female university students delivered a five-minute
speech on a controversial topic to a same-sex laboratory confederate. Subjects were
randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which the confederate either (a) agreed
with the subject, (b) remained impassive (neutral), or (c) disagreed with the subject. Blood
pressure (SBP and DBP) and heart rate (HR.) were monitored throughout the experiment.
Self-report measures of state self-esteem and affective state were taken pre- and post-task,
and reactions to the task were assessed with post-task self-report measures.
Subjects reported strong differences in supportiveness of the confederate in the three
conditions. Self-report data indicated increase in arousal during the speech (a finding
synchronous with CV data), and they reported the Disagree condition to be less pleasant
than the Agree condition. CV data were analyzed as a 2 x 3 (sex by experimental
condition) repeated measures ANOVA assessing changes from baseline to speech task.
Sex differences on CV measures matched patterns generally reported: Men had higher
SBP and lower HR than women. All CV measures increased significantly and substantially
during the speech task. HR was higher in the Disagree and Neutral conditions than in the
Agree condition. SBP and DBP did not differ by condition. There were no sex by
condition interactions; however, there was a trend towards men’s HR increasing more in
the neutral condition and women’ more in the disagree condition. These data partially support earlier findings in similar experiments while suggesting
that subtleties of context, task selection, and content of supportive interaction may have
significant impact on the degree to which social support attenuates CV response to social
stressors. Unanswered questions for future research are delineated, and implications for
designing and implementing interventions that enhance social support are discussed. === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate
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