Type A behaviour in British men: reliability and intercorrelation of two measures

Two questionnaire measures of the Type A behaviour pattern, the Jenkins Activity Survey and the Bortner Questionnaire were completed by a sample of 151 middle-aged male civil servants on three occasions, up to 34 weeks apart. The reliability of both measures was satisfactory. The reliability coefficient of the JAS Type A measure did not fall below 0.79 while the Bortner achieved a reliability of 0.71 over the longest time interval studied. The intercorrelation of the two tests on two occasions was approximately 0.7. In addition it was shown that both tests were largely independent of a number of standard cardiovascular risk factors. It was concluded that in the population studied both tests had satisfactory psychometric properties and that they were measuring a very similar behavioural characteristic.