Personality Traits and Behavioral Patterns Associated with Systolic Blood Pressure Levels in College Males.

THE RELATIONSHIP between hypertension and certain psychological factors has long attracted scientific attention; however, only a few investigators have systematically studied the association between high systolic blood pressure and psychological characteristics in young subjects [l-6]. Published reports have mainly emphasized the psychological measurements; an analysis of blood pressure measurements has not received as much attention. In most studies, for example, the selection of subjects with ‘high’ and ‘low’ readings is based on a single blood pressure measurement. But, it is patent that young subjects with a single casual high or low systolic blood pressure reading do not remain in the same category when retested [7]. Better criteria have to be developed in order to describe the blood pressure patterns of these subjects, and before attempting to correlate pyschological and circulatory measurements. Furthermore, psychological measures might be improved by using objective devices which have been standardized on the population chosen for study. It is the aim of this paper to explore more precisely the relationship between psychological traits and various types of blood pressure indices in normal young college subjects.