Personality P4 Flashcards
Hardy Personality definition
A personality type that seem thrive in stressful
circumstances
Type A personality definition
Someone who is competitive, time urgent and
hostile.
Type B personality definition
Someone who is laid back, relaxed and tolerant
How can chronic stress lead to cardiovascular disease
-Chronic stress involves
repeated episodes of increased
heart rate and blood pressure
-This in turn increases plaque
formation within the
cardiovascular system
-Adrenaline and noradrenalin
contributes to increased blood
cholesterol levels.
-Cholesterol partials clump
together, leading to clots in the
blood and artery walls: the
arteries become thickened
Give an overview of Friedman and
Rosenman
(1950’s &
1960’s) Study
• studied the characteristics
of patients with Coronary Heart
Disease (CHD)
• found certain behaviour
patterns could be associated with
a vulnerability to heart disease
• refers to a pattern of
behaviours and attitudes that
have been linked to stress related
illness
What do early studies suggest about the likelihood of type A people developing CHD??
Early studies suggest that a
Type A person is around twice
as likely to develop CHD as a
Type B personality
One strength of type A as a personality type is that there is support from
research into its role in illness. Tell me about Egido (2012)
-Egido (2012) studied 150 Spanish men and women who had had a stroke. -Compared with a matched
control group, these participants were more likely to have type A personalities.
-The difference could not be
explained by traditional lifestyle factors such as smoking and diet
-This study is more recent than many studies in the area.
-This supports the link between type A and cardiovascular disorder suggested personality is a valid
predictor of stress-related illness.
Rosenman et
al., (1976) procedure
Studied 3,154 middle aged men.
• They were categorised as either
Type A or Type B.
• A structured interview was used
and interviewer also made
notes on behavioural signs such
as finger tapping
-Their answers and general
behaviour were put together to
provide an overall assessment of
their type
-The participants were followed up
for 8.5 years
-During that time there were 257
heart attacks
Rosenman et al.
(1976) Evaluation
•The study is culturally and gender
specific.-
• The study used American middle
aged men.-
• Problems of social desirability and
researcher effect.-
• Participants were volunteers
• Large data set +
• Longitudinal study +
• Ecological validity +
Rosenman et al.
(1976) Conclusion
• Other factors such as
commitment and challenge may
increase resistance to stress.
• This mixed pattern can help
explain why the studies on TAB
and CHD are inconsistent.Conclusions
• Some characteristics of TAB such
as time pressure and hostility
may increase vulnerability to
stress.
Define the 3 C’s (Kobasa 1979)
Challenge: Changes in life are viewed as opportunities rather than a
source of stress
Control: The idea that you can influence events in your life including
stressors
Commitment: A sense of involvement and purpose in your life
Kobasa (1979) procedure
Kobasa used questionnaires to
assess control, commitment
and challenge and found
people with high scores in
these areas had few stress
related symptoms.
However, this work was based
mainly on male white-collar
workers
This research is a basis for understanding how some people can
encounter great stress and remain healthy
Kobasa (1979) evaluation
One weakness is that the 3 C’s don’t contribute equally to the Hardiness
personality. Hardiness researchers assume that commitment, challenge, and
control are independent of each other, however other researchers believe
they overlap significantly. There seems to be an element of control involved in
commitment and challenge.
Other psychological research for example internal locus of control, suggests a
sense of control is central to well-being. Therefore Hull et al. 1987 argued that
researchers should focus on control and commitment and abandon challenge altogether
Maddi (1987) procedure
•Salvatore Maddi, worked with Kobasa
and studied managers and supervisors
at the Bell telephone company in the
USA during an extremely stressful
reorganization
• About two thirds of the participants
suffered ill health and poor work
performance. But the rest were not
affected.
•instead their health remained stable
and they felt happier and more fulfilled at work than they had ever been
•These managers who fared best scored
highly on measures of the 3 C’s of
hardiness
Maddi (1987) evaluation
•Weakness of hardness studies is that they use self-report methods
These scales suffer from social
desirability bias.
•This is because the
components of hardiness (the 3 C’s) are generally seen as positive characteristics
to have.
•Therefore, participants are
likely to exaggerate the extent to which
they have these characteristics.
•This self-report measures of hardiness rely on the subjective views that participants have about themselves andare not confirmed by objective measures of behaviour
