Social insecurity, the type A behavior pattern, and sympathetic arousal

Social insecurity is a psychological orientation that has been found to be associated significantly with both coronary atherosclerosis and psychological distress. Although sympathetic arousal has been assumed to be a cause of coronary atherosclerosis and an effect of psychological distress, neither of the prior studies included a measure of sympathetic arousal in its design. The present study fills this gap by examining social insecurity in relation to blood pressure, as an index of sympathetic arousal. The results, derived from 50 male, medical/surgical patients, are consistent with the pattern of findings in previous studies in that social insecurity was independent of the Type A pattern and additive to it in its association with blood pressure. Differences between social insecurity and the Type A pattern are discussed in terms of their differential associations with systolic versus diastolic pressure and their differential trait-like and state-like patterns of association with blood pressure.