2. Complete the personality
questionnaire

3. Definition: Personality
An individuals characteristic ways
of behaving, thinking, feeling,
reacting and perceiving the Ambitious,
world, that are stable over time restless &
pressured.
Impatient, hostile
& competitive.
Prone to CHD!
Have a sense of Relaxed, speak
control, highly slowly & less
committed to competitive. Do
tasks, view life’s not suffer from same
problem as health problems as
challenges Type A’s

4. Research into type A personality
Aim: Friedman & Rosenman
(1959) aimed to determine
whether there was a link
between stress-related illness
and personality type

5. Procedure
3154 healthy men, aged 39-59 from San Francisco were studied in
a longitudinal study via structured interviews
25 questions to asses the way a person typically responds to everyday
pressures, creating feelings of impatience, competitiveness and hostility
Interview was conducted in a provocative way aimed to
elicit type A behaviours
Participants were classified as type A or type B

6. Findings: Friedman and Rosenman
found that 8 ½ years later that twice
as many type A’s had died of
cardiovascular problems than type
B’s.
Type A’s also have higher blood
pressure and higher cholesterol
Conclusion: It was concluded
that aspects of a person’s
personality are liked to CHD
and the key may well be
stress!

7. Additional A01
Although type A behaviour is claimed to be a risk for CHD, many
type A individuals appear resistant to disease. Kobasa et al (1977)
suggested that some people are more psychologically ‘hardy’
then others
The hardiness personality includes a range of characteristics
which, if present, provide the individual with a defence against
the negative effects of stress

8. Personality A02
P • Williams et al support the findings of Friedman &
Rosenman
• e.g. Williams et al (2000) found that participants who
E scored highest on an anger questionnaire (type A trait)
were 2.69 times more likely to have a heart attack
• This is a strength because it supports the conclusion that
E aspects of personality are linked to illness, the link
thought to be stress

9. Personality A02
P • F&R’s research is androcentric
• e.g. F&R used a sample of 3154 men aged
E between 39 and 59 and female type A
personalities are not represented
• This is a weakness because the findings lack
E population validity and cannot be generalised to
the entire population

10. Personality A02
P • F&R’s research can be criticised for ignoring
individual differences
• e.g. There are individual differences and lifestyle variables
E that can affect an individuals vulnerability to heart disease –
Type A’s tend to engage more in smoking and drinking
behaviour to relax them
E • This is a weakness because is suggests that the link between
personality and illness is not a direct as F&R initially suggested,
raising an issue of cause and effect