Abstract:
The history of occupational stress research has not been linear, with new findings building on
past knowledge. Several theories vie for dominance at anyone time as new theories usurp old
theories and old theories are resurrected.What can we believe in? Just when we are thoroughly
convinced by a particular scientific community as to why it is that we behave the way we do, a
new theory is heralded as a major scientific breakthrough and we are expected to change
allegiance.The theory, which forms the case study for this paper has been cited so often during
the last 30 years that it has become established, authoritative lay knowledge; a taken-for-granted
reference, which is only now, at the turn of the century being questioned by the same scientific
community who were previously so sure of its validity. The theory addressed is the so-called
established link between Type A behaviour pattern, stress and coronary heart disease. The
epistemologies of the structuralists and post-structuralists are invoked to explain these changes in
theoretical consensus.
