01798nas a2200205   4500000000100000008004100001260007600042653002400118653003000142653001100172100002100183700001700204700001900221245008900240300001200329490000600341520121700347022001401564020001401578       2002                            d  c07/2002bSociedad Española para el Estudio de la Ansiedad y el Estrés10aDefensive Hostility10aCardiovascular Reactivity10aStress1 aFrancesc Palmero1 aAlicia Breva1 aÓscar Landeta00aDefensive hostility and cardiovascular reactivity in a real-life stressful situation  a115-1420 v83 aCardiovascular reactivity is considered as a risk factor in the aetiology of cardiovascular diseases. Previous research has showed a relationship between psychological factors, such as hostility, and an excessive cardiac reactivity. However, recent research has showed inconsistent results, suggesting a multidimensional nature of Hostility as a possible explanatory cause of this lack of consistence. As a consequence, a new dimension of hostility, defensive hostility, has been proposed in order to explain the relationship between hostility and psychophysiological response. In this study, we examined the combined effects of hostility and defensiveness in order to predict cardiovascular reactivity. Undergraduate students had to cope with a real stressing event while heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure were recorded. Participants fulfilled different psychological test (Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory and Marlowe-Crown Social Desirability Questionnaire). Results showed that high hostility and high social desirability people present a higher cardiovascular reactivity. These results are interpreted as suggesting a higher accuracy of defensive hostility to predict cardiovascular activity.  a1134-7937  a2174-0437