Perceived exertion during incremental cycling is not influenced by the type a behavior pattern

Recent publications have perpetuated a concern that the Type A Behavior Pat tern (TABP) influences ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) during exercise testing. Previous studies of this topic used the Jenkins Activity Survey (J AS) which lacks validity for predicting the criterion Structured Interview (SI) for TABP and used exercise protocols that were unstandardized or yield ed results that were uninterpretable for clinical exercise prescription. We used the SI to classify 44 normotensive men (18-35 y) according to TABP an d compared their RPE during an incremental cycling test to peak oxygen upta ke (VO(2)peak). Groups did not differ on maximal test performance or RPE at any stage of the test, even after adjusting RPE for small group variations in % VO(2)peak and ventilatory equivalent for oxygen, which are strong cor relates of RPE during incremental exercise, The findings agree with our pri or report [14] that no relationship existed between RPE and several self-re port measures of TABP. We conclude that there is no empirical basis for the view that the Type A Behavior Pattern affects cycling performance or ratin gs of perceived exertion during standard exercise testing in young white me n.