individual differences in stress : personality type

• who came up with type A and type B personalities

  Friedman and Rosenman
• type A personality

  describes someone who is competitive, time-urgent and hostile in most situations . research has shows that this personality type links to coronary heart disease
• type B personality

  describes someone who is laid back , relaxed and tolerant of others in most situations. the opposite of type A
• procedure of Friedman and Rosenman's research

  3000 men living in California

  the personality type was assessed in a structured interview and was designed to incite Type A behaviour
• findings of Friedman and Rosenman's research

  8.5 years later 257 men has developed CHD

  70% of them has been assessed as Type A
• what do people who have a type A personality have more of?

  Type A people have higher levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline and higher blood/ cholesterol levels

  this means they are more vulnerable to a stressor
• type C personality

  describes someone who is compliant, avoids conflict and supresses their emotions in most situations

  linked to cancer
• dattore et al's procedure of research

  studied 200 veterans from the Vietnam war and 75 of them were cancer patients

  they all completed scales to measure depression and emotional stability
• findings of dattore's research

  the cancer patients reported greater emotional repression and fewer depressive symptoms
• limitation of Type A personalities

  one limitation is that the traditional Type A personality concept is too broad

  researchers have only focused on the hostility aspect to link to CHD and stress
• what did researchers find about the hostility impact in type A personalities?

  the hostility component of the Type A personality is linked to stress related illnesses
• strength of Type A and B personalities

  it can improve health related outcomes which means it has strong real world application

  research found that the type B survivors were more likely to die because type A people were more likely to change their behaviour