Apples for Health- Being flexible may not help health

Being flexible may not help health

CHICAGO, March 5 (UPI) -- Some assume that remaining flexible by trying different strategies is optimal, but not if the situation cannot be resolved, U.S. researchers said.

Danielle Roubinov, an Arizona State University doctoral student in clinical psychology, and colleagues observed a sample of 65 undergraduate students role-playing a stressful task with a "neighbor" who was portrayed by a research assistant.

Participants were told that the neighbor was playing music too loudly and were instructed to ask the neighbor to turn down his or her music. During the interaction, the research assistants followed a script of uncooperative responses such that the task could not be resolved.

"We categorized the verbal responses of participants during the task into seven types of negotiation strategies, including problem-solving and aggressive/threatening," Roubinov said in a statement.

"Individuals who used a smaller set of strategies were considered less 'flexible' than those who used a greater variety of strategies."

Unlike less-flexible participants, those who tried a greater variety of responses showed more intense facial expressions of anger and frustration, while cortisol -- stress hormone -- levels in more flexible participants also reflected an unhealthier biological response to stress than the less flexible participants, the study said.

The findings were presented at the American Psychosomatic Society annual meeting in Chicago.