Hostility, anger expression, cardiovascular responsivity, and social support.

Sixty male subjects completed the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Ho), the anger-in, anger-out, and anger-discuss measures of anger expression from the Framingham Heart Study, and a measure of social support. Subjects also performed two challenging tasks while systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and pulse rate (PR) were monitored. Neither SBP, DBP, nor PR responses to the tasks were found to be related to the Ho or anger expression scales. Quality of social support was not found to be related to the Ho scale but was related negatively to the anger-discuss scale. The more subjects reported discussing their anger with others, the less social support they reported having. A negative correlation was found between the Ho and anger-out scales. The possibility is discussed that the relation between either of these two measures and coronary heart disease may be mediated or moderated by the other variable.