We examined the effect of daily stress, age, and emotional stability/neuroticism on stress reactivity, using cortisol diurnal rhythms. We used data from the Normative Aging Study (Spiro & Bosse, 2001). The 72 men in this study ranged from 67-93 (M =79.29, SD =4.88). Multilevel modeling showed that higher daily stress predicted flatter cortisol diurnal rhythms, B = .09, p < .001, as did age, B = .01, p < .001, while those higher in neuroticism on the emotional stability/neuroticism measure showed steeper slopes for cortisol diurnal rhythms, B = -.04, p < .001. These results indicate that age and emotional stability/neuroticism levels explain some of the variance in individual differences in stress reactivity and provide a basis for future research focused on the effects of psychosocial variables on physiological outcomes. / Graduation date: 2013
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37888 |
| Date | 31 January 2013 |
| Creators | Proulx, Jeffrey A. |
| Contributors | Aldwin, Carolyn M. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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