Physical Symptom Reporting and Health Perception among Type a and b College Males

Abstract

This investigation studied the relationship of Type A behavior to physical symptom reporting and self-appraised health status. The student version of the Jenkins Activity Survey was administered to thirty male college seniors during a high-stress period of the semester. Results showed that Type A's reported relatively fewer physical symptoms and perceived themselves as being more healthy than Type B's. Type A individuals also rated themselves as healthier than their peers, whereas Type B individuals rated themselves as being less healthy than their peers. In addition, symptom reporting and health perception were negatively correlated in the Type B subsample; however, this relationship was not evident in the Type A subsample. In the discussion, it was suggested that the attentional style of Type A's may contribute to lower levels of symptom reporting and faulty appraisals of health status. The notion of an attributional bias whereby Type A's define internal somatovisceral states differently than Type B's was also discussed. Finally, the results were discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the mechanisms through which Type A behaviors might translate into increased coronary heart disease (CHD) risk.

Index Terms:

• Type A behavior
• coronary-prone behavior
• physical symptom reporting
• health perception