Stress and Personality Types Describe personality factors that have been shown to influence the way people respond to stress.

James’s personality type could cause problems later on in life Starter Write down 5 words to describe your personality. Do this individually. If James is stressed out all of the time, never relaxes and sees every experiences as a threatening one, how will this impact upon his health? Use your knowledge of stress and the body’s response to stress to answer the question James’s personality type could cause problems later on in life

Outcomes Explain the concept of their being different personality types Explain the characteristics of each of the personality types Explain the link between personality and stress Explain the Hardy Personality

Outcomes Write down definition of Type A personality Examine research into Type A personality Create a table with examples of research for and against Type A personality Answer an exam question in pairs and peer review the answer using a mark scheme

What is personality? personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person's behaviour.“ (Feist and Feist, 2009)

Personality Types There are, according to psychologists three main types of personality We are going to be exploring these personality types and looking at: The personality characteristics The type of person who might have this type of personality The good and bad things about having this particular personality type

The main characteristics of the type A personality are: Explain the characteristics of each of the personality types (1). Type A personality The main characteristics of the type A personality are: Competitive – striving to achieve Impatient – has a strong sense of urgency Aggressive – is hostile to others Friedman and Rosenman argued that these characteristics lead to high blood pressure and high level of stress hormones which in turn lead to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD).

Examples of Type A Behaviour Behaviour pattern Examples Time pressured Always working to deadlines Unhappy doing nothing Multi-tasking Competitive Plays to win – work or sport Hostility Becomes easily irritated and impatient with co-workers Easily angered

Explain the characteristics of each of the personality types (2). Type B personality This is the personality type which is defined as lacking the type A characteristics Therefore people with a type B personality are not Competitive, Impatient and Aggressive.

Complete the Personality type questionnaire to see if you are Type A or Type B. Write your name in column A or B on the board.

Question Harry always meets deadlines. He hates being late and always likes to keep himself busy with plenty to do. Alex does not mind being late for anything and although he tries to meet deadlines, he is not worried if he misses some of them. Is Harry or Alex more likely to have Type A personality? Explain why.

Explain the link between personality and stress Are certain types of personality more prone to stress and subsequently illness Type A and Type B personalities have been tested The link between type A personalities and coronary heart disease/cardiovascular disorders – almost twice as likely to develop CHD than Type B personalities

Key Study: Friedman & Rosenman (1959) 3454 middle aged men on West Coast of US ages between 39 and 59. Categorised as Type A or B using a structured interview and the interviewer also observing behaviour during the interview to look for signs of stress. Questions were asked about how they responded to everyday pressures. Participants were followed up for 8.5 years. During that time there were 257 heart attacks – 69% of which were in the Type A group. Significant effect even when lifestyle risk factors were controlled for Concluded that high Type A individual was vulnerable to heart disease Complete page 30 in your stress booklet.

Results Complete the table on page 31 in your stress booklet. Type A Type B Heart attacks 12.8% 6% Recurring heart attacks 12.6% 0.8% Fatal heart attacks 2.7% 1.1% Complete the table on page 31 in your stress booklet. Make a conclusion about the effects of personality on illness.

Criticisms AO2 Shekelle et al (1985) studied over 12,000 males with Type A Behaviour being assessed by a self report questionnaire and structured interview. They found over 7 years there was no difference in heart disease between Type A and B groups. What are the methodological issues?

Further Criticisms AO2 Read p146 and look at the evidence for and against the link between Type A behaviour and stress Complete your evaluation section using the following studies: Reglan and Brand (1988) Myrtek (2001)

EVALUATION SECTION AO2 It is difficult to establish cause and effect, there are many risk factors which could lead to stress and subsequently CHD in the Western Collaborative Group study. (Raglan and Brand, 1988) Myrtek (2001) in a meta-analysis could only find a link between ‘Hostility’ a type A characteristic and CHD Riska (2002) claims that Type A personality characteristics are traditionally male characteristics.

Plenary Assessment practice Answer the following questions in your book. Peer assessment

Starter / Mini review Name 1 personality type. Name the characteristics of that personality type. Name 1 key study showing the link between a personality type and stress.

Explain personality types (3) Hardiness (Kobosa,1979) The alternative theory is that some people have a personality which is more resistant to stress – this is known as a Hardy personality

Explain the characteristics of each of the personality types The characteristics of the Hardy personality: Control – you can influence events in your life, including stressors Commitment – this is the individual’s sense of involvement and purpose in life Challenge – changes in life should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a source of stress

Research into the Hardy personality Kobasa (1979) tested 800 business executives using the SRRS. 150 scored high on the SRRS, some of these had high illness records and others had low illness records. Kobasa argued that the people with a low illness record must have aspects of their personality that makes them more resilient He called this the ‘Hardy’ personality Explain how this research was supported by Lifton et al. (2006) and Maddi et al. (1987)

Testing Hardiness Using questionnaires found that people with high scores on these dimensions reported fewer stress-related symptoms Mainly on white collar workers Supported by Beasley et al (2003) who investigated the effects of life stress in university students. Students who scored higher on hardiness showed reduced levels of psychological distress Try it for yourselves on p131 Explain some of the problems that might be caused by measuring personality in this way.

Other Personality Types? Denollet (2000) has proposed another personality type – ‘D’ for distressed. People with this personality type experience high levels of negative emotions and social inhibition. He has shown that high levels if negative emotions combined with social inhibition are associated with increased risk of heart disease (Denollet et al,1996, Denollet and van Heck, 2001)

Question Roy and Mick are members of a football team; both play to the same high standard. Roy never minds if the team does not win; he just enjoys playing with his team-mates and spending time with them after the match. Mick always wants to win and gets angry if the team loses. 3 (a) Which personality type is each person likely to have? Roy............................................................................................... Mick............................................................................................. (2 marks)

Question Harry always meets deadlines. He hates being late and always likes to keep himself busy with plenty to do. Alex does not mind being late for anything and although he tries to meet deadlines, he is not worried if he misses some of them. Is Harry or Alex more likely to have Type A personality? Explain why having Type A personality makes him more likely to suffer the negative effects of stress. (1 mark + 3 marks) Outline one way in which psychologists measure Type A personality. (2 marks)

Discuss psychological evidence that suggests personality can affect our experience of stress. (6 marks) Use the mark scheme after you have finished to check you have included everything

Look at the mark scheme Swap with a pair sitting near to you and give it a mark out of 6…. What went well Even better if?

Review and Recall Read out your answers from working as a pair!