Which of the following is not a characteristic of the type b personality?

3. Sophie is a 22-year-old psychology student. She loves reading books and is a great drawer. She does go to parties every now and then, but she prefers to meet her friends for a coffee, movies or cooking together. She does not like to be the centre of attention. How would Eysenck make use of biological explanations to describe Sophie’s personality trait?   

1. he would argue that Sophie has very low arousal levels in her ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)
2. he would argue that Sophie’s autonomic nervous system is generally less aroused and therefore does not invoke a ‘fight-or-flight’ response in her
3. he would argue that Sophie has high arousal levels in her ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)

Answer: C

4. What are the five personality traits identified by the five-factor model (McCrae & Costa, 1997)?

1. extraversion, neuroticism, introversion, liveliness and agreeableness
2. agreeableness, openness to experience, introversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness
3. extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience and conscientiousness

Answer: C

5. Peter studies Psychology in his first year. His friends know him as a very keen and eager student. He always carries a book with him and, every free minute, he works on some kind of thinking task. He loves to borrow books from the library that are meant for third year students. What is the best way to describe Peter?

1. he has a high need for cognition
2. he has a high need for stimulation
3. he has a high need for attention

Answer: A

6. Harold works for a big law firm in London. He is often confronted with challenging cases but manages to stay calm and does not stress out about it. He and his colleagues love to go bowling after work, and Harold is very good at it. Often, he wins, which makes him very happy, but he is just as happy when one of his colleagues takes the lead. Which type of personality best describes Harold?

1. personality Type A
2. personality Type B
3. personality Type C

Answer: B

7. Which of the following is NOT given as a criticism of the Type A/B personality theory?

1. most of the research on Type A personality is purely correlational
2. there is a lack of cross-cultural research
3. the questionnaires that claim to measure Type A personality have poor internal reliability scores

Answer: C

8. Allison is a very self-critical, restless and impatient person. She believes her personality can explain her stomach problems. What approach is she taking?

1. specificity approach
2. generality approach
3. specificity approach and generality approach

Answer: A

9. Renee has just recently quit smoking, and she was surprised how easy it was for her compared to the experiences of her friends. What is most likely to be TRUE for her?

This type of personality concerns how people respond to stress. However, although its name implies a personality typology, it is more appropriately conceptualized as a trait continuum, with extremes Type-A and Type-B individuals on each end.

Type A personality is characterized by a constant feeling of working against the clock and a strong sense of competitiveness. Individuals with a Type A personality generally experience a higher stress level, hate failure and find it difficult to stop working, even when they have achieved their goals.

Research Background

Friedman and Rosenman (both cardiologists) actually discovered the Type A behavior by accident after they realized that their waiting-room chairs needed to be reupholstered much sooner than anticipated.

When the upholsterer arrived to do the work, he carefully inspected the chairs and noted that the upholstery had worn in an unusual way: "there's something different about your patients, I've never seen anyone wear out chairs like this."

Unlike most patients, who wait patiently, the cardiac patients seemed unable to sit in their seats for long and wore out the arms of the chairs. They tended to sit on the edge of the seat and leaped up frequently.

However, the doctors initially dismissed this remark, and it was only five years later that they began their formal research.

Friedman and Rosenman (1976) labeled this behavior Type A personality. They subsequently conduced research to show that people with type A personality run a higher risk of heart disease and high blood pressure than type Bs.

Although originally called 'Type A personality' by Friedman and Rosenman it has now been conceptualized as a set of behavioral responses collectively known as Type A behavior Pattern.

Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP)

Type A individuals tend to be very competitive and self-critical. They strive toward goals without feeling a sense of joy in their efforts or accomplishments.

Interrelated with this is the presence of a significant life imbalance.  This is characterized by a high work involvement.  Type A individuals are easily ‘wound up’ and tend to overreact. They also tend to have high blood pressure (hypertension).

Time Urgency and Impatience

Type A personalities experience a constant sense of urgency: Type A people seem to be in a constant struggle against the clock.

Often, they quickly become impatient with delays and unproductive time, schedule commitments too tightly, and try to do more than one thing at a time, such as reading while eating or watching television.

Type A individuals tend to be easily aroused to anger or hostility, which they may or may not express overtly. Such individuals tend to see the worse in others, displaying anger, envy and a lack of compassion.

When this behavior is expressed overtly (i.e., physical behavior) it generally involves aggression and possible bullying (Forshaw, 2012). Hostility appears to be the main factor linked to heart disease and is a better predictor than the TAPB as a whole.

Type B & C Personalities

Type B personality is characterized by a relaxed, patient, and easy-going nature. Individuals with a Type B personality work steadily, enjoying achievements, but do not tend to become stress when goals are not achieved.

People with Type B personality tend to be more tolerant of others, are more relaxed than Type A individuals, more reflective, experience lower levels of anxiety and display a higher level of imagination and creativity.

Findings

The researchers found that more than twice as many Type A people as Type B people developed coronary heart disease. When the figures were adjusted for smoking, lifestyle, etc. it still emerged that Type A people were nearly twice as likely to develop heart disease as Type B people.

For example, eight years later 257 of the participants had developed coronary heart disease. By the end of the study, 70% of the men who had developed coronary heart disease (CHD) were Type A personalities.

Which of the following is a characteristic of a Type B personality?

What are Type B behaviors?

What are the 4 characteristics of personality?

Which of the following is not a characteristic of personality?