Individual Differences In Stress

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

A set of characteristic behaviours & attitudes that remain relatively stable, distinguishing one from another.

Question 2

What is Type A personality?

Answer 2

Competitive, time urgent, hostile, perfectionist.

Question 3

What is Type B personality?

Answer 3

Not competitive, not time urgent, tolerant, relaxed.

Question 4

Which personality type (out of Type A & Type B) is more vulnerable to stress related illness and CHD?

Answer 4

Type A personality.

Question 5

How did Friedman (1959) study Type A & Type B personality?

Answer 5

Friedman (1959) interviewed 3,200 healthy Californian males (aged 39-59 years old).
Their personality type was assessed through an interview, but the interviewer spoke deliberately slowly, or was quite aggressive, drawing out Type A behaviour.
Participants were classified as Type A or B as a result.

Question 6

What were the results of Freidman (1959)?

Answer 6

8 years later
-70% of the men who had developed CHD were Type A.
-30% of the men who had developed CHD were Type B.

Question 7

What was the conclusion of Freidman (1959)?

Answer 7

The features of a Type A personality (e.g. impatience and hostility) elevated stress levels, increasing the likelihood of CHD.

Question 8

Evaluation points for Friedman (1959):

Answer 8

-Beta bias, androcentric, ignoring personality of females.
-Correlational, no cause and effect (e.g. Type A were more likely to smoke).
-Lack of population validity.

Question 9

What is Type C personality?

Answer 9

Compliant, learned helplessness, self-sacrificing, avoids conflict.

Question 10

How did Datore (1980) study Type C personality?

Answer 10

Datore (1980) made 200 Vietnam War veterans (75 had cancer) complete a self-report questionnaire to measure their repression of emotions & depression.

Question 11

What were the results of Datore (1980)?

Answer 11

Participant with cancer had much higher scores on the repression of emotions scale, and much lower scores on the depression scale, than the non-cancer group.

Question 12

What was the conclusion of Datore (1980)?

Answer 12

People who repress their emotions may be more vulnerable to illness.

Question 13

Evaluation points for Datore (1980):

Answer 13

-Psychological illness (e.g depression) wouldn’t become evident, as they had repressed acknowledging they feel depressed.
-Individual differences: different people react to the same stressors in different ways.
-Stress is a unique experience that is influenced by personality.

Question 14

What is hardiness?

Answer 14

The ability to endure difficult conditions.

Question 15

What are the characteristics of hardiness?

Answer 15

-Commitment.
-Challenge.
-Control.

Question 16

What is commitment?

Answer 16

Putting 100% into work & personal relationships.

Question 17

What is challenge?

Answer 17

Stressful situations are perceived as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Question 18

What is control?

Answer 18

Feeling of control in their lives.

Question 19

How did Kabasa (1979) study hardiness?

Answer 19

Kabasa (1979) assessed 800 male American business executives using the SRRS (150 had high stress).
3 months later, participants completed personality tests (measuring the 3 C’s).

Question 20

What were the results of Kabasa (1979)?

Answer 20

High-stress/low-illness: high hardiness.
High-stress/high-illness: low hardiness.

Question 21

What was the conclusion of Kabasa (1979)?

Answer 21

A hardy personality type is resilient and copes well with stress.

Question 22

Evaluation points for Kabasa (1979):

Answer 22

-There are several instruments to measure hardiness (e.g. Cognitive Hardiness Scale).
-Some components are seen as more important (e.g. commitment).
-Self-report.