Social interactions, communications, and the coronary-prone behavior pattern: a psychophysiological study.
Sixty subjects classified as either Type A or Type B interacted in pairs by pressing buttons which transmitted messages through a television screen while the heart rate and digital blood volume pulse were computer-monitored. Partners could cooperate, compete, punish, reward, or withdraw on each interaction and could send 1 of 55 messages communicating feelings, requests, and behavioral intentions between interactions. Interactions and communications between Type A subjects were strikingly different from Type B subjects. Type A's were noticeably more aggressive competitive. Type A dyads also exhibited larger digital vasomotor responses than  Type B dyads. When Type A subjects and Type B subjects interacted with each other, rather than with a same-type partner, the differences between them in behavior and vasomotor response largely disappeared.
D000374:Aggression; D003142:Communication; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D011674:Pulse; D012119:Respiration; D012919:Social Behavior; D012930:Social Dominance; D014666:Vasomotor System / Q000502:physiology