Personality And Stress Response: Investigating Differences In Pulse Rate

For this assessment you are going to develop and submit a research proposal on the subject of the physiological response to a stressful situation. The information that follows provides a step-by-step guide on how to complete a research proposal. By following the instructions and links provided throughout this document, you can obtain further support and detail about research methods.
Firstly, you will need to click on the links (on the next page) relating to your research topic and read around this topic. (Assessment criterion 2.4).
Once you have a good understanding of the topic, you can devise a title based around your research topic (Assessment criterion You may find that this title changes after you have done more reading!
Now that you have devised your title, you will begin to look into the background research relating to your topic. What is previous research saying about the topic in question? What are the concepts and theories, and who proposed (or opposed) them? What research was conducted and what was found? Can you justify why further research needs to be carried out based on previous research findings? You will answer such questions in the appropriate boxes provided in the Planning a Practical Investigation Answer Sheet.

Personality of an individual is a distinct characteristic which sets him apart from another individual. The personality of a human being is the basis on how the individual would react to stress. According to Friedman and Rosenman human beings can be grouped on the basis of personality into Type A and B (Fretwell et al., 2013). Type A human beings are hostile, aggressive and competitive. Type B human beings are believed to be relaxed, calm and easy going. The present research would investigate whether there are significant differences in pulse rate of individuals of different personality. It has been perceived that individuals of Type A personality are hyperactive and thus have a higher pulse rate. On the other hand, since Type B personality individuals are calm hence, they would have a lower / average pulse rate. A higher pulse rate signifies presence of coronary artery disease (CAD).

The aim of the research is find how personality modulates the stress responses of individuals.

Alternate Hypothesis: The pulse rate of humans with type A personality is higher than those with type B personality

Null Hypothesis: There is no difference in the pulse rates between type A and type B personality

The present research topic is experimental research. In the research we intend to investigate the stress responses of human beings towards a given task. In the experiment the stress response as a function of personality of an individual would be measured. The Stroop Color Word Test would be used to induce stress. The level of stress would be measured through measurements of pulse rates (Bokenberger et al 2014).

For the experiment the students would be divided into two groups based on their personality, type A or type B.  

The independent variable in the study are the two types of personality – type A or type B. The dependent variable is the pulse rate of the subjects.

Since the experiment involves human subjects hence, confidentially of information is the most important issue. The confidentiality of individuals needs to be maintained. Moreover, the information concerning the individual being type A or type B would also not be divulged.

Further, since the experiment involves human beings, hence at any moment if individuals do not wish to continue with the experiment they can voluntarily leave.

For the study voluntary sampling method would be used. Individuals who volunteer for the study would be included in the study. The aim is to evaluate an individual without having prior information of the type of personality of the person.

Results

In order to have sufficient amount of data a minimum sample size of 30 in each group is believed to be adequate.

The participants in the experiment would not be segregated on the basis of males or females. Hence, individuals of both sexes can volunteer to be part of the experiment. For the experiment volunteers would be recruited from the university campus. Thus, it be conveniently estimated that the age of the participant would be in the range of 20 to 25 years.

The Friedman and Rosenman questionnaire would be used to allocate individuals into wither group. Individuals scoring more than 13 would be Type A and those below 13 would be in Type B.

The independent variable in the experiment is the two types of personality – A and B. Before the start of the experiment the students need to be segregated into the two groups. In order to segregate the students into the two groups the Friedman and Rosenman questionnaire would be used. The Friedman and Rosenman questionnaire is a 25 item questionnaire. The answers to the questionnaire are in yes and no form. Subjects who score more than 13 on the scale are grouped as type A and those with less than 13 as type B (Shaygannejad et al., 2013).  

The behaviour patterns of type A and Type B were proposed by Friedman and Rosenman. (Song et al., 2013). While type A human beings are characterised as being aggressive, impatient, ambitious and competitive, type B persons are seen as relaxed, composed and non-competitive.

The Friedman and Rosenman scale is used by researchers to group individuals into type A and type B behaviour patterns.

In order to induce stress, the Stroop color-word interference would be used (Oken et al., 2015). The test is based on the fact that individuals read faster as compared to naming the colours. In the test words are given to individuals. The colour of the words or the background of the words are coloured. Individuals are asked to score the word (representing colours) and the colour of the font.  

Individuals would be recruited from the university campus. About 15 – 20 individuals would be recruited for the study. Individuals how would like to test the effect of stress on their pulse rate would be asked to come to the venue. Voluntary sampling method would be used to select the individuals. The sampling process is a non-probabilistic sampling process.

Discussion

The practical for the research would take place in the university.

Prior to the start of the experimentation, all individuals would be briefed about the experiment process. They would be told that the experiment is a three stage process. In the first stage they would be administered the Friedman and Rosenman scale. This would help in segregating individuals into two groups. Next individuals would undergo Stroop color-word interference test. During the test their pulse rate would be monitored. The average pulse rate during the inference test would be used as a measure.

During the process of experiment in anybody wishes to leave the experiment then they leave.

If anybody feels discomfort during the experiment process, then they should report the same.

Confidentiality would be maintained regarding the output of the experiment.  

After the experiment is conducted the volunteers would be thanked for being a part of the experiment.

All individuals would have to fill the Friedman and Rosenman sheet. The names of the individuals should be put on the sheet. Immediately after the individuals fill the sheet they would be administered the Stroop color-word interference test. The segregation of the individuals would be done later when the results of Friedman and Rosenman would be done.

When conducting the Stroop color-word interference test the pulse rate would be recorded against the name of each individual.

Table 1: Descriptive statistics showing pulse rate (PR2) during the task

Table 2: Independent sample t-test

The independent sample t-test is used to analyze the pulse rates. The independent sample t-test is used since we wish to measure the effect of personality on stress response. Thus the personality is the dependent variable and stress response (pulse rate is the independent variable).

33 volunteers took part in the research. From the Friedman and Rosenman questionnaire it was evaluated that 18 individuals were of Type A and 15 were type B. The pulse rate of the individuals was taken three times during the experiment process. Pulse rates were taken before the stress test, during the test and after the test. The pulse rate during the stress test was compared using independent sample t-test.

The results of independent sample t-test showed that there are statistically significant differences between the pulse rates of individuals having personality type A and B (t = 5.430, p-value < 0.000) at 0.05 level of significance. From the inferential statistics it was found that the average (sd) pulse rates of individuals having personality type A, 109.611 (8.21) was higher than individuals having personality type B, 97.93 (1.39).

Conclusion

In order to measure the effect of personality on the stress response an experiment was done. The Friedman and Rosenman questionnaire was used to segregate individuals on the basis of their personality. On the basis of the results of questionnaire individuals were divided into type A or B. Further, the individuals were subjected to a stress task. During the stress the pulse rates of the individuals were measured. The pulse rates of the individuals were compared for means. From independent sample t-test it was found that the mean pulse rate of personality type A was higher than personality type B.

Thus, it can be inferred that the personality of an individual modulates the stress response.

Bokenberger, K., Pedersen, N.L., Gatz, M. and Dahl, A.K., 2014. The Type A behavior pattern and cardiovascular disease as predictors of dementia. Health Psychology, 33(12), p.1593.

Fretwell, C.E., Lewis, C.C. and Hannay, M., 2013. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, A/B Personality Types, and Locus of Control: Where Do They Intersect?. American Journal of Management, 13(3), pp.57-66.

Oken, B.S., Chamine, I. and Wakeland, W., 2015. A systems approach to stress, stressors and resilience in humans. Behavioural brain research, 282, pp.144-154.

Shaygannejad, V., Dehnavi, S.R., Ashtari, F., Karimi, S., Dehghani, L., Meamar, R. and Tolou-Ghamari, Z., 2013. Study of type A and B behavior patterns in patients with multiple sclerosis in an Iranian population. International journal of preventive medicine, 4(Suppl 2), p.S279.

Song, C., Ikei, H., Lee, J., Park, B.J., Kagawa, T. and Miyazaki, Y., 2013. Individual differences in the physiological effects of forest therapy based on Type A and Type B behavior patterns. Journal of physiological anthropology, 32(1), p.14.