Type A and Type B Personalities

Type a Personality and Health

Type A individuals are more vulnerable than type B individuals to poor health. Type A individuals are more likely to experience, for instance, depression, increased frequency of nightmares, respiratory infections, and migraine headaches. One major health issue for which type A personality has been most implicated is coronary heart disease (CHD). In the Western [Page 841]Collaborative Group Study, which was the first study to examine the relationship between type A personality and CHD, researchers found that, among nearly 3,200 men without CHD symptoms at the beginning of the study, those categorized as type A were twice as likely as those categorized as type B to develop symptoms within 8.5 years. Data from autopsies of participants who died during the course of the study showed that type A personality was positively related to CHD.

Although these early studies suggested a relationship between CHD and type A personality, many other studies have yielded nonsignificant findings. Given such inconclusive findings, some researchers have proposed that the relationship between type A personality and CHD is weaker than suggested by the early findings. More recent research has shown, however, that the reason for any nonsignificant findings may be that type A personality has often been assessed as an overall construct. Studies that have examined the construct as the two separate components of achievement striving and impatience–irritability have found stronger and more consistent relationships between the latter component and CHD.

Two explanations, both of which are related to suppressed immunity, may account for the relationship between type A personality and ill health. First, type A individuals are more likely than type B individuals to perceive and experience stress. To the extent that psychological stress reduces immune competence, the immune systems of type A individuals may be suppressed enough to increase their vulnerability to illness. The second explanation is the fact that chronic hyperactivity may compromise the immune system. As type A individuals are chronically hyperactive in their impatience and attempt to accomplish many things in less time, their immune systems may be compromised, thereby possibly facilitating various illnesses.

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