Individual Differences in Stress (AQA A Level Psychology): Flashcards
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Who first proposed the Type A personality?
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Who first proposed the Type A personality?
Friedman and Rosenman (1959), cardiologists studying patients with coronary heart disease.
Name the three groups of Type A behaviours described by Friedman (1996).
Competitiveness, time urgency and hostility.
Describe the competitiveness component of Type A.
Driven, achievement-motivated and ambitious, aware of status, and viewing life in terms of challenges, goals and targets.
Describe the Type B personality.
Tolerant, laid back, reflective and less competitive. They enjoy recreation and do not feel guilty about relaxing.
True or False?
Type B people are more likely than Type A to suffer coronary heart disease.
False.
Type Bs are much less likely to suffer CHD or other stress-related illnesses.
Define the Type C personality.
The Type C personality (Temoshok, 1987) shows 'pathological niceness': people pleasers who are compliant, patient beyond reason, passive and self-sacrificing.
Why is Type C linked to cancer-proneness?
Type Cs avoid conflict by repressing their emotions, including anger.
Define hardiness.
Hardiness (Kobasa, 1979) is a personality type combining strong commitment to self, vigorousness towards the environment, a sense of meaningfulness and an internal locus of control.
Why did Kobasa develop the hardiness theory?
Earlier research such as Holmes and Rahe failed to explain why not everyone exposed to high stress became ill.
What is meant by 'commitment' in hardiness?
A clear sense of one's values, goals and capabilities and a belief in their importance.
Hardy people view change as normal and perceive stressors as to be mastered.
Hardy people view change as normal and perceive stressors as challenges to be mastered.
What is meant by 'control' in hardiness?
An internal locus of control, feeling one has power over decisions, situations and how one meets challenges.
Describe the Western Collaborative Group Study.
A prospective study of over 3,000 healthy Californian men aged 39 to 59, free of CHD, assessed for personality type using a structured interview.
After 8½ years, 257 men in the WCGS developed CHD, of whom % had been assessed as Type A.
After 8½ years, 257 men in the WCGS developed CHD, of whom 70% had been assessed as Type A, almost twice as many as Type Bs.
What did Dattore et al. (1980) find?
Vietnam veterans who later developed cancer had reported greater emotional repression and fewer depression symptoms years earlier, supporting a Type C link.
How does Westman (1990) support Kobasa?
Officer cadets with hardiness characteristics experienced less perceived stress during a challenging training course.
What practical value does understanding Type A have?
It can help people reduce risky work-driven, time-conscious and stress-inducing behaviour.
What did Egido et al. (2012) find?
Spanish stroke patients were significantly more likely to have Type A personalities than matched controls, not explained by lifestyle factors.
True or False?
Type A as a global personality construct is now seen as valid.
False.
It is too broad. Dembroski et al. (1989) reanalysed the WCGS and found hostility alone significantly predicted CHD.
Why is personality type research limited methodologically?
Data comes mainly from self-report questionnaires and is correlational, so it cannot rule out other factors causing CHD.
True or False?
Personality types are seen as purely innate.
False.
They support the nature side, but personality and stress responses are also shaped by experience, environment and learning (nurture).
Why is classifying people into types A, B and C nomothetic?
It applies general laws to explain behaviour, which is useful for prediction but may overlook individual complexity.
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