Perceived Somatic Reactions to Stress and Hostile Press

Abstract

Hostile Press is a measure of fear of failure. We have evidence that people high on Hostile Press see the world as a hostile, threatening place. Following this idea, we felt that persons high on Hostile Press should show psychophysiological reactions to their feelings about the world. 200 male students were given the Hostile Press measure of fear of failure and a "Reactions to Stress Questionnaire." The prediction was that there would be a positive correlation between the rwo measures. In general, the prediction was confirmed.According to the evolutionary model of psychosomatic disorder, inadequate discharge of energy resulting from a heightened state of arousal is presumed to be a causative factor in psychophysiologic diseases. Specifically, the bodily changes in response to stressful situations and perceived threat produce an organism that is biochemically mobilized to engage in "flight" or "fight" but (due to cultural/cognitive inhibitions) elects to "cope." Organic pathology then results from the paradoxically maladaptive effects of the physiological reactions to the stress. One hypothesis derived from this position would be that the incidence of psychosomatic disorder would be higher in individuals who generally view the world as a threatening, hostile place, than in matched individuals who hoId a more positive world view. T o test this hypothesis a measure which reliably distinguishes two such populations would be needed.One method of demonstrated validity and reliability for scoring stories written to modified TAT pictures on the basis of the degree of hostile and threatening imagery is Birney, Burdick, and Teevan's (1969) Hostile Press scoring system for fear of failure. The protocol of the person high in hostile press is typically one with "stories of threat rather than need, and . . . the thteats ate expressed as retaliation or catastrophe" (Birney, Burdick, & Teevan, 1969, p. 77). Prior research by Cohen and Teevan (1975 ) supported the hypothesis that such individuals do tend to have a generally more negative philosophy of human nature than individuals low in hostile press as measured by Wrightsman's (1964) scale. From an evolutionary perspective of psychosomatic disease, it then seems plausible to suspect that such a hostile and threatening world view would take a psychophysiological toll on the high scoring person. If this were true, greater self-report of psychosomatic disturbance by individuals high in hostile press would be expected. METHODEatly in the semester approximately 200 students enrolled in introductory psychology wrote stories to four modified TAT pictures projected on a screen.