440 CHAPTER 11
than were the other two groups. In a subsequent study (Jamieson et al., 2013), arousal
reappraisal was found to help participants recover from stress as well, enabling them to
return to normal physiological responses more quickly after stress when compared with
participants who received no reappraisal instructions. Apparently, there’s a big differ-
ence between feeling “excited” rather than “stressed.”Personality Factors in Stress
11.8 Explain how personality types and attitudes can influence people’s
reaction to stress.
Of course, how one cognitively assesses a stressor has a lot to do with one’s personal-
ity, the unique and relatively stable ways in which people think, feel, and interact with
others. People with certain kinds of personality traits—such as aggressiveness or a
naturally high level of anxiety, for example—seem to create more stress for themselves
than may exist in the actual stressor. Even as long ago as the early 1930s, psycholo-
gists have had evidence that personality characteristics are a major factor in predicting
health. A longitudinal study begun in 1932 (Lehr & Thomae, 1987) found that per-
sonality was almost as important to longevity* as were genetic, physical, or lifestyle
factors. Other researchers have found that people who live to be very old—into their
90s and even over 100 years—tend to be relaxed, easygoing, cheerful, and active. Peo-
ple who have the opposite personality traits, such as aggressiveness, stubbornness,
inflexibility, and tenseness, typically do not live as long as the average life expectancy
(Levy et al., 2002).
PERSONALITY TYPES Those positive and negative personality traits are some of the
factors associated with two personality types that have been related to how people deal
with stress and the influence of certain personality characteristics on coronary heart
disease. (It should be noted that while personality is really far more complex than just
a few “types,” the following categories are simply handy, compact ways to refer to sets
of associated traits.)
Ty p e A a n d Ty p e B In 1974, medical doctors Meyer Freidman and Ray Rosenman pub-
lished a book titled Ty p e A B e h a v i o r a n d Yo u r H e a r t. The book was the result of studies
spanning three decades of research into the influence of certain personality characteris-
tics on coronary heart disease (Friedman & Kasanin, 1943; Friedman & Rosenman, 1959;
Rosenman et al., 1975). Since then, numerous researchers have explored the link between
what Friedman called Type A and Type B personalities.
Ty p e A people are workaholics—they are very competitive, ambitious, hate to
waste time, and are easily annoyed. They feel a constant sense of pressure and have a
strong tendency to try to do several things at once. Often successful but frequently unsat-
isfied, they always seem to want to go faster and do more, and they get easily upset over
small things. A typical Type A finds it difficult to relax and do nothing—Type A people
take work with them on vacation, a laptop to the beach, and do business over the phone
in the car.
In contrast, Ty p e B people are not that competitive or driven, tend to be easygoing
and slow to anger, and seem relaxed and at peace. Type B people are more likely to take a
book to the beach to cover up their face than to actually read the book.
In 1961, the Western Collaborative Group Study (Rosenman et al., 1975) assessed
3,500 men and followed them for 8 years. For example, participants were asked to agree
or disagree with statements such as “I can relax without guilt,” in which strong agree-
ment indicates a Type B personality. The results were that Type A men were three times
more likely to develop heart disease than were Type B men. (See Figure 11. 5 )*longevity: how long people liveTypG#pGrUoPaNKty
person who is ambitious, time
conscious, extremely hardworking,
and tends to have high levels of
hostility and anger as well as being
easily annoyed.
Type B personality
person who is relaxed and laid-back,
less driven and competitive than
6yRe # and slow to anger.
“He always times 60 Minutes.”
© The New Yorker Collection 1983 Mischa Richter
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