Cardiovascular reactions and impatience in type A and B college students

The cardiovascular responses of male student volunteers varying in the component behaviors comprising Type A were compared in a choice reaction (RT) task. Since the incidence of coronary heart disease is correlated with Type, the relation of cardiovascular responses to these components is of interest. One component of Type A, impatience, was elicited by a choice RT task with long intertrial intervals. A second component, competitiveness, was elicited by varying monetary reward. Instructions were varied to induce both relatively fast, inaccurate, and relatively slow, accurate RTs. Only persons who were high on the Speed--Impatience component of Type A demonstrated variability in second by second heart rate responses when their RTs were paced at different speeds. Type As (Jenkins Activity Survey and Structured Interview) showed sympathetic-like physiologic changes and performed less well during trials requiring accurate, controlled performance when monetary reward was low. Finally, volunteers high in Competitiveness showed greater trial-to-trial cardiac variability than those who ranked low on this component but were less influenced by reward. Individuals high on the Speed--Impatience and Competitiveness components of Type A may show a brief, intense cardiovascular involvement during performance, but an absence of physiologic involvement between trials. In another study using the same paradigm (1), older, impatient volunteers also had altered heart rate responses, but the exact adjustments differed between age groups. A life span developmental perspective on the psychophysiologic adjustment of Type As is advocated.