Roseman et al (1973) Flashcards
Year
1973
What can this study be used for?
- Discuss dispositional factors as determinants of health.
- Discuss risk factors
Background
Health psychology is a field that focuses on how different factors may influence an individual’s health. As such, determinants of health are an important field of research that helps examine how one’s environment, genetical background and personality affect susceptibility to certain conditions. Determinants of health can be sorted into two main categories: social and individual. Individual determinants of health may also be referred to as dispositional factors. Disposition is defined as one’s inherent qualities of mind and character. It also includes the genetic component. This response will focus on explaining how dispositional factors act as health determinants.
Aim
It aimed to see if there were ant health effects correlated with type A personality.
Participants
About 3000 male participants
Experimental design
Longitudinal quasi-experiment
Procedure
- Looking at the incidence of coronary heart disease over a period of 8.5 years
Results
- Out of a sample of about 3000 participants, around 250 developed coronary heart disease.
- Researchers found a significant link between heart disease and cholesterol levels, cigarette smoking and systolic blood pressure.
- 70% of the men who developed coronary heart disease had type A personalities
- when people were matched on health factors mentioned earlier, it turned out that type A personalities were twice as likely to get heart disease than type B.
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Evaluation
✓ High internal validity (controlled variables such as smoking and lifestyle). This isolates the personality variable.
✘ Low external validity (only male sample). Similar female studies have not shown such a significant difference in CD development between A and B type personality.
✘ Study didn’t look into coping strategies
✘ Assumes that the A/B personality model is valid. This may be oversimplified.
