Towards a state measure of Type A behaviour

To investigate the feasibility of developing a measure of state Type A behaviour, a random sample of 95 men aged 40-64 years attended a clinic at which Type A behaviour was assessed using the Structured Interview (Rosenman, 1978). Upon completion of the Structured Interview, subjects were administered a 65-item adjective checklist to describe their experience of the interview. Discriminant function analysis of adjective ratings on Structured Interview classification identified 15 adjectives which allowed 83 per cent correct classification. The limitation of these data includes the small sample size and the uniqueness of the Structured Interview situation. Nevertheless, these data provide encouragement that a robust and versatile measure of state Type A could be developed. Comparisons between various measures of trait Type A behaviour are also reported.