The present study reviewed a variety of scientific evidence supporting the psychophysiological hypothesis that psychosocial stress plays an important role in the onset and the progress of coronary artery disease (CAD). For example, according to animal model with monkeys, psychosocial stress leads to twofold incidence of CAD. In epidemiological studies with human subjects, psychosocial stresses such as social isolation, low social support, Type A behavioral pattern, and hostility facilitate the onset of CAD. In addition, an attempt was also made to review articles regarding a variety of psychological interventions for the prevention of CAD and the reduction of recurrency. Particularly, special attention was paid to studies on the modification of TABP, the reduction of hostility, and the applications of stress management programs purporting for relaxation response in the prevention of CAD and the reduction of recurrency.
The present study was part of a series of attempts to adapt the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory in Korea (STAXI-K). Particularly, the fifth stage of the STAXI-K was conducted and reported in the present study. Participants were 1200 college students representative of major areas in Korea. Major findings in the present study include: (1) Factor analyses revealed the same factor structures to the original English STAXI (Spielberger, 1988). These findings were obtained, however, only after four indigenous items were substituted for problematic items in the STAXI; (2) Reliability check revealed Cronbach alpha higher than .70. One exception, however, was found for the anger-in scale for the female sample (.62). (3) When test-retest reliabilities for a three week period were calculated, all scales were satisfactory, trait anger (r=.81), anger-in (r=.67), anger-out (r=.71), and anger- control (r=.82), except state anger (r=.14). The low test-retest reliability for state anger, however, was consistent with the concept that state anger would be unstable in contrast to an stability of the trait anger. (4) When correlations were calculated among scales of the STAXI, there was some degree of association between anger-in and anger-out (.24), implying that these two scales may not be orthogonal. Finally, implications of the present findings for future studies are suggested.
The present study was designed to resolve the inconsistent findings on the role of anger expression (anger-in vs. anger-out) on cardiovascular diseases in general and coronary heart disease (CHD) in particular. In order to do this, the present study explored the role of the standard of anger expression (intrapersonal factor> and marital satisfaction (interpersonal factor) beyond the mode of anger expression to CHD. The participants were 124 CHD patients and their spouses. They responded with the Korean adaptation of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Chon, Hahn, & Lee, in press), the standard of anger expression questionnaire, and the marital satisfaction scale (Lee, 1998). In a logistic regression analysis, including the mode of anger expression as predictor variable and the presence of CHD as a criterion variable, anger-out was shown to be the significant predictor on CHD. However, this pattern was changed in further analyses in consideration with either standard of anger expression or marital satisfaction. When analyzed with the standard of anger expression (high vs. low group based on median split), anger-out appeared to be a significant predictor on CHD; however, these effects revealed only when the mode of anger expression was mismatched with the standard of anger expression. In a similar fashion, the mode of anger expression doesn't matter in the higher group in marital satisfaction, while it was the case in the lower group in marital satisfaction. The present findings suggest the dire need to include important intrapersonal and/or interpersonal moderators or mediators in the relation between anger and CHD in future studies.
The effects of stress and psychosocial factors on immunity and viral infection were reviewed in this study. There were lots of empirical evidences that psychological stress affects immune system through CNS and endocrine pathway, and altered immune function tends to increase disease susceptibility. However, Stress-immunity-infectious disease pathway is too complicated to describe in a simple way. The duration and nature of stress(whether it is acute or chronic, negative or positive, passive or active) has different effect on immunity. And, effects of other variables such as personality, coping strategies, and social supports should be considered as important intervening variables in that pathway. Their role should be clarified systematically in the future study. Scientific evaluation of the various stress interventions was suggested as a valuable source from which we can get more scientific evidence about Scientific evaluation of the various stress interventions was suggested as a valuable source from which we can get more scientific evidence about stress-immunity-disease pathway.
This study examines factors influencing stress and life-satisfaction level of urban and rural students. A total of 5,504 grade eight and nine students living in five provinces completed a questionnaire that assessed their psychological functioning, and the of influence family, school, friends, and Korean society have on their mental health. To assess adolescents' psychological functioning, the following aspects were assessed: self-efficacy, attributional style, achievement motivation, academic aspiration, academic grade, extra-curricular activities, problem behavior, and delinquent behavior. To assess the role of family, parental socio-economic status, academic pressure, and social support received from parents were measured. To assess the role of the school environment, school ethos and social support received from teachers were measured. In addition, social support received from friends and perception of Korean society were also measured. Overall, the results indicated that relational efficacy was the most important factor affecting overall life-satisfaction. For familial life-satisfaction, those students, who had higher familial life satisfaction scores, had higher scores on parental social support and lower scores on delinquent behavior. Those students, who had higher school satisfaction scores, had higher scores on social support received from teachers and academic grade. For psychological stress level, it was positively correlated with problem behaviors and perception of Korean society as unjust. Comparing urban and rural students, a different pattern of results was obtained. Urban students had higher scores on self-efficacy subscales, academic aspiration, and participated in healthy extra-curricular activities. They had lower scores on delinquent behavior and stress level. For urban students, stress was correlated with lower self-assertive efficacy, father's social support, and higher fate attribution. For rural students, stress was correlated with lower relational efficacy and higher luck attribution. Finally, a different pattern of results were obtained in terms of the influence of family, school, and society. Detailed analysis and discussion of these results are presented.
The need for psychological intervention to be applied to traumatic stress is high, but too often well-equipped mental health professionals are not available in Korea. This article proposes that psychologists and psychology students in Korea contribute to society by helping people in crisis. Stress response syndrome was described and the effectiveness of crisis intervention on healthy recovery was stressed. Then, basic principles and techniques useful in addressing stress response syndrome were presented. Tips in intervening in critical situation were also provided.
The present study deals with illness representations of Hwabyung as part of a series of attempts to understand Hwabyung. In the present study, Hwabyung patients were compared with hypertensives. In order to match groups in terms of sex, age, and education, 55 patient were selected out of 100 hypertensives and 65 Hwabyung patients. When analyzed the data based on responses from the Symptom Interpretation Questionnaire (Robbins & Kirmayer, 1991) and additional items on anger, it was found that: (1) although there was no significant differences in the area of cause of illness representation, there were significant differences in terms of treatment of illness representation. (2) When comparing symptom interpretations, Hwabyung patients revealed more frequently in the area of chronic headaches, hyperhidrosis, palpitations, handtremors, insomnia, abdominal pain, dyspnea, numbness, and constipation/irregular bowel habit (3) Hwabyung patients also have a tendency to attribute their symptoms to psychological cause, instead of physical or environmental ones. Finally, the present findings were discussed with regard to Hwabyung and/or illness representation and implications for future studies are suggested.
Many physiological functions such as sleep/wakefulness, body temperature, hormonal levels show circadian rhythms, periodic fluctuations with a cycle of 24 hours. These circadian rhythms are thought to influence our cognitive and behavioral functions in many situations such as jobs and school work. And, there are individual differences in circadian rhythms, called "morningness", so that some people consistently prefer day activity (morning type) while others prefer night activity (evening type). The present study explored the relationship between circadian rhythm pattern (measured by the "Circadian Rhythm Scale": Smith, Reilly, & Midkiff, 1989) and psychological adjustment (measured by "College Maladjustment Scale", "Beck's Depression Inventory" and university grades) among 334 university students. It was found that the higher the score in the "Circadian Rhythm Scale" (meaning the higher in morningness) the better adjusted emotionally. The results indicate that circadian rhythm is an important factor to consider in psychological adjustment and that we need to educate university students for the importance of circadian rhythm, especially sleep/wake cycle, in their physical/psychological well-being. If we develop the norms for the "Circadian Rhythm Scale", the scale will be very useful in counseling students for better adjustment in college, as well as in predicting and selecting workers who can adjust better for shiftwork.
The present study was designed to test the effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy and relaxation training on premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Premenstrual Assessment Form (PAF) was used for measuring the severity of PMS. The subjects were 39 students with PMS but without the affective disorders through PAF and Syrnptom-Checklist-90-Revision (SCL-90-R). These subjects were assigned into the cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) group (n=8), the relaxation training (RET) group (n=9), and the wating-list control group (n=12). The results were as follows. The CBT and the RET were significantly effective to reduce PMS, and the CBT was found to be superior to the RET. Finally, the limitations and implications of this study were discussed.
This study examined the effect of guided imagery on state and trait anxiety reduction. 60 college students (having over 65 in a trait-anxiety score) were randomly assigned to an experimental, control, or waiting-list group. The experimental group participated in five days of 15 minute sessions in a silent room and listened to a guided imagery tape, which included suggestion for a favorable view of a seaside, forest, and stream. The control group participated in the same session excluding the guided imagery tape. The waiting-list group received no treatment. Ss were given the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Smith Relaxation States Inventory before and after the experimentation. The research hypothesis was to determine if the guided imagery training would have an effect on anxiety reduction. The experimental group revealed a significant decrease in State Anxiety compared with the control group and the waiting-list group. Regression analysis revealed that increased Relaxation States significantly lowered State Anxiety. But the experimental group showed non-significant reduction on Trait Anxiety compared with the control group and the waiting-list group. The present findings suggest that the short-term guided imagery benefit those facing stressful situations, such as test-anxiety and task-anxiety. A guided imagery tape can effectively lead to imaging a relaxing place in the person's mind, which helps them reduce the anxiety, often accompanied by situational discomforts.
This study examined the effects of catastrophizing and neuroticism on experimental pressure pain threshold. Catastrophizing subscale of Coping Strategies Questionnaire (CSQ; Rosenstiel & Keefe, 1983) and The Korean version of the Eysenck Personality Scale-Adult were administered to 130 undergraduate students. The final sample consisted of eighty-eight students in this study and pressure pain thresholds were measured at middle forearm. middle phalanx, and tibia The results suggested that catastrophizing and sex were associated with individual differences in pressure pain thresholds, but neuroticism was not. Further, there was significant interaction between catastrophizing and sex. The discussion addresses the mechanisms by which catastrophizing may contribute to pressure pain threshold, and clinical implications of these results are discussed in relation to pain therapy.
The present study explored the validity and the discriminability of the College Maladjustment scale in Korean college students. The College Maladjustment scale was administered to 334 college students. The mean of the scale was 13.45 (SD=6.68), and there was no significant difference between male and female students. The validity of the College Maladjustment scale was investigated by the factor analysis, yielding 4 factors of "loss of self-confidence", "health condition", "concentration difficulty", and "anti-social tendency". There was also a significant correlation between the College Maladjustment scale and the BDI. These results indicate that the College Maladjustment scale measures various aspects of maladjustment in college students. And, the College Maladjustment scale score of the counseled group (maladjusted students who had remained in counseling for three or more sessions) was significantly higher than the score of the normal group (adjusted, noncounseled students). Discriminant analysis also showed that the College Maladjustment Scale reliably distinguished between the counseled group and the normal group. We believe that as a valid test of college students' maladjustment, the 31-item College Maladjustment Scale can be conveniently used for testing a large number of students in a relatively short period of time.