Extraversion, neuroticism, obsessionality and the Type A behaviour pattern

A questionnaire consisting of a subset of questions from the Jenkins Activity Survey was given to 135 male military personnel aged between 18 and 25, together with the EPQ and the AI3, an obsessionality scale. A factor analysis of the answers revealed a four‐factor structure – impatience, hard‐driving competitiveness, speed and emotional unrepression. Neuroticism was found to correlate positively with impatience and speed, but negatively with hard‐driving competitiveness, which together with emotional unrepression correlated positively with extraversion. Impatience, speed and emotional unrepression also correlated positively with obsessionality. Obsessionality was the only personality measure to correlate significantly with the total Type A score. The nature of the relationships between the Type A behaviour pattern and the Eysenckian personality measures are discussed. 1987 The British Psychological Society