Psychobiological stress reactivity and personality in persons with high and low stressor-induced extralaryngeal reactivity.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to determine whether persons who responded with high stressor-induced extralaryngeal muscle activity in a stress reactivity protocol differed from those with low muscle activity on measures of emotional and autonomic cardiovascular reactivity and personality.

METHOD: Thirty-six vocally healthy women (18-35 years) were assigned to high and low extralaryngeal groups based on submental (SM) and infrahyoid (IH) surface electromyography (sEMG) recordings obtained during a stress reactivity protocol (high vs. low sEMGSM and sEMGIH, n = 18 per subgroup; Dietrich & Verdolini Abbott, 2012). Measures included assessments of basic fear and fear of public speaking, rumination, systolic blood pressure (SBP), and personality.

RESULTS

The high sEMGIH group reported significantly greater basic fear across experimental phases than did the low sEMGIH group (p = .036). However, the high sEMGSM and sEMGIH versus low sEMGSM and sEMGIH groups did not differ on fear of public speaking, rumination, or SBP across phases. Both high sEMGSM and sEMGIH groups were characterized by significantly lower scores on Extraversion (p < .001).

CONCLUSION

In combination with the authors' previous findings (Dietrich & Verdolini Abbott, 2012), the present findings provided robust evidence that low Extraversion was linked to stressor-induced changes in extralaryngeal functioning and that perceived fear played a contributing role.