Resumo

PALMERO, Francesc et al. Hostility, psychophysiology and cardiovascular health. Suma Psicol. [online]. 2007, vol.14, n.1, pp. 23-50. ISSN 0121-4381.

At the present time, the aetiology of the coronary disease continuesbeing something complex and multifactorial, that implies genetic, physiological, chemical, nutritional, environmental and psychosocialaspects. Within the psychosocial aspects, the first scope of study approachedthe Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP), formed by: formal components,motivational emotional, cognitive and open behavioural aspects. At the moment, it is considered that the emotional component of the TABP, particularly the complex anger-hostility, seems the variable most important to detect to the subjects prone to undergo cardiovascular diseases.At this moment the efforts of the investigators were directed in a double objective. On the one hand, to verify the existing relationbetween the hostility and the cardiovascular disease, and, on the other hand, to show to the association between the hostility and thepsychophysiological cardiovascular reactivity. In the plane of the conceptual and theoretical dimension, it is necessary to establish what component of the hostility, or what interaction between hostility and some other variable, has the greater predictive capacity on he risk of cardiovascular disease. In the plane of the psichophysiological dimension, it is necessary to unify the procedures of psychophysiological recording, in the referred to a) the parameters selected for the studies, b) the methodology of measurement, c) the consideration of the duration of the answer, and not only the intensity of the same one.

Palavras-chave : Hostility; Psychophysiological reactivity; Cardiovascular health.