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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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).

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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?

16. 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)

17. 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.

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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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)

23. 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.

24. 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)

25. 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)

26. 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)

27. 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

28. 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?

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