The Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern and reactions to uncontrollable stress: An analysis of performance strategies, affect, and attributions during failure.

Examined the experience of 20 Type A and 20 Type B male undergraduates (as identified through the Jenkins Activity Survey) during prolonged exposure to unsolvable discrimination problems in which the cue signaling failure was highly or moderately salient. The results reveal that the problem-solving strategies of high-salience Type As deteriorated across failure trials. They commented on their lack of ability and on the task's difficulty as accounting for their failure, expressing annoyance and anger. On the other hand, Type Bs did not use ineffectual strategies; they continued to perform appropriately during failure. However, they did comment on task difficulty as well as on chance and the experimenter as playing critical roles in their failure to do well. The results suggest that deficits in performance of Type As and Bs in previous investigations are the outcomes of different processes: As may be helpless, whereas Bs 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. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)