Type A personality as psychopathology: personality correlates and an abbreviated scoring system.

This study investigated the relationship between the Jenkins Activity Survey, a questionnaire developed to measure the Type A 'coronary-prone' personality described by Friedman and Rosenman, and other personality measures, comprising the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Personal Deviance Scale, and a measure of Achievement Need. Significant correlations were obtained between Neuroticism and both the Type A scale, and the Speed and Impatience subscale of the J.A.S. The Type A scale was also found to correlate with Dominance and Extrapunitiveness, and the Speed and Impatience subscale correlated with Extrapunitiveness. No correlation was found between any J.A.S. scale and the measure of Achievement Need. When subjects were divided into Types A and B using the group mean as division point, significant differences in certain questionnaire variables, most noticeably in Neuroticism were apparent, with the Type A group being found significantly more Neurotic. Theoretical implications of this for susceptibility to stress-related disease were discussed. Additionally, the paper explored a briefer alternative to the complex, computerised scoring system for the J.A.S., and found this to correlate well with the weighted scoring system.

Relationships between psychological differentiation and Cattell's personality traits.

It was hypothesized that individuals who are field-dependent are discriminated from those who are field-independent by Cattell's personality factor A, F, and Q2. A sample of adults (N=68 male and female graduate students) was tested by means of Oltman's Portable Rod-and-Frame Test, field-dependence groups thus being established. Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire was then administered to the sample. Discriminant analysis of the data resulted in the research hypothesis being supported. Thus, the hypothesized theoretical link between Witkin's psychological differentiation personality dimension and certain Cattellian personality factors was supported empirically. An exploratory stepwise analysis indicated that the Cattellian factors A, L, O, and M may also form a discriminant function which distinguishes between the two groups.