Glossary / Lexicon

Type A Behavior pattern refers to cluster of behaviors including excessive competitiveness, time-pressured impatience, accelerated speech, and anger, originally Thought to promote high risk for heart disease; a personality type characterized by impatience, competitiveness, time pressure/urgency, and hostility.

Type A behavior pattern is likewise, a personality pattern that has been associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease. Among other things, Type A individuals exhibit a great sense of time urgency, work near maximum capacity even when there is no time deadline, become aggressive and hostile when frustrated, and are motivated to master their environments and to maintain control.

It was defined by Matthews (1988) as including: extremes of competitive achievement striving, hostility, aggresiveness, and a sense of time urgency, evidenced by by vigorous voice and psychomotor mannerisms

Type A behavior pattern was initially assessed by means of the Structured interview. This assessment procedure involves two (2) main kinds of information:
(1) the answers given to the questions asked during the interview; and
(2) the individual's behavior, that includes aspects of his/her way of speaking, example loudness, speed of talking). The individual's tendencies towards impatience and hostility are assessed by the interviewer deliberately interrupting the person being interviewd. The Type A behavior patterns has also been assessed by various self-report questionnaires, example: the Jenkins Activity Survey.

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Other /More definition:
Type A behavior pattern refer to cluster of behaviors including excessive competitiveness, time-pressured impatience, accelerated speech, and anger, originally thought to promote high risk for heart disease.