Analyses of questionnaire responses from 166 young women on the Cook-Medley Hostility scale of the MMPI, Beck Depression Inventory, and Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory indicated significant differences between hostile and nonhostile women on depression scores, ranging from mild mood disturbance to borderline clinical depression. Hostile women also endorsed more items which indicated pervasive somatic complaints such as nausea, fatigue, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and cardiovascular distress. These results are discussed in the context of negative emotion and degenerative disease.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AnesheuselC.FrerichicsR.HubaG. (1984) Depression and physical illness: Multiwave, nonrecursive causal model. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 25, 350–371.
2.
BarefootJ. C.DahlstromW. G.WilliamsR. B. (1983) Hostility, CHD incidence, and total mortality: 25-year follow-up study of 255 physicians. Psychosomatic Medicine, 45, 59–63.
3.
BarefootJ. C.DodgeK. A.PetersonB. L.DahlstromW. G.WilliamsR. B. (1989) The Cook-Medley Hostility Scale: Item content and ability to predict survival. Psychosomatic Medicine, 51, 46–57.
4.
BeckA. T. (1967) Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row.
5.
BlumenthalJ. A.BarefootJ.BurgM. M.WilliamsR. B. (1987) Psychological correlates of hostility among patients undergoing coronary angiography. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 60, 349–355.
6.
Booth-KewleyS.FriedmanH. S. (1987) Psychological predictors of heart disease: Quantitative review. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 343–362.
7.
CookW. W.MedleyD. M. (1953) Proposed hostility and pharisiac virtue scales for the MMPI. Journal of Applied Psychology, 38, 414–418.
8.
GreenglassE. R.JulkunenJ. (1989) Construct validity and sex differences in Cook-Medley hostility. Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 209–218.
9.
KaplanG. A.ComachoT. (1983) Perceived health and mortality: Nine-year follow-up of the human population laboratory cohort. American Journal of Epidemiology, 117, 292–304.
10.
KaplanG. A.ReynoldsP. (1988) Depression and cancer mortality and morbidity: Prospective evidence from the Alameda county study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 11, 1–13.
11.
KatholR. G.PettyF. (1981) Relationship of depression to medical illness: Critical review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 3, 111–121.
12.
McCranieE. W.WatkinsL. O.BrandsmaJ. M.SissonB. D. (1986) Hostility, coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence, and total mortality: Lack of association in a 25-year follow-up study of 478 physicians. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 9, 119–125.
13.
SchukitM. A. (1982) Prevalence of affective disorders in a sample of young men. American Journal of Psychiatry, 139, 1040–1045.
14.
ShekelleR. B.GaleM.OstfeldA. M.PaulO. (1983) Hostility risk of coronary heart disease and mortality. Psychosomatic Medicine, 45, 109–114.
15.
ShekelleR. B.RaynorW. J.OstfeldA. M. (1981) Psychological depression and 17-year risk of death of cancer. Psychosomatic Medicine, 43, 117–125.
16.
SmithT. W.FrohmK. D. (1985) What's so unhealthy about hostility? Construct validity and psychosocial correlates of the Cook-Medley Ho scale. Health Psychology, 4, 503–520.
17.
SmithT. W.PopeM. K.SandersJ. D.AllredK. D.O'KeefeJ. L. (1988) Cynical hostility at home and work: Psychosocial vulnerability across domains. Journal of Researcher Personality, 22, 525–548.
18.
WahlerH. J. (1973) Wahler Physical Symptoms Inventory. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.
19.
WilliamsR. B. (1983) Behavioral correlates of angiographic findings. In DembroskiT. M.SchmidtT. H.BlumchenG. (Eds.), Biobehavioral bases of coronary heart disease. New York: Karger. Pp. 39–53.
20.
WilliamsR. B.BarefootJ. C. (1988) Coronary-prone behavior: The emerging role of the hostility complex. In HoustonB. K.SnyderC. R. (Eds.), Type A behavior pattern: Research, theory, and intervention. New York: Wiley. Pp. 189–211.
21.
WilliamsR. B.HaneyT. L.LeeK. L.KongY.BlumenthalJ. A.WhalerR. E. (1980) Type A behavior, hostility, and coronary atherosclerosis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 42, 539–547.
22.
ZeichnerA.AllenJ. D.PetrieC.RasmussenP. R.LatingJ. (1989) Hostility and alcohol: Effects of information processing and cardiovascular reactivity in the Type A pattern. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, CA.
