Rex A. Wright

Effort determination of cardiovascular response: An integrative analysis with applications in social psychology

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the broader social psychological research community, the integrative cardiovascular (CV) response analysis and the body of evidence supporting it. The chapter also presents updates about previous reviews of evidence relevant to the integrative view; considers the motivational process in circumstances, involving challenges that are characterized as unfixed; and contrasts the integrative CV response perspective with some popular alternative CV response views. Furthermore, the chapter focuses on certain unresolved issues, analyzes the CV influence of specific social variables in the integrative terms, and identifies some social psychological studies that can be benefited by including CV measures in their research protocols. Over the years, the two themes that have been dominant concerning the psychological determination of CV response include firstly, where behavioral contingencies are positive, CV responsivity is proportional to the perceived value of incentives driving behavior; and secondly where at least some behavioral contingencies are negative; CV responsivity is proportional to subjective threat.

Perceived difficulty, energization, and the magnitude of goal valence ☆

Abstract This paper examines the proposition that the mobilization of energy and consequent magnitude of valence of a potential outcome (e.g., goal) is a function of what the individual perceives can and must be done in order to attain or avoid the outcome. An outcome that is difficult to attain or avoid requires a relatively high level of energization and will be relatively attractive, if positive, or unpleasant, if negative. Outcomes that are easy or impossible to attain or avoid require little or no energization and will be relatively low in attractiveness, if positive, or low in unpleasantness, if negative. This formulation was supported by four experiments that demonstrated (a) attractiveness of a goal is a nonmonotonic function of perceived difficulty of attaining it; (b) unpleasantness of a potential negative outcome is a nonmonotonic function of perceived difficulty of avoiding it; (c) the nonmonotonic effect of perceived difficulty on goal attractiveness disappears once instrumental behavior has been completed; and (d) the nonmonotonic effect of perceived difficulty on unpleasantness of a potential negative outcome occurs in immediate but not distant anticipation of initiating instrumental behavior. Alternative explanations, theoretical problems, and implications are discussed.

Task difficulty, cardiovascular response, and the magnitude of goal valence.

Sixty-four young women expected to perform an easy, moderately difficult, or extremely difficult memory task with the opportunity to earn a small incentive for good performance. Cardiovascular (heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure) and subjective measures were taken immediately prior to task performance. Both systolic blood pressure (SBP) responses and ratings of goal attractiveness were nonmonotonically related to expected task difficulty, with the most pronounced SBP elevations and highest goal attractiveness in the moderately difficult task condition. Product-moment correlations among cardiovascular response measures revealed a strong positive association between systolic and diastolic pressure (but not heart rate) change in the easy condition, positive relationships among all measures in the moderately difficult condition, and no significant correlations in the extremely difficult condition. Subjective measures of arousal were not affected by the task difficulty manipulation. Principal findings are discussed in terms of a theoretical model proposed by Brehm (1979) that states that motivation varies as a nonmonotonic function of the difficulty of goal attainment. Intercorrelations among cardiovascular response variables are considered in terms of their possible indication of the mechanisms underlying blood pressure changes associated with variations in motivation.

Energy resource depletion, task difficulty, and cardiovascular response to a mental arithmetic challenge

This study examined further cardiovascular effects of energy resource depletion. Participants performed initially an easy counting task (Task A easy) or a hard counting task (Task A difficult) for 5 min. Shortly thereafter, they were provided the chance to earn a modest incentive by attaining a low performance standard (Task B easy) or a high performance standard (Task B difficult) on a mental arithmetic task. As expected, the Task A difficulty factor combined with the Task B difficulty factor to determine blood pressure responses during the second performance period. Whereas Task A easy participants evinced relatively stronger responses when Task B was difficult than when Task B was easy, Task A difficult participants evinced relatively stronger responses when Task B was easy than when Task B was difficult. These cardiovascular results partially replicate cardiovascular results from a prior depletion study using a cognitive, as opposed to a motor, challenge. They also extend the cardiovascular results from the prior study by demonstrating that the cardiovascular influence of energy depletion depends on the difficulty of the challenge with which people are confronted.

Ability Perception and Cardiovascular Response to Behavioral Challenge

This study examined cardiovascular effects of energy resource depletion. Participants first made a series of easy or difficult grips with their right or left hand. They then made and held a moderately difficult dynamometer grip with their right hand while measures of blood pressure and heart rate were taken. As expected, systolic blood pressure responses during the second task period were greater when the first task was difficult than when it was easy if the first task was performed with the right hand, but not if the first task was performed with the left hand. The data support the view that ability perception and, thus, cardiovascular responsiveness vary with relevant energy stores.

Social evaluation and cardiovascular response: An active coping approach.

Cardiovascular effects of social evaluation were examined under different task conditions. In Experiment 1, systolic responses in women were greater under public than private conditions when a fixed behavioral challenge was difficult, but not when the challenge was easy. In Experiment 2, social evaluation potentiated systolic responsivity in men and women when a behavioral challenge was unfixed, but not when a behavioral challenge was fixed and easy to meet. Results are discussed in terms of a recent integrative analysis of effort and cardiovascular response as well as alternative conceptions that posit, or might be taken to imply, an association between publicity and physiologic activation.

Mental fatigue influence on effort-related cardiovascular response: Extension across the regulatory (inhibitory)/non-regulatory performance dimension ☆

Participants first performed a scanning task that was weak (fatigue low) or strong (fatigue high) in self-regulatory (inhibitory) demand. They then were presented a cognitive challenge that had a strong regulatory component (the Stroop color-word conflict task) or a weak regulatory component (single-digit mental multiplication) with instructions that they would avoid noise if they attained a moderate performance standard. Analysis of cardiovascular data collected during the two work periods revealed fatigue main effects for systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean arterial blood pressure. The effects reflected stronger blood pressure responses for High Fatigue participants across work periods and regardless of the character of the challenge presented in work period 2. Results conceptually replicate previous mental fatigue findings, which have shown extension of fatigue influence across cognitive performance domains. At least as importantly, they also extend those findings by showing extension across a fresh and theoretically significant cognitive performance dimension.

Cardiovascular incentive effects where a challenge is unfixed: demonstrations involving social evaluation, evaluator status, and monetary reward.

Cardiovascular effects of social evaluation, evaluator status, and monetary reward were examined in participants presented with a challenge that allowed them to work as hard as they pleased (unfixed conditions) or called for a low level of effort (fixed conditions). In Experiment 1, evaluation was found to potentiate systolic pressure and heart rate responses insofar as the evaluator had status where the challenge was unfixed, but to have no impact on the responses where the challenge was fixed. In Experiment 2, reward value was found to potentiate the responses where the challenge was unfixed, but not where it was fixed. The main findings confirm and extend results from a previous experiment, and broaden the base of empirical support for the suggestion that active coping will be proportional to success importance where performance is unconstrained.

Cardiovascular Correlates of Challenge and Threat Appraisals: A Critical Examination of the Biopsychosocial Analysis

In this article we examine critically the biopsychosocial (BPS) challenge versus threat analysis proposed by Blascovich and his coworkers. We conclude that the BPS analysis should be viewed with considerable caution. We conclude this in part because the analysis is associated with notable problems, including (a) its conception of demand, (b) its definitions of goal-relevant and evaluative situations, (c) its assertion regarding primary and secondary appraisal determinants of challenge and threat, and (d) its cardiovascular (CV) predictions. We conclude this as well because BPS analysis studies have not made a compelling empirical case. BPS analysis studies are unpersuasive because (a) their CV results are only partially consistent with BPS analysis predictions, (b) they have compared CV responses of groups bearing an uncertain relationship to the primary and secondary appraisal criteria specified for the production of challenge and threat effects, (c) they have not compared challenge and threat appraisals between challenge and threat groups, and (d) they provided data that are incomplete. Theoretical modifications and additional research could make a better case for the BPS view.

How motivation affects cardiovascular response : mechanisms and applications

Cardiovascular (CV) response consists of changes in CV parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure, and heart contraction force in reaction to an event or set of events. It is significant for multiple reasons, perhaps most notably because research suggests that it affects the development and progression of heart disease. Disease models vary, but most assume that characteristically strong and prolonged CV responses confer health risk. Psychologists have long suspected linkages between motivational variables and CV response. However, formal study of the linkages was limited for many years. Motivationally based CV response research now flourishes, with researchers in various disciplines considering the role of relevant variables such as effort, incentives, and goals. This book conveys the amount and diversity of motivationally based CV response research that currently is being conducted. Chapters discuss mechanisms of motivational influence on CV response and apply motivational approaches to studying CV response in different life circumstances. Health implications are considered throughout. The volume will appeal to scholars and practitioners in numerous specialty areas, including motivation, emotion, psychophysiology, medical/health psychology, social/personality psychology and human factors/ergonomics. It will be a vital research source and could serve as a text or supplement in classes that address motivational, psychophysiological and health issues.