Type-A Behaviour Pattern's (global and main components) attentional performance, cardiovascular reactivity, and causal attributions in the presence of different levels of interference

Abstract

The present paper aims to analyse the performance of Type-A/Type-B individuals in a computerized Stroop-type task (Numeric and Symbolic series). An external interference condition (presence or absence of loud noise), following the design used by Matthews and Brunson ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 2081–2090, 1979), was added. The results show that Type As perform the same at both levels of external interference, whereas Type Bs become worse with noise, and worse than Type As when in the noise condition. At the same time. Type As registered higher levels of reactivity (SBP) than Type Bs in the more interfering situation, but not in self-report data, and a defensive attributional style for failure or poor performance. Moreover, regression analyses with the main Type-A Behaviour Pattern (TABP) components (Competitiveness and Hostility-Impatience) as predictors revealed that the differences in performance and SBP are explained by Competitiveness. The results are discussed in terms of the characteristic Type-A need of control over the situations, the differential contribution of TABP components, and the attentional strategy (to focus on relevant task cues ignoring irrelevant noise-stimulation).