A 6-year follow-up of the type A behaviour pattern in medical students

A sample of 104 medical students was tested for the Type A behaviour pattern, using the Jenkins Activity Survey (Form N fully weighted and Form C Glass Student scores) at four points over a 6-year period during the medical course. Fully weighted Type A scores showed a significant increase over the first 3 years of the course, followed by a drop--to approximately second-year levels--by the end of the 6-year period. A similar but non-significant pattern was observed for the Glass scores. It was suggested that the decrease in the scores was related to lesser usefulness of the Type A pattern during the clinical years of the medical course. A significant difference was found for the final written examination, with those who scored above the median on the Glass Student Type A scale doing better than low scorers. This result was not replicated for the fully weighted Type A scores. It may be that there is some specific usefulness of Type A responding for performance on written examinations, although no equivalent performance difference was found for the final clinical examination.