A crucial aspect of personality, in relation to RTA risk, that has only recently achieved recognition is Type-A Behaviour Pattern (TABP). The term TABP originated when two cardiologists (Rosenman & Friedman, 1959; Friedman & Rosenman, 1974), concerned with spousal variance in diet, discovered that individuals who suffered from heart disease contrasted significantly, behaviourally and emotionally, when compared to similar individuals that did not suffer from the same condition. Friedman & Rosenman (1974) predicted that the individuals who suffered from heart disease were more likely, as opposed to others that did not suffer from heart disease, to exhibit a behaviour style recognised today as TABP.
Conversely, Type B Behaviour Pattern (TBBP) was distinguished, from TABP, by relatively less competitive, hostile and hurried behaviour. Individuals that display this form of behaviour pattern are inclined to 'take things easier'.
Individuals that are of Type A behaviour pattern are said to display three distinct features (Chesney, Frautschi & Rosenman, 1985; Friedman & Rosenman, 1974; Baron, Russell & Arms, 1985; Carver & Glass, 1978; Jenkins, 1976). Sarafino described these features in his textbook, Health Psychology: Biopsychosocial interactions:
* Competitive achievement orientation: Type A Individuals tend to be very self-critical and strive toward goals without feeling a sense of joy in their efforts or accomplishments. Inter-related with this is the presence of a significant Life Imbalance. This is characterised by a high work involvement.
* A sense of urgency: Type A people seem to be in a constant struggle against the clock. Often, they quickly become impatient with delays and unproductive time, schedule commitments too tightly, and try to do more than one thing at a time, such as reading while eating or watching television.
* Anger/hostility: Type A individuals tend to be easily aroused to anger or hostility, which they may or may not express overtly.
In addition to the above characteristics, Suinn (1977) proposed that two factors also contribute to the maintenance of TABP: reinforcement and stress. Suinn (1977) put forward that Type A characteristics led to outcomes that were profitable. Furthermore, if the rewards were powerful and frequent, the Type A behaviour would become over-learned and therefore lead to a strong habit pattern. This pattern would then be generalised across other conditions such as various recreational activities not normally demanding Type A behaviour. This is then reflected in the driving situation. For example, a study at Manchester university found an association between aggressive driving and positive affect such as excitement and/or enjoyment, (source: Driving Standards Agency). Suinn's (1977) proposal supported an early study on driving behaviour by Tillman & Hobbs (1949) who found that individuals tended to adopt the same behaviour on the road as they did in other day-to-day activities. While a later study by Shaw (1965) found that driving offered the individual opportunities for delusions of grandeur and anti-social behaviour, and many accidents were caused by the fact that people drive as they would live.
Although Parry (1968) never went as far to include TABP in his seminal study of road traffic accident risk (perhaps due to the lack of a reliable measure at that time), he did acknowledge most of the typical characteristics associated with the behaviour pattern. For example, he stated that, as a rule, road users would be susceptible to high levels of stress on the road, and some personality types were more likely to express negative emotions under such conditions. This has been established with individuals that exhibit TABP, i.e. they have shown a disposition towards replying with a greater intensity and readiness towards stressors, frequently regarding them as jeopardising personal control, (Glass, 1977). Later Suinn was to argue that stress was as much prompted by the conditions in which the Type A individuals had put themselves (i.e. prompted by cue conditions external to the individual) as by their own driven nature. Further, this propensity to react negatively towards stressors has been shown to be heightened by many of the characteristics of extended urbanisation, (Chew, 1997), such as congestion on the roads and a faster pace of life in general. In addition, Zyzanski (1978) demonstrated that individuals exhibiting TABP had elevated mean scores for deaths due to accidents, and violence.
The Type A Personality Inventory, primarily developed by Friedman & Rosenman (1974) to investigate TABP with reference to coronary heart disease, was utilised within the questionnaire as it identified and measured the personality characteristics that were essentially concerned with in RTAs. The Type A Personality Inventory (1974) consists of four behavioural tendencies: extreme competitiveness, significant life imbalance (typically coupled with high work involvement), strong feelings of hostility and anger, and an extreme sense of urgency and impatience.
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