Abstract
Individual differences associated to the cardiac response of defense: psychophysiological and personality variables. The aim of the work was to analize the individual differences associated to the cardiac components of the defense reflex. 144 subjects underwent a psychophysiological reactivity test. During the test some psychophysiological measurements (heart rate, finger pulse amplitude, respiratory period and amplitude and sinus arrythmia respiratory amplitude) and self report measurements (subjective reactivity to sounds, anxiety, anger and behavior pattern type- A) were simultaneously recorded. We found: (a) A cluster analysis applied to the changes in the heart rate differentiated two groups of subjects, one which presented the typical cardiac defense response pattern and another which didn't; (b) A discriminant analysis indicated that the variable which best discriminates the two groups is the sinus arrythmia amplitude.
