The Type D Construct

The interaction of negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI), known as the Type D personality, is associated with a worse prognosis in cardiac patients. Until now, causal models have been speculative, and this is partly due to a lack of clarity related to the validity of SI, its role in emotion regulation, and the postulated independence of social and emotional functioning. To examine the construct validity of the Type D personality, we analyzed associations of NA and SI with different measures of affectivity, social anxiety, and social competencies in a German population-based representative sample (n = 2,495). Both NA and SI were associated with all other measures of social functioning and negative affect (all rs > .30) and showed considerable cross-loadings (NA: a 1 = .39, a 2 = .63; SI: a1 = .73 and a2 = .34) in a two-factor solution with the factors labeled as Social Functioning and Negative Affectivity. The SI subscale did not properly differentiate between social fears and social competencies, which emerged as rather different aspects of social functioning. Further studies should examine the effect of broader dimensions of social orientation and competencies and their interaction with NA on cardiac prognosis.