Type A Behavior and Social Support among Employed Women

Abstract

The current study investigated the relation between Type A behavior and social support among working women. The research design closely paralleled a previous study of employed men. A convenience sample of 89 employed women (age range, 22-58 years) completed the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), a short aggression scale, a questionnaire designed to measure their proneness to seek support in problem situations, and a questionnaire assessing both structural and functional aspects of their social network. As was true with their male counterparts, the Type A women were less inclined than were Type B women to consider family as important members of their social network. Unlike Type A men, however, Type A women did not appear to close themselves off from their social network. Instead, Type A women were more likely to report feeling that they were not sufficiently cared for or loved.

Virtues and vices of personal control.

“…In particular, the aggression exhibited by Type A individuals is more likely to be hostile and emotional rather than calculated and instrumental ( Strube, Turner, Cerro, Stevens, & Hinchey, 1984). When faced with problems, people with the Type A behavior pattern report being more likely to become angry, to plunge into their work, and to be less likely to forget their problems (Vroege & Aaronson, 1994; see also Baron, Neuman, & Geddes, 1999). The problems may extend beyond work as well.…”

Perception vs pain and beliefs about pain control and Type A behavior pattern in patients with chronic ischemia of lower extremities or with rheumatoid arthritis

“…Therefore, when faced with a lack of control over the new situation the patient may experience helplessness and a sense of hopelessness sometimes manifested as hostility and aggression 39. In problematic situations, persons with TABP more frequently demonstrate anger and devote themselves completely to work to forget about the problem; they are also less likely to identify family members as important persons in the social network surrounding them 40. The behavioral mechanisms related to adverse health behaviors mediate between the psychosocial conditions and the development of the disease.…”

Sex differences in self‐reported coronary‐prone factors

“…It is worth noting here that, in contrast to other countries (Waldron et al, 1977), almost all women of qualifying age in the GDR were in employment at the time of investigation, not only a small minority. Several authors have emphasized an interactional eect of employment, and coronary-prone factors in females (Sorensen et al, 1987;Vroege and Aaronson, 1994), especially with women professionals (Chusmir and Hood, 1988;Smith and Sterndor, 1992) and women in managerial positions (Powell, Posner and Schmidt, 1985) showing higher work commitment. As far as the in¯uence of age is concerned, the ®nding of HaÈ rtel and Chambless (1989) that older female employees were more work involved was not con®rmed using multivariate analysis; although, as a tendency, the 51±65-year-old women in our study scored higher on WO than males of the same age category.…”

“…However, in an organizational setting, Type A with low hostility was linked to managerial position in both sexes (Watkins, Fisher, Schechtman and Southard, 1992). In a study of employed women in the Netherlands, Vroege and Aaronson (1994) found a positive link between Type A, anger, and`plunging into work'. In Europe, higher Type A scores were found in employed women, compared to men, except in Eastern Germany.…”

“…Most European researchers have used the original or adapted traditional American Type A measures, such as the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS; Jenkins et al, 1965), the Bortner Scale (Bortner, 1969), the Structured Interview (SI; Rosenman, 1978), the Framingham Type A Scale (Haynes et al, 1980), or adaptations of them. Examples of their use are in the following studies: JAS, Appels, Jenkins and Rosenman (1982), Smith and Sterndor (1992;, Vroege and Aaronson (1994), Weiss (1983), Weiss and Richter-Heinrich (1985); the Bortner Scale, JAS, and the SI, Weiss, Heineman and Heine (1985); videotaped SI, Lundberg et al (1989); the Framingham Type A Scale, HaÈ rtel and Chambless (1989), Marmot et al (1991), Sykes,HaÈ rtel,Gostautas 202 E. Rotheiler et al and Evans (1992). Type A was assessed in the context of the international MONICA (monitoring of trends and determinants in cardiovascular disease) project, using all of the listed scales: in two large cross-sectional samples of GDR East Germans from dierent regions, no signi®cant gender dierences in Type A prevalence rates were found (Weiss, 1990;Weiss, Heineman and Heine, 1986).…”