Physiological stress reactivity has been examined with respect
to cynical hostility and anger expression, but primarily among
Caucasians. Investigations of African Americans are far fewer
and have focused only on the cardiovascular system. This study
compared the relationships between hostility and anger expression
on the one hand, and both cardiovascular and lipid reactivity
on the other, among African Americans and European Americans.
Forty-six men participated in a study examining cardiovascular
and lipid reactivity to a speech stressor. African American
men low in cynical hostility had greater blood pressure reactivity
to the stressor; this effect appeared to be due primarily to
low cynical men with high Anger In. Independent of ethnicity,
those with a general tendency to either always express or always
inhibit the expression of anger had higher triglyceride reactivity,
relative to those with a more flexible style of anger expression.
These results suggest that it is important to examine ethnicity
in relationship to measures of hostility and anger expression,
to uncover vulnerable individuals.