Type A behavior and marital dissatisfaction: disentangling the effects of achievement striving and impatience-irritability.
Previous research has documented an association between overall Type A behavior and marital dissatisfaction. The present study examines the nature of this relationship when a two dimensional approach to Type A behavior is adopted, and impatience-irritability and achievement striving are assessed separately. Subjects were 134 medical practitioners and specialists and their wives in South Africa. As predicted, husbands' impatience-irritability was associated with their own and their wives' marital dissatisfaction. However, neither their achievement striving nor global Type A behavior correlated with their own or their wives' marital dissatisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of the need for isolating the specific component of Type A behavior that is associated with marital dissatisfaction.
Barling
J
J
Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Canada.
Bluen
S
S
Moss
V
V
D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010556:Personality Tests; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D014434:Type A Personality