The type A behavior pattern, physical fitness, and psychophysiological reactivity.

Examined joint effects of the Type A (coronary prone) behavior pattern and aerobic fitness with regard to heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) changes elicited by laboratory challenges. 61 male college students were classified as Type A or Type B (noncoronary prone) using R. H. Rosenman's (1978) structured interview (SI), and as physically fit or sedentary using self-reports of activity level and estimated VO?max values obtained on a step test. Ss were challenged with the SI, presentation of a snake, mental arithmetic, a cold pressor task, and 2 competitive card games. Significant A-B differences were found only on the SI and the card games: During the SI, (a) Type A's displayed significantly greater BP increases than B's; (b) sedentary Ss showed greater BP increases than fit Ss; and (c) sedentary A's revealed greater BP increases than either fit A's, fit B's, or sedentary B's. In contrast, during the competitive games, physically fit A's showed reliably greater BP increases than either sedentary A's, sedentary B's, or fit B's. Since the physically fit Ss were almost exclusively varsity athletes and the sedentary Ss were college students who reported following a sedentary lifestyle, the differences between sedentary and fit groups may have been due to differences in aerobic fitness or to the improved ability of competitive athletes or those engaged in fitness training to match arousal level to task requirements. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)