Cardiovascular responses of adolescents during a naturally occurring stressor and their behavioral and psychophysiological predictors.
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Adaptation, Psychological↗
Biomedical subjects
K A Matthews
Publications and source records attributed to K A Matthews.
Blood pressure variability and the type A behavior pattern in adolescence.
The present investigation assessed the relationship between Type A behavior and blood pressure variability in a sample of 211 adolescents. Consistent with the adult literature, analyses revealed an association between Type A behavior and both systolic blood pressure variability and peak systolic pressure. The measures of diastolic blood pressure, however, were unrelated to Pattern A. The association with systolic variability remained when controlling for initial blood pressure level, sex, weight, and age. Subsidiary analyses of the components of Pattern A showed that high systolic variability teenagers are characterized by Type A speech characteristics (quick response latencies) and high levels of hostility. These findings support the validity of the Type A construct in adolescence.
Adolescent↗
Determinants of decisions to seek medical treatment by patients with acute myocardial infarction symptoms.
The present study examined the type A behavior, symptom experience, and decisions to seek treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) symptoms. Subjects were 43 patients admitted to the coronary care units of one of two hospitals for a suspected infarct. They were interviewed in the hospital, usually within 5 days of their arrival. The interview included questions about the patients' prehospital symptom experience, demographic characteristics, and Type A behaviors. Analyses revealed that the patients who delayed in the early phase of seeking treatment (i.e., excessive time between patients' noting initial symptoms and deciding they were ill) were those who reported that they characteristically exhibited some Type A behaviors, that they experienced little initial pain at a time when work was quite demanding, and that they responded to their symptoms with depression and fatigue. Moreover, they were currently quite pessimistic about their health. Those who delayed in the later phase (i.e., excessive time between patients' deciding they were ill and deciding they would seek treatment) were persons who were assessed as Type B on the Structured Interview and who talked to others to assess the meaning of their symptoms. The implications of the findings for a stage model of delay are discussed and some limitations of the present study are considered.
Attitude to Health↗
Origins of the Type A (coronary-prone) behavior pattern.
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Adolescent↗
Stability of overt Type A behaviors in children: results from a one-year longitudinal study.
This paper describes the degree of similarity between repeated ratings (taken 1 year apart) of overt Type A behaviors in 2 samples totaling 633 children. The measure of overt Type A behaviors was the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH), which was completed by the children's classroom teacher. Results showed that correlations between repeated MYTH ratings approximated .55 and in general increased somewhat with the children's school grade, although correlations between repeated ratings of competitive achievement behaviors of boys residing in an affluent eastern suburb were somewhat lower than above. The degree of similarity across 1 year in children's Type A behaviors is comparable to that found for adult Type A behaviors and for other cardiovascular risk factors in children. The discussion includes a consideration of assumptions underlying research on the origins of Type A behavior and suggests that etiological factors in the development of Type A might profitably be studied in primary school-aged children.
Achievement↗
A prospective study of the effect of 12 months treatment on serum lipids and apolipoproteins A-I and B in Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes.
Serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglyceride and apolipoproteins A-I and B were studied at diagnosis and after 12 months conventional treatment in a group of Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients. No significant deleterious effect on serum lipids and apolipoproteins was seen in any of the subgroups during the treatment period, although in the overall group there was a significant increase in serum total cholesterol in females. Serum high density lipoprotein cholesterol increased significantly in obese males treated with calorie restriction alone. There was a significant increase in serum apolipoprotein A-I in obese females treated with calorie restriction and metformin and in non-obese females treated with carbohydrate restriction and glibenclamide.
Apolipoprotein A-I↗
Unique and common variance in structured interview and Jenkins Activity Survey measures of the type A behavior pattern.
The aim of the present study was to identify factors that account for similarities and discrepancies in classification of Type A and B behavior by the Structured Interview (SI) and by the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS). Two diverse samples were administered the SI and the JAS. SI questions were coded for content of response and psychomotor behavior during the interview. Frequency of specific Type A speech characteristics and clinical judgments were also rated. Analyses revealed that the SI estimate of Type A could be predicted by the subjects' promptness of response, voice emphasis, hurried speech, and judgements of competitiveness, hostility, and energy level. The latter three judgments were also measured somewhat by the JAS. Interviewer ratings of subjects' overt motor behavior and appearance did not relate to SI assessments. The JAS estimate of Type A could be predicted by subjects' reports of pressured drive, which was also measured by SI. This pattern of interrelationships was similar in the two samples in spite of sample differences in age, health status, geographical location, interview and JAS forms, and raters. Overall, the correlations between the SI and JAS assessment were low and suggested a considerable degree of independence between the two measures. In light of these results, they should not be used as interchangeable measures of Type A behavior.
Adult↗
Coronary-prone behavior pattern and cardiovascular response in persons with and without coronary heart disease.
The purpose of this investigation was to examine the psychophysiologic responses of Type A and Type B individuals, among persons with and without coronary heart disease (CHD). Subjects were 58 adult male volunteers; 24 had a history of myocardial infarction or clinically diagnosed angina pectoris (CHD) and 34 had been designated free of coronary disease following recent cardiologic examination (non-CHD). All subjects had normotensive resting blood pressures; among CHD patients, no subject was currently on beta-adrenergic blocking medication. Measures of heart rate (HR) and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) were obtained during a baseline period and while subjects performed a series of difficult and frustrating cognitive tasks. Each subject was also administered the Structured Interview for Type A--Type B assessment (SI) and the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS). Results indicated that, independent of the A/B typology, CHD patients experienced significantly greater DBP elevations during the experimental tasks than did non-CHD controls. Type A subjects (as determined by the SI) exhibited greater task-related increases in SBP and DBP than did Type Bs, but changes in HR did not differ between these two groups. Type A--Type B assessments based on the JAS were unrelated to subjects SBP, DBP, or HR responses, and neither SI- nor JAS-defined Type As differed reliably from Type Bs on measures of task performance. Overall, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that heightened cardiovascular reactivity under stress may mediate relationships between behavioral factors and CHD.
Blood Pressure↗
Psychological perspectives on the type A behavior pattern.
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Coronary Disease↗
Psychologists in schools of public health. Current status, future prospects, and implications for other health settings.
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Curriculum↗
High-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-I levels at diagnosis in patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels were decreased in patients with non-insulin dependent diabetes at diagnosis when matched with a control population for sex, age, obesity, alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking. There was no association between serum HDL-cholesterol concentration and the percentage of glycosylated haemoglobin A1 (HbA1). Serum HDL-cholesterol levels were lower in diabetics over the whole range of serum triglyceride levels, and particularly in hyper-triglyceridaemic diabetics. Serum apolipoprotein A-I levels were not decreased in diabetics with normal serum triglyceride levels, so that the ratio of HDL-cholesterol to apolipoprotein A-I was significantly decreased in diabetics (p Less Than 0.005). Decreased HDL-cholesterol levels in non-insulin dependent diabetes could be relevant to the subsequent development of atherosclerosis.
Adult↗
The type A coronary-prone behavior pattern and reactions to uncontrollable stress: an analysis of performance strategies, affect, and attributions during failure.
The present study examined the ongoing experience of Type A and Type B undergraduates during prolonged exposure to unsolvable discrimination problems in which the cue signaling failure was highly or moderately salient to subjects. Subjects were asked to think out loud while solving the problems that were presented in a manner to permit monitoring of their problem-solving strategies. Results revealed that the problem-solving strategies of high-salience A's deteriorated across failure trials. At the same time, they commented on their lack of ability and, to some extent, on the task's difficulty as accounting for their failure. They expressed annoyance and anger at themselves and at their circumstances. On the other hand, B's did not use ineffectual strategies; they continued to perform appropriately during failure. However, they did comment on task difficulty (during the experiment) as well as on chance and the experimenter (at the conclusion of the experiment) as playing critical roles in their failure to do well. The results suggest that deficits in performance of A's and of B's in previous investigations are the outcomes of different processes: A's may be helpless, whereas B's may be pseudohelpless. The findings support Pattern A as a specific coping style aimed at maintaining and asserting control over stressful aspects of the environment. Implications for the reformulated models of learned helplessness are discussed.
Achievement↗
Developmental stages of genome elimination resulting in transmission ratio distortion of the T-007 male recombination (MR) chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster.
T-007 is a Male Recombination (MR) second chromosome that induces transmission ratio distortion (at its own expense) when heterozygous with many laboratory marker chromosomes. The developmental timing of elimination of T-007 chromosomes has been investigated. About 21% of the T-007 chromosomes expected to be recovered among the progeny of heterozygous T-007 males are lost at some point between fertilization and eclosion (representing 29% of the total distortion observed in young males). Another 52% of the expected number of T-007 chromosomes are lost as a result of spermatid abortion during spermiogenesis (representing 71% of the total distortion). Abnormalities in both the number of spermatids per bundle and the structure of spermatid tails are seen at the earliest stages of spermiogenesis in T-007 males.
Animals↗
Validation of the type A interview assessment of adolescents: a multidimensional approach.
The Adolescent Structured Interview (ASI), adapted from the interview that assesses Type A behavior of adults, was administered to 204 adolescents. These adolescents also completed a battery of self-report questionnaires that measured the three major components of Pattern A: competitive achievement-striving, speed and impatience, and aggressiveness-hostility. In addition, items was constructed to measure efforts to control which have been hypothesized to underlie the major manifestations of Type A behaviors. The ASI content and speech ratings were subjected to factor analytic procedures, and the relationships between the major factors, interview behaviors, impatience, and harddriving, and the appropriate test scores were examined. Dichotomization of the three factor score distributions and subsequent t-tests indicated that the factor scores have discriminative ability and are related as expected to the appropriate self-report measures of Type A behaviors. Of the three factors identified, the interview behaviors factor was most highly correlated with interview classification, while the two content factors yielded much weaker associations. Apparently, the component scores of the ASI provide unique information, in terms of relationships with relevant dependent measures, that is not provided by the interview classification alone.
Adolescent↗
Efforts to excel and the type A behavior pattern in children.
The present paper reports 2 experiments which investigate Type A and Type B children's efforts to achieve. The Type A behavior pattern is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease in adulthood and is characterized by extremes of achievement-striving, impatience-aggression, and easily aroused hostility. Experiment 1 required fourth graders to perform a series of simple arithmetic problems with or without an explicit time deadline. Results showed that, in general, Type A's solved more problems than did Type B's during the 5 min of the experiment. This effect was mainly due to Type A's outperforming Type B's in the no-deadline condition. Because the results could have been due to A's simply being more competent in solving arithmetic problems than B's, we conducted a second experiment using a task on which A's and B's were equally capable. In experiment 2, sixth-grade boys were asked to hold a weight for a predetermined length of time. The weight varied according to a premeasure of their maximal hand strength. In fact, they were never told to stop. Results revealed that Type A's held the weight 50% longer than Type B's. They also underreported their subjective fatigue relative to the effort they expended. These findings suggest that Type A children, similar to their adult counterparts, make greater efforts to excel than B's on tasks that have ambiguous performance criteria. The results are discussed in terms of the achievement literature, and the implications of underreporting fatigue for coronary risk are outlined.
Achievement↗
Attention, unpredictability, and reports of physical symptoms: eliminating the benefits of predictability.
Sometimes unpredictable aversive events have more adverse consequences than predictable aversive events and sometimes not. Three experiments were conducted to test an attentional explanation of the inconsistent effects of unpredictability. This explanation suggests that unpredictable events exert a deleterious influence because more attention is typically directed to them. If there were no difference in the amount of attention directed to unpredictable and predictable events, however, there should be no difference in their effects. The validity of these notions was assessed by applying them to one previously established finding from the unpredictability literature--the finding that exposure to unpredictable noise leads to reports of more severe physical symptoms than does exposure to predictable noise. In Experiment 1, subjects performed a reaction time task while they listened to loud bursts of either predictable or unpredictable noise. As expected, reaction times were slower when the noise was unpredictable than when it was not. This finding suggests that more attention had been directed to the unpredictable than the predictable noise. In Experiments 2 and 3, subjects were exposed to either predictable or unpredictable noise and were either instructed to attend to the noise or given no special instructions. In both cases, subjects not instructed to attend to the noise reported more severe symptoms when the noise was unpredictable than when it was not, thus replicating the previous finding. Of greater interest, however, was the fact that equating the amount of attention directed to the unpredictable and predictable noise (by asking subjects to attend to the noise) eliminated the apparent benefits of predictability. The discussion of the findings centers on their theoretical and practical significance.
Acoustic Stimulation↗
Pattern A, achievement striving, and scientific merit: does pattern A help or hinder?
Clinical observations and recent theorizing offer two opposing predictions about the relationship between Pattern A and the merit of one's work: (a) Pattern A helps; (b) Pattern A hinders. To test these two possibilities, male members of the Society of Experimental Social Psychologists completed a measure of Pattern A behavior, and citation scores were derived for each man from the Social Science Index 1973-1975. Assuming that citations are a rough measure of meritorious work, the results revealed that Type A behavior by men is associated with superior scientific work. Thus, it is unlikely that Pattern A hinders meritorious work. Rather, it may help.
Achievement↗
Environmental events preceding sudden death in women.
The present case-control study examined if sudden cardiac death in women is preceded by death of a significant other, change in residence, or change in work. The sample included 81 Caucasian women ages 25-64 years in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, who died suddenly from arteriosclerotic heart disease (ASHD) within a 11/2 year interval. Each case was matched to a neighborhood control on the basis of race, age, and sex. Results revealed that relative to matched controls, cases were six times as likely to have experienced the death of a significant other within the last months; they were no more likely to have experienced changes in living conditions or in work. These findings raise the issue of whether death of a significant other is an antecedent event of death due to ASHD only or death due to all causes. Possible explanations for the temporal association between sudden death and death of a significant other are discussed.
Adult↗