In this video I discuss the relationship between stress, personality, and heart disease. Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman proposed that Type A personality, characterized by competitiveness and hostility, was associated with 7x more heart disease than Type B personality, characterized by a more laid-back and calm demeanor. The frequent spikes of blood pressure associated with episodes of anger may increase arterial damage as well as the possibility of accumulated plaque breaking off and entering blood circulation. As we’ll see in future videos, stress management techniques can help with coping and reduce this risk.
For more on this relationship, see Robert Sapolsky – Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: https://amzn.to/2IzRwdN (Amazon affiliate link)
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Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Michael Corayer and this is Psych Exam Review. In the previous video we looked at the relationship between stress and peptic ulcers and in this video we’re going to look at the relationship between stress, personality, and heart disease. This brings us to the work of Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, two cardiologists who proposed that there was a link between a certain personality type and an increased risk of heart disease. This certain personality type is called type A personality; so people with this type A personality tend to be very competitive and ambitious and as a result they feel a constant sense of time urgency. They feel there’s not enough time to do everything that they want to do and so they have this constant pressure on themselves. And this means they’re easily irritated and they’re more prone to anger and hostility.
This is in contrast to people with a type B personality. This refers to people who are more laid-back and easygoing; they’re more cooperative, they’re more patient, and they’re less prone to these episodes of anger and hostility. Now one of the clues for this difference between type A and type B personality and heart disease was that in Friedman and Rosenman’s waiting room, the upholstery on the chairs needed to be replaced more frequently than the upholstery on chairs in other departments. The reason for this was that it seemed that cardiology patients were less patient. They were more likely to fidget; to pull and stretch and squeeze the fabric on the chairs, and this is why it needed to be replaced more often. Now Friedman and Rosenman initially found that amongst patients identified as having a Type A personality, they had 7 times the rate of heart disease compared to those with a type B personality. So why is this?
Well, in order to understand why, we have to go into a little more detail on heart disease or cardiovascular disease. One of the main symptoms in cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis, this is also called arterial sclerosis, and atherosclerosis comes from the Greek for “gruel” and “heart” and it refers to a thickening and hardening of the arterial walls and they build up of plaque on these walls. This is a result of inflammation of the arteries and then the accumulation of white blood cells, foam cells, which are macrophages that are bloated with lipids, and what you’re probably familiar with, cholesterol. And so the buildup of these cells on the walls of the arteries means that the space inside the artery gets smaller and smaller and this means that there’s an increase in blood pressure. So blood is now whipping through these arteries more quickly.
This is especially the case if we have sudden spikes in blood pressure, such as those that might occur if you have an episode of anger and hostility. And so what can happen is a piece of this plaque that’s built up on the arteries might break off and now it travels in the blood circulation. That means there’s a chance that can get stuck somewhere and this is especially likely to occur if the arterial walls are very thick and so the space for it to travel in is narrow. And if this unstable bit of plaque gets stuck in the artery of a heart or a coronary artery, then you have a myocardial infarction or a heart attack. If it gets stuck in a blood vessel in the brain then you have a stroke. So this atherosclerosis increases the risk of both of these very serious potentially fatal illnesses. And the frequent spikes in blood pressure that we see amongst people with this type A personality, not only does this increase the wear and tear on the arteries and the potential for inflammation, but we also have the increased risk of breaking off a piece of this unstable plaque.
So how much additional risk do we have from type A personality? Well, it’s tough to say because there’s a number of factors involved. One of these might be that people with type A are more angry and hostile and this means that they have more negative affectivity; they have more negative emotion. This might be playing a role, but we also have what’s called transactional hostility and that is they tend to be angry and hostile with others and others tend to respond in kind; that’s the transaction. And so this means that other people might not like them very much and they might reduce the social support that they’re willing to offer this person when the person is under stress. And we’ll see in a future video that there’s a clear relationship between stress management and social support. So this could also be playing a role in this risk.
Now if this type A personality sounds like you, well don’t despair because it is possible to change and there are stress management techniques that can help to reduce anger and hostility and the risk of this damage to your arteries. Now if you’re not type A, if you’re more of a Type B person, well, perhaps you’ll understand a little better. And next time somebody behind you is leaning on their car horn or they’re berating a shop employee for some trivial error, then first, you can avoid responding in kind; you can recognize the danger of these episodes of anger and hostility. But you also might find yourself even feeling bad for this person who’s so easily angered, so easily upset. You might even find yourself feeling really bad for their poor arteries that have to deal with this increased wear and tear.
Ok, I hope you found this helpful, if so, please like the video and subscribe to the channel for more. Thanks for watching!
