Personality Factors - Type A/B

Question 1

What are the three key characteristics of type A behaviour?

Answer 1

• Time pressured
• Competitive
• Hostile

Question 2

In biological terms, why are people with TAB more likely to suffer from stress related health problems?

Answer 2

1. Environmental stressors are more likely to trigger the sympathomedullary pathway which increases levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline in the bloodstream and therefore increases blood pressure.
2. Continued stressors more likely to activate the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal system which increases levels of corticosteroids which are linked to immunosuppression, meaning the body’s white blood cells do not fight illness as well as they should. Corticosteroids also encourage energy stored in the liver to be released into the bloodstream, but if this energy isn’t used up, fatty deposits may form in the arteries and cause coronary heart disease.

Question 3

What is type B behaviour characterised by?

Answer 3

Patience, relaxed and easy going attitude and not demanding perfection from self.

Question 4

What was the aim of Friedman and Rosenman’s research into stress, personality type and CHD?

Answer 4

To investigate the suggestion that Type As are less able to cope with stress than Type Bs because of their personality characteristics, making them more likely to suffer from CHD.

Question 5

What were the procedures of Friedman and Rosenman’s research?

Answer 5

3154 healthy men between the ages of 39 and 59 from San Francisco were assessed by a structured interview consisting of 25 questions about how they would act in everyday stressful situations (e.g queuing) in order to class them as Type A or B. The interview was conducted in a provocative way to try to draw out Type A behaviour. The interviewers hesitated during questions and interrupted participants answers in order to measure responses such as fidgeting and finger tapping to further facilitate classification of Type A or B. Extraneous variables such as family history, lifestyle, alcohol consumption and obesity were screened and controlled. It was a longitudinal study over 8 and a half years.

Question 6

What were the findings of Friedman and Rosenman’s research?

Answer 6

At the end of the 8 and a half years there was a significant correlation between personality type and vulnerability to CHD.
257 of the men suffered a heart attack, 69% of which were Type A and 31% were Type B.
No one at the extreme end of Type B suffered a heart attack.
In a follow up study 22 years later, 214 of the men had died from CHD, of which 119 were Type A and 95 were Type B - a less impressive difference.

Question 7

What did Friedman and Rosenman conclude after their study?

Answer 7

The study supports the idea that a person’s personality can be associated to CHD. The fact that the death rate was lower in the second study may be due to people taking preventative measures once they know they are ill.

Question 8

What were the limitations of Friedman and Rosenman’s study?

Answer 8

1. They used an androcentric sample, so the findings may not be generalisable to women, as they respond in a biologically different way to stress due to the differing effects of testosterone and oestrogen on levels of oxytocin (stress hormone).
2. Type A behaviour has a number of characteristics, but the study does not make it clear which of these characteristics is the one strongly related to CHD. When Friedman reviewed his work he found that hostility and negative emotions were the key element linking Type A to CHD, which was then further supported by another psychologist (Dembroski).

Question 9

What were the strengths of Friedman and Rosenman’s study?

Answer 9

1. The findings have real life application - they have been used to improve health. Friedman et al found that after 5 years, CHD patients who were taught to modify their behaviour had fewer second heart attacks than those who received just counselling or no treatment.
2. The use of a longitudinal study is often seen as more reliable than ‘one off’ research methods. It investigates long-term effects and can make comparisons between the same individual at different ages. The use of structured interviews also allowed interviewers to gain rich detailed information from each participant to categorise them as Type A or B. However, interviews can be lengthy and costly, and can also induce social desirability bias.