ASSESSING A MULTIDIMENSIONAL TYPE-A BEHAVIOR SCALE

From Friedman and Rosenman's [(1974) Type A behavior and your heart. New York: Knopf] definition, five components of Type A behaviour can be discerned, namely, impatience, achievement striving, anger, hostility and competitiveness. In the present study, a scale measuring the five Type A components was assessed. The 24-item Multidimensional Type A Behaviour Scale (MTABS) was derived from existing scales measuring aspects of Type A behaviour. Factor analysis of responses of 363 South African bank employees supported the five dimensional construct of the MTABS. A comparable factor structure was found using a sample of insurance employees (N = 467). Suitable internal and test-retest reliability was found and the concurrent validity of the MTABS was supported: impatience, achievement striving, anger, hostility and competitiveness all were associated with measures of global Type A behaviour. Also, as predicted, the Type A dimensions were differentially related to diverse health and work attitude indices. Recommendations for future applications of a multidimensional measure of Type A behaviour are discussed.