Anxiety and worry have been related to exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity and delayed recovery to laboratory stressors, and to increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This study examined cardiovascular responses in high and low worriers to a range of laboratory tasks. The aim of this study was to determine if there is a task-specific relationship between worry and aberrant cardiovascular responding. Forty-one undergraduate women were recruited online to form low and high worry groups by use of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Four common laboratory tasks and two conditions designed to elicit worry and relaxation were used: hand cold pressor, mental arithmetic, orthostatic position, supine position, worry imagery, and relaxation imagery. Heart rate, heart rate variability, impedance cardiography, and blood pressure indices were collected to assess task reactivity and recovery, particularly in relation to autonomic nervous system activity. The high worry group had significantly higher heart rates throughout the study. The low worry group presented increased cardiovascular recovery to various tasks. The high worry group during task and post-task periods also increased parasympathetic withdrawal and sympathetic activation. The results of the study suggest that high worriers have decreased vagal control of the heart. The implications of this study suggest a potential link between the post-task period in high worriers and cardiovascular disease. Further research is recommended. / Master of Science

Recently, health researchers have become interested in "eco-friendly" or "green" healthcare. One of the current trends in the green healthcare movement involves incorporating natural elements into health care settings to promote the health of patients and healthcare workers. Research based on Restorative Environments Theory (RET) provides insight into the rationale behind incorporating nature into the healthcare setting. RET posits that pleasant natural environments help promote stress recovery by increasing positive affect, decreasing negative affect, and reducing physiological arousal. However, the components of this theory have not been sufficiently tested using a controlled laboratory environment. The purpose of the present study was to provide a more rigorous test of RET than what is currently found in the literature by using a controlled laboratory- based design. Undergraduates from the University of South Florida were randomly assigned to view 1) no images, 2) neutral, non-nature images, 3) pleasant, non-nature images, or 4) pleasant, nature images during recovery from an anger recall task. Overall, the results of the present study did not demonstrate support for RET. There were no group differences in recovery time for any of the physiological variables with the exception of TPR. Those in the pleasant, non-nature condition took longest to recover. Further, there were no group differences in affect ratings with the exception of positive affect, which was higher for those in the no-image control condition. From an evidence-based practice framework, this study suggests that additional empirical support is needed before RET is used as a foundation to justify widespread adoption of nature-based interventions using media presentation to represent the natural environment.

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Anger and hostility have been attributed as early risk factors of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, many inconsistencies exist in the literature linking both of these constructs to CHD, as well as to cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stressors likely to give rise to CHD. A potential moderating influence discussed in the CVR literature concerns the issue of anger provocation, whereas assessment of the ability to evaluate the source of provocation may moderate the recovery process. The current study adopts a multivariate approach to assess the interactive effects of dispositional anger in predicting the CVR and recovery to mental arithmetic (MA) stress with and without harassment in 47 male undergraduate psychology students. Results revealed anger out (AO) to be associated with high vagal and low frequency power suppression in response to the MA task with harassment. Exposure to experimenter evaluation was associated with attenuated diastolic blood pressure recovery and facilitated vagal recovery in high AO subjects, whereas the opposite pattern was apparent for low AO subjects. The general findings suggest that trait anger interacts with situational influences to predict CVR and recovery to stressors. / Ph. D.

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