Racing Against Your Heart

Racing Against Your Heart

Friedman, M,. & Roseman, R.H. (1959). Association of specific over behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings. Journal of the American Medical Association, 169, 1286-1296.

This study by Friedman came about in a very odd way, and dared to take a look at things not understood and in an area no one had before ventured. Dr. Friedman was having the upholstery redone on the couches and chairs in his office, since with so much traffic from patients, it had worn thin and old. The man doing the reupholstering had made a comment about how the chairs all seemed to be much more heavily worn out on the edge of the seat rather than the larger and more comfortable groove of the seat. This sparked interest in Friedman, and he immediately began to ask himself questions. Seeing as how his patients all had heart disease and they all seemed to have this inclining to sit on the edge of their seat, Friedman wanted to see if there was a pattern in heart disease patients with the characteristic of always being on edge and nervously sitting in chairs.

To test his hypothesis Friedman joined with Roseman, a fellow researcher to determine if the sitting on the edge of one’s seat is directly related to developing heart disease or not. To start their study, Friedman and Roseman made two lists of characteristics; one labeled Pattern A and the other Pattern B. Pattern A lists observable behavior of heart disease patients, all of which are widely seen throughout a large sampling of heart disease patients. Pattern B contains the exact opposite of what is found in Pattern A and described the traits that hearts disease patients tend not to have.

The study started with a sample of 83 men from each pattern’s criteria and each were interviewed to screen for a history of heart disease among their family members. Second, each subject was told to record everything they ate over a week’s time so the researchers could monitor food intake and levels of risk associated with fatty or greasy foods. Third, research assistants took blood samples from each subject in order to measure cholesterol levels and clotting time. Taking all these factors into consideration, it was determined by the interviews that Pattern A men were driven and always trying to better themselves, while Pattern B men tended to be more comfortable and