Stress - Personality type Flashcards
How was the type-A personality theory of stress developed?
In the 1950s, cardiologists Friedman and Rosenman noticed that many of their patients had similar personality traits, so suggested that personality is a factor in coronary heart disease (CHD). From this, the concept of the Type A personality was developed.
Outline features of a type-A personality
Competitiveness: ambition, aware of status, view life as a series of challenges
Time urgency: fast-talking, impatience
Hostility: aggression, intolerance, anger, inflexibility
Outline features of a type-B personality
Friedman and Rosenman suggested that a Type B person is essentially the opposite to Type A- laid-back, relaxed, not time-urgent, tolerant, not competitive.
Outline research into effect of personality on stress
- Friedman and Rosenman (1974)
- 3000 males were assessed as being free of CHD at the start of the study. Their personality type was assessed through an interview and questionnaire (questions such as, ‘how do you feel when you have to wait in a queue?’) The interviewer spoke deliberately slowly, or was quite aggressive, and this was another way of drawing out Type A behaviour. Participants were classified as Type A or B as a result.
- The findings were that eight years later, 70% of the men who had developed CHD were classed as Type A, and 30% with CHD were Type B. CHD risk factors were accounted for in the results.
- The conclusion was that the features of a Type A personality, such as impatience and hostility, raised the physiological stress response (high blood pressure and stress hormone levels), so increasing the likelihood of CHD.
What is a type C personality and how does it affect illness?
Type C personalities are characterised by ‘pathological niceness’, meaning they are very patient, compliant, passive, put others first, and strive to avoid conflict. This may involve repressing their true feelings and emotions, so Temoshok (1987) proposed that this makes them vulnerable to illness, especially cancer.
Outline research into type C personality - Vietnam
- 200 Vietnam War veterans completed scales to measure how much they repressed emotions and how vulnerable to depression they were.
- 75 of the sample went on to develop cancer. The findings were that the cancer patients reported greater levels of emotional repression, but fewer depression symptoms, than those without cancer.
- Repression is likely to involve not accepting depression symptoms, which may explain the findings. The conclusion is that elements of a Type C personality are linked with cancer-proneness.
Evaluate Type A personality theory - stroke
Edigo et al (2012) found that men and women who had had a stroke were more likely to have Type A personalities than a matched control group, and the difference could not be explained by lifestyle factors (such as smoking). This supports the link between Type A behaviour and stress.
Evaluate Type A personality theory - too broad
Type A may be too broad a behaviour category to clearly establish a link with stress-related illness, as it encompasses a range of behaviours. It is thought that hostility is the key factor linking with stress. Research found a strong link with hostility in particular and CHD death rates.
This means that it is not accurate to say that Type A personalities generally are linked with illness, as it is perhaps a particular aspect of Type A where a link can be seen.
Evaluate link between Type C personality and cancer - mixed
Research into the link between Type C behaviour and cancer is mixed, with inconsistent, unreliable findings from research studies. The relationship is therefore likely to be moderated by other factors, weakening the link between Type C behaviour and illness.
What does hardiness consist of?
Hardiness consists of three elements (the ‘three Cs’):
Commitment: a deep involvement in life- for instance, relationships, activities, and own feelings. For instance, becoming fully involved in a project, in the optimistic expectation it will be worthwhile.
Challenge: a tendency to see change and other potentially stressful situations not as stressors but as challenges that need to be overcome. These challenges are viewed positively, as they are chances to grow and develop and learn about oneself.
Control: a bit like having an internal locus of control, this is a tendency to believe that people can control what happens to them, so can actively strive to influence the environment and conditions they are in.
Outline Kobasa’s reseach into hardiness - managers
Kobasa (1979)
- 670 American managers completed an early version of the SRRS, considering a three-year period.
- Absenteeism and illness records for the participants were also checked.
- Some of the participants experienced high levels of stress and also high levels of illness and absenteeism, but there was a group who, despite similarly high levels of stress, did not display signs of illness. When this group completed a hardiness questionnaire, they scored highly on the ‘three Cs’.
- This suggests that a hardy personality helps to resist stress.
Outline Maddi’s research into hardiness - phone shop
- 400 employees at an American telephone company were studied, during a time when the company was being restructured and thousands of people’s jobs were at risk, creating an extremely stressful working environment.
- In two-thirds of the participants, job performance and health significantly worsened.
- One-third had the opposite experience- job performance increased and there were no significant signs of illness.
- This third scored highly on measures of the three Cs, again suggesting that a hardy personality resists stress by seeing major changes as challenges to overcome.
Evaluate the hardiness theory - blood pressure
Contrada (1989) found that participants who scored highly on hardiness measures had lower levels of blood pressure in response to a stressful lab-based task. This supports the other research into hardiness and suggests it does help to reduce the effects of stress.
Evaluate the hardiness theory - direct effect
The hardy personality may have more of an indirect effect on illness - for example, hardy people are likely to smoke less, exercise more and live healthy lifestyles, due to their personality traits. This questions whether hardiness is having a direct effect on the physiological stress response. However, direct or indirect, hardiness does seem to have an effect on stress resistance.
Evaluate the hardiness theory - 3 C’s
The three Cs of hardiness may not all be equally important. Research suggests that control is the key element, and other studies have just considered control and commitment. Therefore, the concept of hardiness, and what its relationship to stress is, is open to debate.
