During the 1950s, cardiologists began to investigate personality traits and their relationship with both stress coping responses and associated health factors. Currently, up to four personality patterns: A, B, C and D. If you want to know what type A personality is, keep reading this Psychology-Online article: Type A personality: traits and characteristics.
Type A personality
The classification of the personality types and their relationship with stress It was developed by cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Raymond Rosenman. In their research they observed that reactions to stress or stressful stimuli varied based on a pattern of identifiable personality traits in the subjects, so the responses to tension were similar in people who presented common or shared personality characteristics.
On the other hand, they also realized that the probability of developing certain types of diseases was related to personality pattern; Depending on their psychological aspects, people were more or less likely to present a certain type of pathology. From longitudinal studies they suggested the existence of four personality patterns. The first of them, the type A personality patterndefined in 1976, which is broadly characterized by a stable pattern of behavior defined by a series of rigid and strong featuresas well as a greater predisposition to suffer from coronary diseases.
It is important do not confuse type A personality with type A personality disorder. The type A personality pattern refers to the classification proposed by Friedman and Rosenman on psychological traits and their impact on responses to external factors and diseases, on the other hand the type A personality disorder refers to a group of personality pathologies that include paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders.
Type A personality: traits
What is the type A personality like? He type A behavior pattern It is made up of three personality traits and psychological aspects; competitiveness, hostility and a sense of urgency. The main traits of people with personality type A are the following:
1. Competitiveness
Type A people have a tendency towards competitiveness, they seek to achieve their goals and objectives and achieve success, often only enjoying the result and not the process. The latter is due to his mental rigidity for challenges and a certain obsession with personal need for achievement, in which success fulfills a function of self-affirmation and protection of self-esteem. They want to be able to give the most of themselves and stand out positively from other people. They are highly self-demanding, self-critical and perfectionist people. Here you will find more information about the .
2. Hostility
In stressful situations, the type A personality pattern shows ease of feeling irritable. This hostility especially emerges in situations in which your goals or plans are put at risk, or when other people do not act in the same way, making it difficult to achieve an achievement. Sometimes it can lead to a lack of empathy, frustration or aggressive behavior.
3. Sense of urgency
Impatience is another of the characteristic features of the type A personality pattern. They have difficulties with waiting and delay and a tendency to impulsivity. Likewise, they present a need to strictly comply with delivery dates, schedules and rules. They live with a feeling of lack of time that causes feelings of anxiety.
It is important to emphasize that although these personality traits are those that characterize the type A personality, they are not fixed and immovable. That is, they are aspects of personality that emerge in the face of stressful situations or challenges; in the absence of demands or demands from the environment, they do not have to be present in the same person. Therefore this pattern of behavior is contextual, depends on external circumstancessince the study focused on coping with stress.
Type A personality: characteristics
The personality traits mentioned and explained above give rise to a series of defining characteristics in people with type A personality, some of them are:
- People with a strong achievement orientationso they make great efforts and, sometimes, sacrifices to achieve what they have set out to do.
- Personality disciplined, self-demanding and rigid with the standards and their own performance criteria.
- Personality style dominant and authoritarian.
- Tendency to excessively involved in the workplace, so they may neglect other areas of their life. In some cases there is one.
- Difficulties relaxing and disconnecting from work.
- They usually present extreme or exaggerated reactions in the face of what they consider a failure.
- Reactive and proactive responses to stress.
- Another characteristic of the type A personality is reckless or impulsive decision-making. In the following article you will find.
- Personality perfectionist and ambitiousThese people usually set goals that are too high and unrealistic, and they also consider any small failure a defeat.
- Intransigence with themselves and with other people, so social relationships may be affected.
- Hypervigilance or attention, excessive alertness to avoid making mistakessince there is a great concern about performance and productivity.
- Elevated need for a feeling of control about circumstances and low tolerance for uncertainty.
- Tendency to become overloaded with work and take on excessive responsibility.
- They prefer to work individually when faced with stressful and demanding tasks, in the same way that they usually have teamwork difficulties and to delegate.
- Sometimes your performance and productivity can be negatively affected by your propensity for speed.
- High tone of voice, rapid speech, gesturing and rapid movements with psychomotor agitation at times.
- Another characteristic of the type A personality is low tolerance for frustration, so they get angry if they don’t get what they want or if things don’t go as planned.
- Nervousness and agitation In general, it can manifest itself through nail biting, teeth grinding, or frequent touching of one’s hair.
Type A personality: illnesses
Friedman and Roseman studied the link between health and the type A personality pattern, concluding that the traits of this personality type and the resulting lifestyle constitute a risk factor pfor certain diseases:
- Coronary pathologies: Coronary artery disease is the most common heart condition. The hostility component present in the type A personality would be the most detrimental to the development of this type of disease; this may be due to the cardiovascular hyperreactivity and increasing the level of activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Other heart diseases common in this group of people are heart attacks, ischemic heart disease, or narrowing of the arteries, and strokes.
- Hypertension: Type A personality characteristics are a predisposing factor for increased blood pressure levels; this may be due to high reactivity to stress.
- Higher levels of cholesterolhypercholesterolemia, and triglycerides.
- Predisposition to suffer sleep disturbancesespecially .
- Type A personality is also a risk factor for the development of anxiety problems, since there is a propensity for stress. In the following article you will find.
- Greater trend for smoking and substance use.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Díaz, EM, Icaza, G., Mujica, V., Núñez, L., Leiva, E., Vásquez, M., & Palomo, I. (2011). Type A behavior pattern, anger and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in an urban Chilean population. Elsevier. es/rlp, 43(3), 443-453.
- Dorta González, MR (2002). Construct validity of type A behavior pattern.
- Eagleston, JR, Chesney, M.A., & Rosenman, R.H. (1988). Psychosocial risk factors in coronary heart disease: the type A behavior pattern as an example. Latin American Journal of Psychology, 20(1), 81-89.