RELATION BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL HARDINESS AND PHYSIOLOGICAL-RESPONSE

The present study was designed as a pilot investigation of a question if persons differing in certain personality characteristic differ physiologically in resting conditions and/or when threatening conditions are present. Interindividual differences in hardiness and trait anxiety were related to the level and variability of heart rate (HR and HRV respectively) and to the pain perception threshold (PPT) in response to a standard set of stimuli under the control conditions (n = 32) and under anxiety inducing conditions: awaiting dental surgery (n = 18). - Analyses of variance revealed significant main effects of hardiness or its control component on HR and HRV, of trait anxiety by situation interaction on HR, and of hardiness by situation interaction on PPT. Low anxious and also high hardy individuals displayed reduced physiological response when encountering a stressful situation. A higher heart rate variability in persons with high level of control seems to indicate their higher coping effort.