Type A behavior, self-involvement, and cardiovascular response

Abstract

Coronary-prone Type A and noncoronary-prone Type B students were challenged by a battery of tasks including cold pressor, mental arithmetic, behavior type interview, and the generation and expression of emotions. Measures of blood pressure, heart rate, and digital vasoconstriction were intercorrelated with reported distress, performance, speech characteristics, emotional intensity, and self-references. The major difference between the two behavior types concerned self-references, measured as the frequency of personal pronouns employed in speech. The Type A's who referred to themselves frequently had a markedly higher systolic blood pressure, a slightly higher diastolic blood pressure, a lower heart rate, higher distress ratings to cold water, and more extreme voice emphasis and emotional intensity than Type A's who referred to themselves less frequently. The Type B's have little relationship of self-references to any of the measures taken. The possible role of self-involvement in generating Type A behavior and cardiovascular response is discussed.