Type A behavior pattern, ego identity, and gender

The present study examined the resolution of Erikson's fifth stage, Identity vs Identity Diffusion, of Type A and Type B males and females. Eighty-eight undergraduate students (51 females and 37 males) completed the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), a student-adapted measure of Type A behavior, and the Identity vs Identity Diffusion scale from A. Constantinople's (1969, Developmental Psychology, 1, 357-372) Inventory of Psychosocial Development (IPD). Significant interactions were found between Type A-B and gender for both the difference scores of the IPD and the identity diffusion scores. These interactions indicated that Type B women had a significantly higher sense of identity and a significantly lower sense of identity diffusion than both Type A women and Type B men. The meaning of these findings is discussed.