Bibliometric analysis of theme evolution and future research trends of the type a personality

Abstract

The identification of Type A personality provides a valuable pathophysiological tool for prevention and treatment of serious diseases, as well as explaining the behavioral and psychological characteristics of specific groups both in the workplace and everyday life. This study used bibliometric analysis method to present the number of published studies and the categories distribution, and analyze 42 high-frequency keywords based on 1288 papers from the Web of Science database from 1964 to 2018. The results were as follows. (1) Research had proceeded through a rising stage, falling stage, and bottleneck stage, which involved the categories of psychology, medicine, and management. (2) Research evolved from physical health issues, such as diseases, to psychological health issues such as anxiety, depression, and organizational management issues, such as occupational stress. (3) High-frequency keywords cluster results indicated five mainstream research themes distributing at the individual, organizational, and social level. The individual level included two clusters of “personality characteristics and health” and “life events and behaviors”. The organizational level contained the clusters of “work processes and control” and “organizational and cognitive experience”. The social level included the cluster of “social and psychological characteristics”. Finally, future trends are proposed to provide guidance for subsequent research.