Personality (hardiness) as a moderator of job stress and coronary risk in type A individuals: a longitudinal study.

This research study uses longitudinal data to determine if Type A individuals, initially classified as "hardy," show differential cardiovascular and biochemical responses in the encounter with a common job stressor. Role ambiguity was utilized as a job stressor and "hardiness" was defined using the second-order factor dependence/independence from the 16-personality factor (16PF) questionnaire. The results indicated that those individuals classified as Type A1 showed blood pressure and triglyceride elevations with increased ambiguity and that dependence/independence (hardiness) moderated this effect. When all Type A's (A1 + A2) were included in the analysis similar results were found only on systolic blood pressure. The results appear consistent with earlier findings concerning the cardiovascular reactivity of Type A's. In addition, it is suggested that dependence/independence is either a major component of the concept of "hardiness" or may be a dimension of personality which distinguishes two classes of Type A behavior. It is suggested that these results may raise the interesting possibility of providing a means of identifying greater or lesser susceptibility to the coronary effects of Type A behavior.