GENDER-RELATED SUBCOMPONENT DIFFERENCES IN HIGH TYPE A SUBJECTS

LOGAN WRIGHT

University of Central Oklahoma

KIMBERLINE R. ABBANATO, CHERYL LANCASTER, MICHAEL L. BOURKE AND BRITT A. NIELSEN

University of Oklahoma

Thirty Type A males and 30 Type A females were administered an expanded version of the Structured Interview designed to assess 11 Type A subcom- ponents. The purpose was to determine whether males and females follow different subcomponent routes in achieving their Type A status. As predicted, males scored higher than females on two of four anger-related variables. Contrary to prediction, males scored higher than females on the subcom- ponent of exaggerated social control. These findings were interpreted as providing some support for the notion of differing gender-related subcom- ponent routes for achieving Type A status. These findings also may have implications for the higher incidence of coronary heart disease in high TABP males vs. females.

It is apparent that the Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP) manifests itself differently in men and women (McCann, Woolfolk, Lehrer, & Scharcz, 1987). A review by Baker, Dearborn, Hastings, and Hamberger (1984) concludes that high TABP females exhibit more positive personality characteristics than do Type B females, and a review by Harbin (1989) concludes that the negative physiologic responsivity correlates of the TABP for men do not apply to women. A review by Thoresen and Lowe (1990) points out that: (a) The TABP has not been validated prospectively against any major health outcomes for women; and (b) while Type A females appear in some studies to be somewhat more physiologically reactive than Type B females, this difference is both less reliable and less pronounced than in males. Thus, the emerging picture is one in which high TABP females appear to be physiologically and perhaps psychologically healthier than their high TABP male counterparts.

A recent comparative study by Wright, Newman, Meyer, and May (1993) found TABP females to exhibit less negative affectivity (NA), especially less hostility, than their equally high TABP male counterparts. This finding reinforces speculation that the reason why the TABP involves less coronary heart disease (CHD) risk for females could be due in part to the fact that Type A females experience less anger (the primary CHD/TABP subcomponent culprit according to Friedman and Booth-Kewley, 1988) than do Type A males. This possibility led Wright et al. (1993) to speculate that high TABP females may follow a different subcomponent route than do males in achieving their high Type A status. A finding of typically different subcomponents structures for males and females could have significance for the prevention of CHD. For example, emphasis might shift away from attempts to prevent global TABP behavior and toward efforts to prevent more masculine TABP profile tendencies, irrespective of the gender of the clients involved.

Correspondence should be addressed to Logan Wright, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Central Oklahoma, 100 North University Drive, Edmond, OK 73034.

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67 8 Journal of Clinical Psychology, September 1994, Vol. 50, No. 5

If high TABP males are more angry, then one might expect that there are some TABP subcomponents on which the high TABP females score higher. For example, given the fact that the Friedman and Booth-Kewley (1988) review also concluded that job involvement was not related to CHD, the subcomponent of job involvement might represent an area in which Type A females score higher than their male counterparts.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that when level of Type A status was controlled for, high TABP males and females would differ significantly on certain of their TABP subcomponents scores. Based on earlier studies (e.g., Barefoot, Dahlstrom, & Williams, 1983; Friedman & Booth-Kewley, 1988), it was predicted that Type A males would score higher than equally Type A females on measures of anger. Females were predicted to score higher on job involvement. Given the fact that a number of TABP subcomponents exist for which there are no previous data to suggest malelfemale differences, measures for several of these subcomponents were included in the present study, but without any prediction as to which gender would score higher. This represented an inductive search for TABP subcomponents in which gender differences may exist in individuals of similar Type A status.

METHOD

Subjects Subjects were 30 male and 30 female undergraduate psychology students who were

recruited from an introductory psychology class at a large state university located in the Southwest. They ranged in age from 18 to 54; the mean age for the males was 19.6 and for females 21.2. There were no significant differences between the two groups in age. Only subjects who scored 3.1 or higher on the 1-5 Likert-type scale for TABP as measured by the Structured Interview (SI; Rosenman, 1978) were included. The exclu- sion of non-Type As resulted in 17 Type B males and 20 Type B females from the original subject pool being interviewed before the necessary 30 males and 30 females of sufficiently high TABP status were identified. Procedure

Each subject was administered an Augmented Structure Interview (ASI; Wright & Schmidt-Walker, 1990), which consisted of the 58 items of the SI and 19 additionai items for measuring TABP subcomponents. Measures for 11 separate TABP subcom- ponents were obtained, and male/female differences were measured while controlling for level of Type A status. These subcomponents were: anger in’, and anger expression as suggested by Spielberger et al. (1985); time urgency and perpetual activation as sug- gested by Wright, McCurdy, and Rogall (1 992); school/job involvement as suggested by Friedman and Booth-Kewley (1988), hard driving/competitiveness as suggested by Jenkins, Zyzanski, and Rosenman (1979); impatience/irritability and achievement striving as suggested by Spence, Helmreich, and Pred (1 987); exaggerated interpersonal control as suggested by Wright et al. (1990) and by Wright et al. (1991).

Four interviewers who were naive as to the purpose of the study administered the SI/ASI. Each was trained by a traditiondly trained (at Stanford by Rosenman/Chesney) SI interviewer. Each of the 12 study variables was rated on a 1-5 Likert-type scale im- mediately after the SI/ASI interview.

‘Both anger in and anger control as defined by Spielberger et al. (1985) differ from anger control accord- ing to a Freudian model. With Freud, “anger in” is synonymous with controlled anger and, thus, with repressed anger. The alternative definition of anger control entails a more positive trait. It is the ability to control anger in a healthy fashion, i.e., to prevent it, or to help it to abate quickly once aroused. The usual processes for achieving this more adaptive form of control usually involve recognition and avoidance of anger-provoking situations, reasoning with one’s self, i.e., a form of self-administered, cognitive behavior therapy.

Type A Gender or Sex Diflerences 679

Differences between males and females were estimated while controlling for degree of Type A status, using the Meng, Rosenthal, and Rubin (1992) procedure for compar- ing correlated correlations. One-tailed tests of significance were employed for those variables for which predictions were made, and two-tailed tests for those for which no predictions were made. The .05 level was relied upon throughout.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Differences for two of the five variables for which predictions were made were sig- nificant at the .05 level and in the predicted direction. These were for anger in and for anger control. The findings for anger out, anger expression, and job involvement were not significant. A significant difference also was found for exaggerated interpersonal control; the Type A males were more controlling. No significant differences were found for any of the other TABP subcomponent variables for which no predictions were made. These results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Results for AII Study Variables

Variable Female Male Value Value

M M F ratio p (two-tailed) p (one-tailed)

Anger In Anger Out Anger Control Anger Expression Job/School Involvement Time Urgency Perpetual Activation Hard Driving Competitive Impatience/Irritability Achievement Strivings Exaggerated Interpersonal Control

* p < .05.

2.82 2.92 3.10 2.96 3.84 3.15 3.66 3.90 3.41 3.89 3.22

3.31 2.84 2.60 3.29 3.80 3 .I6 3.62 3.95 3 .I6 3.89 3.62

2.19 .06

4.28 2.05

.06

. 00

.I4

.I1 2.12 . 00

4.31

- .05* - .41 - .02* - .08 - .90

1 .oo .80 .69 .I5 .95 .04*

While these findings are not definitive, and whether the subcomponent variables on which Type A males or females scored higher is reliable across samples, can only be determined by additional research; our results do constitute initial support for the study’s hypothesis that high TABP males and females use different subcomponent routes in achieving their Type A status.

Our results also may add an increment of evidence in support of the findings of Harbin (1989), Thorsen and Lowe (1990), and Wright et al. (1993), which suggest that higher anger scores in Type A males may explain in part the higher instance of CHD in Type A men than in Type A women.

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