Heart-rate Reactivity and the Type A Behaviour Pattern in Three Age Groups of Australian Children

The relationship between the Type A Behaviour Pattern and heart-rate reactivity to the onset of a typical stressor was investigated with a sample of Australian boys and girls from three age-grade levels: preschool, middle-elementary, and upper-elementary. Behaviour Pattern was measured with the Matthews Youth Test for Health (Matthews & Angulo, 1980), and data were collected on children's second-by-second heart rate during rest and the stressor tasks. Reactivity to the onset of the stressor task (a puzzle game or mental arithmetic), was assessed. Results indicated that there were expected age differences in resting and stressor task heart rates, but that there was no significant difference in heart-rate reactivity between children classified as Type A or B Behaviour Pattern, either for the entire sample, for two extreme subsamples, or within each of the three age groups.     

Self-schematic representation of the type A and B behavior patterns

Past research has established clear behavioral differences between Type A and B individuals. The purpose of our research was to examine how these behavioral differences are represented in the self-definitions of Type As and Bs. We investigated the existence of Type A and B self-schemata by using two tasks designed to measure the influence of these hypothetical structures on speed of processing and memory interference. During an initial task, Type As and Bs made self-relevant decisions (like me, not like me) in response to trait adjectives previously scaled as Type A, Type B, or neutral in content. Reaction times for the decisions were measured, and results indicated that both Type As and Bs made faster decisions for schema-compatible responses than for schema-incompatible responses. On a second task, Type As and Bs were tested for recognition memory after they attempted to memorize half of the aforementioned trait list. Memory errors were examined and indicated that Type As and Bs made more errors that were compatible with their respective self-schemata. Taken together, these results indicate that a Type A and B distinction forms a reliable organizing framework for the self-definitions of Type As and Bs. The existence of stable cognitive structures that parallel the behavioral differences between Type As and Bs has important implications for both theory and application.     

Effect of Level of Challenge on Pressor and Heart Rate Responses in Type A and B Subjects1

The present study examined the relationship between the Type A coronaryprone behavior pattern and the magnitude of cardiovascular response induced by varying levels of environmental challenge. In a 2 × 2 experimental design, Type A and B (noncoronary-prone) subjects (n= 80) were randomly assigned to either high or low challenge instructional conditions for both the cold pressor (CP) and a choice reaction time task (RT). Overall, across both tasks, Type A subjects responded with greater systolic blood pressure (SBP) and heart rate (HR) elevation than Type B subjects. While these differences between the Types tended to be larger in the high challenge condition, some differences were also observed under low challenge. Component analyses of the Pattern revealed that high hostile/competitive Type A's responded to both low and high challenge instructions in the CP and RT tasks with physiologic elevations comparable to that displayed by globally defined Type A's receiving high challenge instructions. The present findings tentatively suggest that (a) high hostile/competitive Type A's respond to even mild challenge with enhanced physiologic response; (b) globally defined A's tend to evidence the physiologic elevations when specifically challenged; and (c) Type B's show much smaller physiologic reactions to such challenges. Consistent with previous research, comparison of Type A assessment techniques revealed that the Rosenman diagnostic interview was a better predictor of physiologic response than other questionnaire methods. Two hypotheses are advanced and future research recommended regarding possible relationships between environment, behavior, physiology, and disease.     

An experimental study about the congruence between type A behavior pattern and type of task

This paper is an experimental study, the basic aim of which is to check whether the congruence between personality characteristics and task characteristics has positive effects for performance and satisfaction on individuals. The results obtained reveal that Type A behavior pattern individuals get better results in cases of congruence than in cases of incongruence, while the performance of Type B behavior pattern individuals is not related to the (in)congruence between personal needs/aims and the task's demands. Besides, we have found that Type A behavior pattern individuals also have greater levels of satisfaction in cases of congruence than in cases of incongruence. However, Type B behavior pattern individuals show the same levels of satisfaction in both cases.     

Type A behaviour pattern and attentional bias in relation to anger/hostility, achievement, and failure

Type A subjects are characterised by dysfunctional cognitions related to themes of competitiveness, achievement, and hostility. The present experiment investigated attentional biases for words relevant to the content of these dysfunctional schemata in Type A individuals. After completing the MMPI-2 Type A Scale, subjects completed two alternative versions of a visual probe detection task (administered 4–12 days apart) which contained achievement, failure, and anger/hostility/aggression related words. Prior to testing at time 1, subjects were told that the purpose of the procedure was to collect normative data only. Prior to testing at time 2, subjects were told that performance on the test was known to be closely related to IQ and that they could compare their performance with that of other subjects following completion of the task. Type A subjects directed attention towards anger/hostility/aggression words under low performance motivation conditions but away from such words under high performance motivation conditions. Type A subjects also showed less selective attention to failure words than Type B subjects, and no group differences were detected for achievement related words. The results are discussed with reference to models of dysfunctional cognitive processing, and the role of anger/hostility, in particular, in Type A personality.     

The type a behavior pattern,sex differences,and cardiovascular response to and recovery from stress

Sixty-one subjects performed a Stroop Color-Word Interference task, a mental arithmetic task (serial subtraction of 7s), and a shock avoidance task (repeating digits backward while expecting to be shocked for mistakes). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate were recorded while subjects anticipated, undertook, and recovered from the shock avoidance task, and undertook and recovered from the Stroop and mental arithmetic tasks. The results revealed that, compared to Type B subjects, Type A subjects manifested higher diastolic blood pressure during the Stroop and shock avoidance tasks and higher pulse rate following the mental arithmetic and shock avoidance tasks. No significant interactions were found between sex and A/B Type. The results are congruent with the notion that greater sympathetic nervous system activity among Type A individuals, both men and women, contributes to greater coronary atherosclerosis and heart disease in this group.     

Individual differences in type A behavior and cardiovascular responses to stress

The purpose of this study was to predict heart rate and blood pressure responses to a stressor task in 166 male and female university students using the multidimensional approach of the Survey of Work Styles. The Survey of Work Styles is comprised of scales for Impatience, Anger, Time Urgency, Work Involvement, Job Dissatisfaction, and Competitiveness. Systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate were measured before and during a 5 min serial subtraction task. Three bipolar Survey of Work Styles profiles were identified for each sex. In males, similarity to each profile was uniquely related to one task cardiovascular measure. In females, two of the three profiles were uniquely related to one physiological measure assessed during the task. The data thus support separate treatment of male and female data. Consideration was given to the possible influence of TABP components, such as Anger, in the differences in the patterns of physiological responses for different Type A profile types. Implications of the physiological results for future studies on psychophysiological differences between Type A and B individuals, and the pathological links between Type A behavior and coronary heart diseases are discussed with emphasis on the recognition of the heterogeneity of personality profiles associated with Type A behavior.     

Stress and Distress as a Function of Jenkins Activity Survey-Defined Type A Behavior and Control Over the Work Environment

Although laboratory studies have demonstrated that situational factors which are particularly threatening to Type A individuals induce both Type A behaviors and cardiovascular reactivity, field studies have failed to demonstrate consistent differences between Types A and B in response to stress. Rhodewalt, Hays, Chemers, and Wysocki (1984) argued that this inconsistency is caused by the failure to take into account the individual's perception of the situation. They demonstrated that Type A individuals who perceived high levels of job stress reported more psychological and physical health problems than Type As under low stress or Type Bs under high or low stress. This study attempted to replicate this earlier finding, as well as identify factors in the situation which lead Type A individuals to perceive their job as stressful. Three hundred thirty-six male school principals (categorized as Type A or Type B by the Jenkins Activity Survey [JAS]) completed questionnaires assessing their degree of control in their work environment, perceived job stress, and physical and psychological well-being. A path mediation analysis indicated that Type A individuals reported more job stress under lower levels of perceived control, and that higher job-stress levels subsequently lead to greater incidence of physical and psychological symptoms, especially for Type As.     

An application of the interpersonal models developed by Karen Horney and Timothy Leary to Type A-B behavior patterns

Using Horney's clinical concepts and Leary's circle matrix procedures, this study investigated the Type A and B patterns of personality. Significant findings showed the Type A-B continuum to represent two distinct poles, with the Type A direction reflecting the expansive personality pattern (power and aggressiveness) and the Type B direction reflecting the self-effacing pattern (helplessness and affiliation) for self-perceived roles. For behavioral roles, the power-versus-helplessness traits described the two contrasting directions of personality involvement. Three subgroups were identified for behavioral role in each A and B extreme group. The shift in affect between the ACL and MMPI instruments may reflect two factors: the degree of ambiguity set up by the nature of the tests and the responding "pull" of the individual, which was described as an "active" or "quiescent" form of the A and B patterns. Hence, it may be more effective to diagnose individuals in terms of a specific behavioral subtype and active or quiescent enactments. Three maladjustment indicators were investigated. Significant findings showed the A2 group as exhibiting increasing rigidity of behavioral role with lower Type A scores and the A1 group as exhibiting greater discrepancies with increasing Type A scores. The lack of discrepancy for the Type B groups may reflect a dysfunction in that these individuals may be stagnated in their work situations and complacent in the docile-dependent role. The three findings of behavioral subgroups, rigidity of role, and discrepancy were discussed as possible mediating psychosocial factors associated with coronary heart disease. Since this was the first major examination and use of Leary's model (to the author's knowledge) since the late 1950s, it is important to consider these results tentative and heuristic, until replications can be conducted. It is hoped that representative norms from diverse samples can be obtained for developing standard scores on Leary's circle matrix axes. The present study was limited by the narrow demographic characteristics of its subjects, who were mostly white-collar workers in professional, technical, or management positions.     

Expression of interpersonal aggression by angered and nonangered persons with the type A and type B behavior patterns

Thirty-seven subjects with the Type A or the Type B behavior pattern were first either angered or not angered in a problem-solving task by a confederate who posed as another subject. In a subsequent bogus learning experiment, the Type A and Type B subjects had the opportunity to punish or reward the confederate. The effectiveness of the anger manipulation was attested to by the fact that angered subjects had reliably higher pulse rates, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure. In the learning experiment, Type A subjects who had not been angered gave the confederate reliably higher levels of punishment than did Type B subjects, but there was not a difference in the levels of punishment given by Type A and Type B subjects who had been angered. There was not a difference between Type A and Type B subjects in the levels of reward they gave the confederate. The results provided behavioral evidence for aggression in persons with the Type A behavior pattern. The fact that the difference in aggression was limited to nonangered subjects was interpreted in terms of differences in attributions of responsibility.     

The Time-Urgency Component of the Type A Behavior Pattern: Time Pressure and Performance1

We investigated the effects of time pressure on the performance of Type A and Type B individuals. We predicted that Type As would perform more poorly than Type Bs on an anagram task during a timed condition, but not during an untimed condition. Subjects were 40 female undergraduates and the Jenkins Activity Survey was used to measure Type A behavior. The results confirmed our hypothesis. Type As made significantly more errors than Type Bs when timed, but not when untimed. Implications of these findings and the time-urgency component of the Type A behavior pattern are discussed.     

Attention to important versus trivial tasks and salience of fatigue-related symptoms for coronary prone individuals

The present study tested the hypothesis that individuals with the Type A coronary prone behavior pattern focus their attention more on important tasks, and less on trivial tasks than do Type B's. The study used a paradigm in which some subjects worked on math problems (important task) and rated intervening mood items (trivial task), whereas others rated mood items they were to memorize (important task) and worked on intervening math problems (trivial task). All subjects were later tested on recall of mood items. Results indicated that Type A's performed better on math problems and recalled more fatigue-related mood items when the task was important than when it was trivial; for Type B subjects, there was no difference in the number of math problems solved correctly or number of mood items recalled between important and trivial task conditions. Moreover, Type A's reported greater fatigue when mood recall was the important task than when math was the important task, whereas fatigue ratings of Type B's did not differ across these conditions. The findings suggest that Type A's suppress their attention to fatigue-related symptoms only when symptoms are not the objects of focus.     

Effects of incentive and preparatory interval on activity, heart rate, and reaction time in children.

To resolve certain empirical and theoretical difficulties concerning, primarily, the significance of phasic heart-rate deceleration prior to reaction signals, 48 children were employed to perform in simple reaction-time tasks while speed, heart rate, head movement, gross movement, and blink activity were recorded. The indeory intervals and level of incentives. Reaction time varied with incentive, with preparatory interval and mode of presentation. Phasic heart-rate deceleration varied with the intervals but not incentive or mode of presentation. There was little relation between deceleration and RT. Heart rate and somatic movement measures (especially of blinking) were roughly concordant at a group level but did not correlate.     

Time Urgency and the Type A Coronary-Prone Behavior Pattern1

Two experiments were conducted to examine behavioral consequences of a sense of time urgency, which presumably characterizes individuals classified as manifesting a so-called “Type A” coronary-prone behavior pattern. Experiment I indicated that time-urgent Type A Ss were reliably less successful than noncoronary-prone “Type Bs” in performing a task requiring a low rate of response for reinforcement (DRL). Type As were not only unable to delay their responses; they also showed greater evidence of tension and hyperactivity than Type Bs during DRL performance. Experiment II extended these results to the interpersonal domain. Time-urgent Ss became more impatient and irritated than less urgent Ss when both types were systematically slowed down in their efforts to reach a solution on a joint decision-making task. The results were discussed in terms of a conceptualization of the A-B dimension as reflecting differential expectations of and needs for environmental control. Additional evidence was presented in support of this approach. Consideration was also given to possible physiologic mechanisms mediating the relationship between psychological variables such as the Type A pattern and actual occurrence of coronary heart disease.     

Type A behaviour and psychophysiological arousal

The "coronary prone" or Type A behaviour pattern, characterized by e.g., hard-driving competitiveness, impatience and aggressiveness, is associated with elevated systolic blood pressure and catecholamine secretion during challenge. In experiments at our laboratory, elevated psychophysiological arousal was found in Type A subjects during understimulation, but not during active performance on a self-paced reaction time task. Results suggest that differences in cardiovascular and behavioural reactivity between Type A and B persons tend to be related to the pace of the environment to which they are exposed. Studies of antecedents of Type A behaviour in children show that "Type A children" respond to challenge with a greater increase in sympathetic arousal than "non-Type As". This suggests the possibility that genetic dispositions and/or conditioned sympathetic reactivity play an important role in the development of the Type A behaviour pattern.     

Chronometric explorations of disordered minds

Patients with borderline personality disorder have unstable emotions, difficulty maintaining relationships and a high probability of self-inflicted damage. A recent experiment of Posner et al. that measured reaction-time differences derived from a simple task, revealed that alerting and orienting is normal in these patients. By contrast, and perhaps at the root of this personality disorder, the module responsible for cognitive conflict resolution is defective.     

The type A behavior pattern and immune reactivity to brief stress: change of volume of secretory immunoglobulin A in saliva

This article presents findings of a laboratory experiment on the association of the Type A behavior pattern with reactivity of secretory immune functioning to brief stress. 38 female undergraduate students classified as Type A (n = 19) or as Type B (n = 19) on the basis of their scores on the Kwansei Gakuin Type A scale performed a continuous arithmetic task in a situation in which they were exposed to aversive loud noise. Secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) in saliva and autonomic measures (heart rate and frequency of eyeblink) were evaluated before and after the manipulation of stress. The volume of s-IgA at baseline was significantly higher for the Type A group than for the Type B group, suggesting that the former relative to the latter might be chronically higher in mucosal immune functioning. Also, the volume of s-IgA significantly increased after exposure to a brief stress for the Type B group but did not change for the Type A group, a finding which might indicate that the Type A group may have less immune reactivity to a brief stress.     

Predictive Characteristics of Type A Behavior Among Working Men and Women

This study examined which motivation needs and job variables are associated with Type A/B behavior pattern for working women and men, and to what degree, if any, can these variables be used as predictors of Type A/B behavior pattern for each sex. Subjects were 797 working men and women (female, n = 439; male, n = 358) in 34 organizations in a metropolitan city in the West. Results showed that for both Type A women and men, the most significant factors were high levels of need for power, job commitment and hierarchical position. Job satisfaction was a significant predictor of Type B behavior pattern for both sexes. Need for achievement was a significant predictor of Type A behavior pattern for women but not for men. Age, working for a profit or nonprofit company, and level of education were significant predictors of Type A/B behavior for men but were not important contributors for women. Substantial differences between managers and nonmanagers were reported both within and between genders.     

Task-related arousal of type A and type B persons: level of challenge and response specificity

To determine whether different levels of challenge had differential effects on the arousal levels of Type A and Type B persons, 30 Type A and 30 Type B male subjects worked on an intelligence test task (digits backwards recall) that was easy, moderately difficult, or extremely difficult. Arousal was measured in terms of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, pulse volume, skin resistance, and subjective arousal. Results indicated that while working on the extremely difficult task, the Type A subjects evidenced reliably higher systolic blood pressure than did the Type B subjects (p = 0.1; difference = 7.52 mm of Hg) and that there were not reliable differences between the subjects in systolic blood pressure at other levels of challenge or on other measures of arousal.     

The framingham Type A Scale: Cardiovascular and cognitive-behavioral responses to interpersonal challenge

Most of the primary measures of Type A behavior have been found to be associated with physiological reactivity to stressors, as well as coronary heart disease (CHD). While it does predict CHD, the Framingham Type A Scale (FTAS) has not been conclusively linked to physiological reactivity. Similarly, in contrast to other Type A measures, little is known concerning the cognitive behaviors associated with the FTAS in stressful situations. The present study was conducted to evaluate the cardiovascular and cognitive-behavioral responses to interpersonal challenge of Type A versus Type B subjects, as classified by the FTAS. Type A's evidenced increased systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity and a greater degree of negatively toned cognitive activity than did Type B's. The SBP findings are consistent with those obtained with other measures of Type A behavior, and with the hypothesis that neuroendocrine reactivity mediates the link between the behavior pattern and CHD. The somewhat unique cognitive-behavior findings, however, may reflect important psychological differences among the various Type A measures.Portions of this paper were presented at the meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, Philadelphia, 1984.