What is the Type A behavior pattern and how is it measured?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In the 1950s, two cardiologists named Myer Friedman and Rxay Rosenman (1974) made the observation that many of their patients had hurry sickness. They wondered if the hurried behavior patterns these tense individuals displayed were related to the development of coronary heart disease (CHD). The duo captured the behavior pattern they often saw in their patients of an exaggerated sense of time urgency, competitiveness, and an inordinate drive in a construct they called the Type A behavior pattern. Later definitions of Type A also included negative affectivity qualities "such as irritation, hostility, and increased potential for anger" (Rosenman, 1990, p. 2). Friedman and Rosenman called those who showed the opposite pattern, the more relaxed and easy going types, Type B.

The Type A behavior pattern, they posited, could be evaluated through using an assessment tool the two developed called the Structured Interview. The Structured Interview was administered by trained examiners who recorded interviews that were later evaluated for Type A qualities such as rapid-accelerated speech with loud punctuated words or phrases, nervous movements (e.g., jaw clenching), exaggerated gesticulation when talking (e.g., fist pounding), and other indicators of the hurried and tense pattern. Later, a self-report instrument called the Jenkins Activity Survey was also developed to measure the pattern.