Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 52, Issue 3 307-319, Copyright © 1990 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Type A behavior pattern: facial behavior and speech components

MA Chesney, P Ekman, WV Friesen, GW Black and MH Hecker
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco 94143.

Early descriptions of the Type A coronary-prone pattern include both nonverbal and motoric signs. Facial behaviors during the Type A Structured Interview of 24 Type A and 24 Type B men were examined using the Facial Action Coding System. In addition, speech components and heart rate reactivity during the Structured Interviews were examined. Among the facial behaviors assessed, two significantly differentiated Type As from Type Bs: Glare and Disgust. The Glare and Disgust facial scores correlated significantly with a number of speech components, most notably Hostility, which has been found to be associated with CHD incidence in other research. No differences between the two behavior types were found for heart rate reactivity. Implications of the findings for the understanding and assessment of coronary-prone behaviors such as hostility are discussed.