A measurement model for the Type A Self-Rating Inventory

Compared to other questionnaire measures of Type A behavior, the Type A Self-Rating Inventory (TASRI) possesses particularly strong face validity. This study sought to develop a formal measurement model for the TASRI using a sample of 352 male and 479 female undergraduate psychology students. Assessed via structural equation modeling, an oblique two-factor (Hard-Driving, Extroverted) model explained over 90% of the common variance in responses to a subset of 13 of the original 28 TASRI items for men, women, and the pooled data. As hypothesized, relative to women, men had a greater mean score on the Hard-Driving factor and a lower mean score on the Extroverted factor. However, the magnitude of these gender differences is small. When reconceptualized in the context of work on the Big Five factor model, the Hard-Driving and Extroverted factors were found to reflect related elements of positive sociability and negative power, respectively.