Personality, stress, and venous flow rates.

A technique of directly measuring Venous Flow Rate (VFR) in a large superficial limbvein is described.With this technique, increases in VFR were noted in response to Epinephrine; and decreases inVFR, in response to the anticipation of, and the performance of an alerting mental arithmetic prob-lem.High Ego Strength Ss revealed higher rates of flow than low E.S. Ss at rest and after Epinephrine.High Anxiety Ss revealed more of an increase of rate of flow in response to Epinephrine and a lessbrisk recovery after arithmetic than low anxiety Ss.During resting conditions Field Independent Ss revealed gradual increase in VFR, while FieldDevendent Ss revealed decreases. These differences were intensified when F.I. and F.D. Ss wereequated for ego strength and anxiety scores.F.I. Ss also revealed a more prolonged increase in rate of flow in response to Epinephrine thanField Dependent Ss.