迪姆斯代爾既使用書麵問答又使用“半事先組織半臨時提問”技術在心髒病病人中鑒別A型性格。
他解釋說，交談時，“你慢吞吞地發問，有時甚至結結巴巴地問，然後觀察對方用多快的速度替你把這句話說完。”急不可待答問的人通常都是很急躁的，而急躁長期以來就被看作是A型行為的主要組成部分。
然而無論他使用要病人自己填寫問題單的方法還是更微妙的訪談方法，被鑒定為A型性格的人的結局並不比其他人糟。
在接受A型性格書麵調查(分數越高表示A型行為越多)的第一組九十九人中，無冠狀血管損傷者的平均分數為3；有一處冠狀血管損傷者的分數為6.4；兩處損傷者的平均分為0.7；三處損傷者為1；四處則為2.7。換言之，無相關關係。
在第二組接受“半事先組織半隨機提問”訪談來測定A型行為的一百零三人中，六十六人為A型，其餘為B型。也未發現相關關係。
在最初測試之後，迪姆斯代爾還對所有二百零二名病人進行了為期一年的追蹤調查，記載他們是否死亡，心髒病複發，心髒停止跳動或者由於其他心髒原因而被送往醫院。
(3)Can Mental Illness Inherit？
精神病遺傳性嗎？
It is rare to find a chatterbox1 among the Amish of Lancaster County，Pa.Rarer still is a flamboyant personality，a braggart，a show off or，at the other extreme，someone who is deeply depressed or suicidal.In this community of quiet-spoken，humble pacifists，such behavior"really stands out against the social landscape，"observes Medical Sociologist Janice Egeland，who has spent more than 25 years among the Old Order Amish，as the group is formally known.When it does occur，the Amish often have an explanation："This is inherited"，they say；the peculiar behavior is"in the blood."
Last week Egeland，who is from the University Of Miami School Of Medicine，and a group of scientists at Yale and M.I.T.confirmed that traditional Amish explanation.By employing the tools of molecular biology along with the handwritten genealogical records of Amish families they showed that the mental disorder known as manic depression2is indeed at least partly a matter of bloodlines.
Usually beginning somewhere between the ages of 15 and 35，manic depression afflicts about 1 in every 100 people.Because it causes its victims to oscillate between two extreme emotional states，it is also known to psychiatrists as bipolar affective disorder.In the manic phase，victims become expansive and extravagant，are often unable to sleep or eat，and may talk incessantly.Some assume airs of grandeur.Thedepressivephase plunges them into hopelessness，loneliness and boundless guilt，feelings that sometimes lead to suicide.