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Gepubliceerd in:

01-08-2010

The influence of forgiveness and apology on cardiovascular reactivity and recovery in response to mental stress

Auteurs: Matthew C. Whited, Amanda L. Wheat, Kevin T. Larkin

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Behavioral Medicine | Uitgave 4/2010

Abstract

To investigate the relation between forgiveness and apology as they relate to cardiovascular reactivity and recovery, 29 men and 50 women were exposed to an interpersonal transgression (i.e., verbal harassment) while performing a serial subtraction task. Participants were categorized into high and low forgiveness groups based on scores on the forgiving personality scale. Following the task, approximately half of the participants received an apology from the experimenter for his/her comments during the task. Although no group differences in cardiovascular reactivity were observed during the serial subtraction task, persons high in forgiveness displayed more rapid diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure recovery than persons low in forgiveness. In response to the apology, participants displayed greater high frequency heart rate variability recovery compared to those who did not receive an apology. A significant apology × sex interaction was observed for diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial blood pressure. Women who received an apology exhibited faster recovery from the transgression than women who did not receive an apology. In contrast, men who received an apology exhibited delayed recovery from the transgression compared to men who did not receive an apology. These results indicate that there are potentially healthful benefits to forgiveness and apology, but the relation is influenced by situation and by sex.

vorige artikel Blood pressure reactivity predicts somatic reactivity to stress in daily life

volgende artikel Early behavioral adherence predicts short and long-term weight loss in the POUNDS LOST study

To determine whether the findings on forgiveness could be attributed to the often reported inverse relation between forgiveness and hostility, analyses for each cardiovascular parameter were repeated replacing forgiveness level with hostility level as measured by a median split on the cook medley hostility questionnaire from the screening packet. No main effects for hostility level were significant, nor were any interaction effects during any period of the experimental session (all Ps > .05). Most notably, diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial blood pressure recovery did not differ between high and low hostility groups.

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Titel: The influence of forgiveness and apology on cardiovascular reactivity and recovery in response to mental stress
Auteurs: Matthew C. Whited
Amanda L. Wheat
Kevin T. Larkin
Publicatiedatum: 01-08-2010
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Behavioral Medicine / Uitgave 4/2010
Print ISSN: 0160-7715
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3521
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-010-9259-7

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