Hostility, Anger, Aggressiveness, and Coronary Heart Disease: An Interpersonal Perspective on Personality, Emotion, and Health

Abstract

The related traits of hostility, anger, and aggressiveness have long been suggested as risk factors for coronary heart disease (CHD). Our prior review of this literature (Smith, 1992) found both considerable evidence in support of this hypothesis and important limitations that precluded firm conclusions. In the present review, we discuss recent research on the assessment of these traits, their association with CHD and longevity, and mechanisms possibly underlying the association. In doing so, we illustrate the value of the interpersonal tradition in personality psychology (Sullivan, 1953; Leary, 1957; Carson, 1969; Kiesler, 1996) for not only research on the health consequences of hostility, anger, and aggressiveness, but also for the general study of the effects of emotion, personality and other psychosocial characteristics on physical health.

Personality and Physician-Assessed Illness Burden in Older Primary Care Patients Over 4 Years

“…A small portion of the influence of agreeableness upon rate of health decline was due to cholesterol levels, also consistent with prior reports (52). In particular, antagonism, or the tendency to engage in overt interpersonal conflict (17, 20), drove the overall agreeableness effect, consistent with the pathogenic effects of hostility upon elements of the cardiovascular system (6, 54). Hostile older persons probably also abdicate the health benefits of social support (55).…”

Genetic variation in MAOA modulates ventromedial prefrontal circuitry mediating individual differences in human personality

“…Epidemiological research shows that personality affects stress resilience, psychosocial adaptation and risk for mental and physical disease. [1][2][3][4] Considerable interest has therefore been directed at uncovering the biological basis of personality. Cloninger proposed an influential operationalization of personality, a tripartite model based hypothetically on neurotransmitter neurobiology with three basic stimulus-response characteristics: Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance and Reward Dependence, measured by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) and thought to be related to dopaminergic, serotonergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission, respectively.…”

Cognitive egocentrism differentiates warm and cold people

“…They seek to distance themselves from others, are quarrelsome, less caring, and less cooperative (Moskowitz, 2010; Smith et al, 2004; Wiggins & Broughton, 1991). According to multiple theories, cognitive egocentrism underlies social egocentrism (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985; Galinsky et al, 2005; Piaget, 1932) and we therefore predicted systematic relations between interpersonal coldness and a very basic form of cognitive egocentrism (Wapner & Werner, 1957) that, we think, holds great promise as a probe of it.…”

“…Cognitive egocentrism also involves distortions of external reality in a self-favoring direction (Wapner & Werner, 1957) just as cold individuals seem to possess a deficient understanding of the states of their potential interaction partners (Moeller, Robinson, Wilkowski, & Hanson, 2012). Finally, such a self-centric approach to personal relationships would lead to the sorts of relationship difficulties encountered by cold individuals (Smith et al, 2004) according to prominent theories of relationship functioning (Finkel & Rusbult, 2008). …”

“…For example, cold individuals have internalizing symptoms such as anxiety and depression that cannot be viewed in terms of self-enhancement or related factors such as narcissism (Smith et al, 2010). Additionally, coldness is a predictor of social isolation (Smith, Glazer, Ruiz, & Gallo, 2004) and personality disorders associated with it (such as schizoid personality disorder; Wiggins & Pincus, 1989). Thus, although coldness is predictive of aggression (Bettencourt, Talley, Benjamin, & Campbell, 2006) and psychopathy (Jones & Paulhus, 2011), it is also predictive of avoiding others due to a distrust of them (Wiggins & Broughton, 1991).…”