Development and testing of a new hostility scale.

Abstract

Evidence suggests that assessment of global type A behaviour as a coronary risk factor may not be the most fruitful strategy because some components, particularly hostility, may be more harmful than others. Measurement of hostility has been primarily through two types of instrumentation: the Type A Structured Interview (SI) and the Cook-Medley (Ho) scale. Deficiencies in the measurement of hostility have resulted from a lack of conceptual clarity because definitions of hostility have been blurred by overlap with the concepts of anger and aggression. The main objective of this study was to develop and test an instrument that focuses hostility on attitude rather than emotion or behaviour. Psychometric properties of the Hostile Attitude Scale (HAS) were Cronbach's alpha, 0.80, and correlation of 0.56 with the Ho scale and 0.43 with the SI. In a clinical investigation that used the HAS, SI and Ho scale, all measures were significantly correlated with angiogram outcome, although the strongest relationship was with the HAS. Hostile attitude alone (HAS) accounted for 6% of explained variance in angiogram outcome based on regression analysis. The HAS is offered as a short, easily administered measure of hostility, with particular emphasis on cognitive aspects of the construct.