Relationship between type A behavior subscales and measures of positive mental health

Recent evidence suggests that the student version of the Jenkins Activity Survey, a major measure of the Type A behavior pattern, is composed of heterogeneous items and, as a consequence, attenuates correlations with measures of psychological traits. The present study used two homogeneous subscales from the JAS to establish the relationship between two aspects of positive mental health (self-actualization and self-esteem) and components of the Type A syndrome (N = 68). As expected, self-actualization and self-esteem are related to only one aspect of the Type A behavior pattern. This result is obscured when only total JAS scale scores are used. Implications for future Type A behavior research and for improving the JAS subscales are discussed.