352 Chapter 10of stressors studied in the lab (Matthews,
Gump, & Owens, 2001).
However, researchers soon realized that
men may show greater reactivity than women
to laboratory tasks because the tasks are more
relevant to men than women. Laboratory
tasks that reveal men to be more reactive than
women are often achievement oriented. The
real-world stressors that show men to be more
reactive than women are typically exams and
work, which are also achievement oriented.
Perhaps women would exhibit greater reactiv-
ity than men when the domain is more rele-
vant to women. As you will see in Chapter 11,
women exhibit greater cardiovascular, neuro-
endocrine, and immune reactivity than men
when discussing a relationship conflict.
Several studies have examined the idea
that men react to stressors relevant to the
male gender role and women react to stress-
ors relevant to the female gender role. In one
study, men were more reactive than women
to two masculine tasks, serial subtraction
and a handgrip squeeze, whereas women
were more reactive than men to a feminine
task, giving a speech on the likes and dislikes
about one’s physical appearance (Stroud,
Niaura, & Salovey, 2000). In another study,
college males’ and females’ reactions to either
an achievement (math, verbal memorization)
or an interpersonal (rejection) challenge were
examined (Stroud, Salovey, & Epel, 2002). As
shown in Figure 10.1, men exhibited greater
cortisol increases than women in response
to the achievement stressor, and women ex-
hibited greater cortisol increases than men in
response to the interpersonal stressor.
However, one study found just the op-
posite pattern of results when examining
gender-related traits rather than sex. Mascu-
line people were more reactive to a feminine
stressor, and feminine people were more
reactive to a masculine stressor (Davis &of autoimmune diseases. Women are more
vulnerable than men to diseases specific to
the immune system, such as lupus and rheu-
matoid arthritis. Among humans, men have
lower rates of immunoglobulin M (a protein
involved in immune function), which may
be a source of men’s greater vulnerability to
disease (Schuurs & Verheul, 1990). Immune
function is likely to be associated with sex hor-
mones (Choudhry, Bland, & Chaudry, 2007).Cardiovascular Reactivity
Cardiovascular reactivityrefers to the in-
crease in blood pressure and heart rate that
occurs when engaging in a challenging or
stressful task. You may experience cardiovas-
cular reactivity when taking an exam, when
thinking about an exam, or when receiving a
graded exam. You are also likely to experience
cardiovascular reactivity during an argument,
during a traffic jam, or when your computer
screen freezes. Yet we all do not experience
the same level of reactivity to the same stress-
ors. One theory is that people who exhibit
heightened physiological responses to stress-
ful events might be damaging their arteries on
a daily basis, making them more vulnerable to
heart disease. There is some evidence that car-
diovascular reactivity is related to indicators
of heart disease (Treiber et al., 2003).
To the extent that cardiovascular re-
activity is linked to heart disease, sex dif-
ferences in reactivity become an important
topic. Numerous studies have shown that
men exhibit greater cardiovascular reactivity
than women, which could explain a portion
of men’s higher rates of heart disease. Car-
diovascular reactivity is typically studied in
the laboratory by exposing participants to a
stressful or challenging task and observing
changes in blood pressure or heart rate. Men
are more reactive than women to a majorityM10_HELG0185_04_SE_C10.indd 352 6/21/11 8:54 AM