Type A behaviour and the authoritarian personality

The demonstration of modest statistical associations between measures of the Type A behaviour pattern (TABP) and some measures of authoritarianism has given rise to a view that the TABP represents little more than an attempt by some individuals to exercise the personality attribute of dominance. The present study examined this view with regard to a wide selection of measures of the authoritarian personality and found that measures of the TABP related only to measures of authoritarianism reflecting authoritarian behaviours. While such correlations indicate a facet of the TABP resembles the attribute of dominance, they do not amount to conceptual equivalence of the TABP and authoritarianism. The conceptual complexity of the TABP demands a more multidimensional view of this explanatory notion in medical psychology.