Challenge and Type a Behavior among Intercollegiate Football Players

The Type A behavior pattern is associated with increased risk of heart disease among men in middle adulthood. There is reason to believe, however, that specific elements of Pattern A (e.g., competitive achievement striving, aggressiveness, suppression of attention to fatigue) are useful in other contexts, for example, athletic competition. In this study, Type A and Type B college football players were evaluated by the team's head coach and assistant coaches, before the season and at midseason. Among As and Bs who had been injured by midseason (but not As and Bs overall), As achieved superior scores on ratings of having exerted themselves to their limits, both during practices and during games. These findings, from a field setting, conceptually replicated previous laboratory findings.