Measuring emotional stress in Africa: the difficulties involved and some results

Two surveys of emotional stress were undertaken and the difficulties experienced in each survey are discussed. In the first survey, 3 sets of personality inventories, selected to identify the type A personality that is associated with the early onset of coronary heart disease, were completed by 95 men, aged from 40 to 50 years, who came from 4 groups: White Rhodesians, urban Blacks of high and low social status, and Blacks from a rural area. The same trend was shown by all 3 inventories, which indicates that type A behaviour is least common among Whites, becomes progressively more marked in Blacks of upper social class, then in Blacks of lower social status, and is greatest in Blacks living in a rural environment. The psychogalvanic response to emotional stress (fear) was used to assess autonomic lability in the first 3 groups.