Research Areas and Selected Papers

Psychosocial Factors in Cardiovascular Disease

These papers are concerned with the role of social-contextual and emotional factors in the development, course, and treatment of coronary heart disease. Our most recent work in this area seeks to determine the manner in which beliefs about cardiovascular disease and its treatment interact with emotions and thereby influence secondary prevention behaviors in coronary patients.

Contrada, R. J., Boulifard, D. A., Hekler, E. B., Ilder, E. L., Spruill, T. M., Labouvie, W. W., and Krause, T. J. (2008). Psychosocial Factors in Heart Surgery:  Presurgical Vulnerability and Postsurgical Recovery.  Health Psychology, 27, 309-319.

Hekler, E. B., Rubenstein, J., Coups, E. J., Gilligan, S., Steiner, M. J., Krause, T. J., Tannenbaum, A. K.,  Leventhal, E., A., Kusnecov, A. W., and Contrada, R. J. (2007).  Inflammatory Markers in Acute Myocardial Infarction Patients:  Preliminary Evidence of a Prospective Association with Depressive Symptoms.  Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 12, 65-81.

Contrada, R. J., Boulifard, D. A., Idler, E. L., Krause, T. J., and Labouvie, E. W. (2006). Course of Depressive Symptoms in Heart Surgery Patients:  Confirmatory Analysis of the Factor Pattern and Latent Mean Structure of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.  Psychosomatic Medicine, 68, 922-930.  

Holmes, S. D., Krantz, D. S., Rogers, H., Gottdiener, J., and Contrada, R. J. (2006).  Mental stress and coronary artery disease:  A multidisciplinary guide.  Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 49, 106-122.

Goyal, T. M., Idler, E. L., Krause, T. J., & Contrada, R. J. (2005).  Quality of life following cardiac surgery:  Impact of the severity and course of depressive symptoms, Psychosomatic Medicine, 67, 759-765.

Contrada, R. J., Goyal, T. M., Cather, C., Rafalson, L., Idler, E. L., and Krause, T. J.  (2004).  Psychosocial factors in outcomes of heart surgery:  The impact of religious involvement and depressive symptoms.  Health Psychology, 23, 227-238.

Contrada, R. J., Idler, E. L., Goyal, T. M., Cather, C., Rafalson, L., & Krause, T. J.  (2004).  Why not find out whether religious beliefs predict surgical outcomes?  If they do, why not find out why?  Health Psychology, 23, 243-246.                              

Rosen, R. C., Contrada, R. J., Gorkin, L., & Kostis, J. B. (1997).  Determinants of perceived health in patients with left ventricular dysfunction: A structural modeling analysis.  Psychosomatic Medicine, 59, 193-200.

Contrada, R. J., Leventhal, E., & Anderson, J. R. (1994).  Psychological preparation for surgery:  Marshaling individual and social resources to optimize self-regulation.  In S. Maes, M. Johnston, & H. Leventhal (Eds.), International Yearbook of Health Psychology, Volume 3 (pp. 219-266).  New York:  Wiley.


Psychophysiology of Personality, Stress, and Emotion

We have used psychophysiologic measures to identify cardiovascular processes that may account for health-related effects of stress and emotion and of the Type A behavior Pattern, Trait Hostility, and Repressive Coping .  Most recently, we have begun to use psychophysiological techniques to assess cognitive and affective processes and attributes involved in reactions to threatening stimuli.  These include studies of human startle, assessment of emotional style via electroencephalography (EEG), and measurement of event-related potentials (ERP).

Chen, Y. Y., and Contrada, R. J. (2007).  Religious Involvement and Perceived Social Support:  Interactive Effects on Cardiovascular Reactivity to Laboratory Stressors.  Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, in press.

Chen, Y. Y., Gilligan, S., Coups, E. J., & Contrada, R. J. (2005).  Hostility and perceived social support:  Interactive effects on cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory stressors.  Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 29, 37-43.

Guyll, M., and Contrada, R. J. (1998).  Trait hostility and ambulatory cardiovascular activity in males and females.  Health Psychology, 17, 30-39.

Contrada, R. J., Czarnecki, E. M., and Pan, L-C. (1997).  Health-damaging personality traits and verbal-autonomic dissociation: The role of self-control and environmental control.  Health Psychology, 16, 451-457.

Mayne, T. J., O'Leary, A., McCrady, B. S., Contrada, R. J., and Labouvie, E. (1997).  The differential effects of marital stress on emotional, physiological, and immune functions in men and women.  Psychology and Health, 12, 277-288.

Newton, T. L., Haviland, J., and Contrada, R. J. (1996).  The face of repressive coping:  Social context and the display of hostile expressions and social smiles.  Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 20, 3-22.     

Newton, T. L., and Contrada, R. J. (1994).  Alexithymia and repression:  Contrasting emotion-focused coping styles.  Psychosomatic Medicine, 56, 457-462.

Lacy, C. R., Contrada, R. J., Robbins, M. L., Tannenbaum, A. K., Moreyra, A. E., Chelton, S., and Kostis, J. B. (1995).  Coronary vasoconstriction induced by mental stress (simulated public speaking).  American Journal of Cardiology, 75, 503-505.

Newton, T. L., and Contrada, R. J. (1992).  Verbal-autonomic response dissociation in repressive coping:  The influence of social context.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 159-167.

Contrada, R. J., Hilton, W. F., and Glass, D. C. (1991).  Effects of emotional imagery on physiologic and facial responses in Type A and Type B individuals.  Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 35, 391-397.

Sayette, M. A., Contrada, R. J., and Wilson, G. T. (1990).  Alcohol and correspondence  between self-report and physiological measures of anxiety.  Behaviour Research and Therapy, 28, 351-354.

Contrada, R. J. (1989).  Type A behavior, personality hardiness, and cardiovascular responses to stress.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 895-903.


Ethnicity, Ethnicity-Related Stress, and Health

Ethnicity related stress is defined as the perception of events and conditions that acquire threat value because of a person’s knowledge of being a member of a particular ethnic group.  We have developed measures of ethnicity-related stressors, such as ethnic discrimination, stereotype confirmation concern, and own-group conformity pressure.  We have also sought to demonstration that these factors have implications for psychological and physical well-being.

Brondolo, E., Kelly, K. P., Coakley, V., Gordon, T., Thompson, S., Levy, E., Cassells, A., Tobin, J. N., & Contrada, R. J. (2005).  The Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire: Development and preliminary validation of a community version.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35, 335-365.

Contrada, R. J.,  Ashmore, R. D., Gary, M. L., Coups, E., Egeth, J. D., Sewell, A., Ewell, K., Goyal, T., Chasse, V. (2001).  Measures of Ethnicity-Related Stress:  Psychometric properties, ethnic group differences, and associations with well-being.   Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 31,1775-1820.

Contrada, R. J., Ashmore, R. D., Gary, M. L., Coups, E., Egeth, J. D., Sewell, A., Ewell, K., Goyal, T., Chasse, V. (2000). Ethnicity-related sources of stress and their effects on well-being.   Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 136-139.

Reprinted in Ruscher, J. B., & Hammer, E. Y. (2004) (Eds.), Current directions in social psychology (pp. 146-152).  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

          Reprinted in Miller, G., & Chen, E. (2005) (Eds.), Current directions in health psychology (pp. 38-44).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Pearson/Prentice Hall.

Hudson, S. V., Leventhal, H., Contrada, R. J., Leventhal, E. A., and Brownlee, S. (2000).  Predicting retention for older, African Americans in a community study and a clinical study:   Does anything work?  Journal of Mental Health and Aging, 6, 1-13.

Contrada, R. J., and Ashmore, R. D. (1999).  Self and social identity: Key to understanding social and behavioral aspects of physical health and disease?  In R. J. Contrada and R. D. Ashmore (Eds.), Self, social identity, and physical health: Interdisciplinary Explorations (pp. 3-20).  New York: Oxford University Press.

Ashmore, R. D., and Contrada, R. J. (1999). Self, social identity, and the analysis of social and behavioral aspects of physical health and disease.  In R. J. Contrada and R. D. Ashmore (Eds.), Self, social identity, and physical health: Interdisciplinary Explorations (pp. 240-255).  New York: Oxford University Press.

Brondolo, E., Masheb, R., Stores, J., Stockhammer, T., Tunick, W., Melhado, E., Karlin, W. A., Schwartz, J., Harburg, E., and Contrada, R. J. (1998). Anger-related traits and response to interpersonal conflict among New York City Traffic Agents.  Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 2089-2118.