Type A personality: characteristics and related factors

This behavior pattern is related to very competitive and methodical people.

Type A personality is a category used to describe a particular type of stress response. It is a proposal that emerged in the 1950s, when two cardiologists wanted to study the relationship between some personality traits and the development of heart disease.

Currently, Type A personality is one of four personality patterns (there are also B, C and D) that have been used to describe how people relate and react to external factors. Below we will see what a type A personality looks like. we will see what a type A personality is like and how it is related to cardiovascular diseases, as well as the research that has linked them.

Characteristics of the type A personality

The classification we know as "Type A personality" was suggested by American cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Raymond Rosenman. was suggested by the U.S. cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Raymond Rosenman in the 1950s.

In very general terms, what they observed was that a set of stress responses, such as competitiveness, a sense of constant urgency and hostility (which they called Type A personality), are related to an increased likelihood of developing coronary heart disease and high blood pressure.

Although they limited themselves to relating stress response and heart disease, their classification has now been taken up and conceptualized as a set of behavioral responses known as Personality Pattern Type A o Type A Behavior Pattern (TABP).

Competitiveness

The TABP is characterized by a tendency to competitiveness, which makes the person always self-critical and seeks to achieve its objectives for the satisfaction of accomplishing them, rather than for the fact of enjoying the process.

In other words, competitiveness is related to constant experiences of successIt implies a disciplined personality and allows the achievement of objectives, but it can also be a generator of permanent stress.

2. Sense of urgency

This is a personality that seems to be always "against the clock", with an overload of work and a permanent need to comply with rules and schedules. and schedules. They are people who do many things at the same time and always "on time", therefore, the moments that are not considered as "productive" can generate a lot of anxiety.

For the same reason, they tend to be impatient people that are very involved in their work activities and tend to overreact on some occasions, for example, when things do not go as planned.

3. Hostility

The previous characteristic is related to the fact that the person often highlights more the negative than the positive in others and circumstances, developing constant frustration, and even lack of empathy, or in the worst case, aggressive behavior. The consequence is that the person is almost always perceived as someone hostile or always angry. or someone who is always angry.

In sum, the Type A personality implies a success orientation with a tendency toward competitiveness, a sense of urgency and low frustration tolerance. They tend to be ambitious, extremely hard-working and demanding people who engage in several activities at once, which they consider urgent and therefore generate constant tension.

Other Personality Patterns: Type B, C and D

While investigating Type A personality patterns, Friedman and Rosenman found that not all Type A personalities were the same. Thus, they proposed that Type A personality could be A-1 or A-2; and it could also be Type Bwhich included subtypes B-3 and B-4.

To explain it better, let's imagine a straight line in which one end has the letter A and the other end has the letter B, and in the middle are the codes A-1, A-2, B-3 and B-4. We would find personality type A, and subtype A-1 at the first end, which is the most noticeable manifestation of the traits explained above.

The A-2 personality is the next segment, and refers to people who are less distressed and less competitively oriented. On the other hand, if the person is success oriented, but is more calm than overloaded. is more calm than overloadedIf this is a B-3 personality type, then this is a B-3 personality type.

Finally, at the other end of the line we have the Type B personality pattern, which is a person who is perceived as more serene and peaceful (these would be Type B-4 personalities).

However, the research that followed Friedman and Rosenman's studies was not limited to studying the Type A personality, so that four personality patterns are now recognized: Type A, Type B, Type C and Type D.

Type A personality and heart disease

Friedman and Rosenman conducted a longitudinal study of 3154 healthy men between 39 and 59 years of age to whom they administered a questionnaire exploring emotional dimensions of the personality. a questionnaire that explored emotional dimensions and some lifestyles, from which they categorized type A personality traits.

Eight years later, 257 of the participants had developed coronary heart disease, and by the end of the research, 70% of those who had developed coronary heart disease were men who had Type A personality patterns.

They also found that people at the A end and the B end had very different Blood Pressure levels. had very different blood pressure levelsThey also found that people at the A end and the B end had very different blood pressure levels: very high values at the first end and more normal values at the second end (250/130 mm Hg and 155/95 mm Hg, respectively).

Some limits in the investigation of the type A personality pattern.

These should not be understood as closed, fixed or immovable categories, but as a continuum.but as a continuum. In other words, we can find ourselves in type A or B at different times and according to the demands of the environment.

For example, the same researchers noticed that people who were at the extreme of the type A personality, could be found more towards the extreme B during the weekends or when very demanding routines were modified.

On the other hand, one of the limitations of the study is that it was only carried out with men, so its results cannot be fully applied to the population of men. cannot be fully applied to the female population (lifestyles (lifestyles, social demands and response to stress are different).

Likewise, it has been found that there are other risk factors that are more determinant for the development of cardiovascular disease, such as smoking, social demands and stress response.such as smoking, a sedentary lifestyle and obesity.

Because of the above, and also because of the popularity it has gained in some sectors of both medicine and clinical psychology, type A personality is a theory that has been constantly researched and updated.

Referencias bibliográficas

• McLeod, S. (2017). Type A Personality. Recuperado 03 de abril de 2018. Disponible en https://www.simplypsychology.org/personality-a.html
• Petticrew, M. Lee, K. & McKee, M. (2012). Type A Behavior Pattern and Coronary Heart Disease: Philip Morris’s “Crown Jewel”. Am J Public Health, 102(11): 2018-2025.
• Friedman, H. & Booth-Kewley, S. (1987). Personality, Type A Behavior, and Coronary Heart Disease: The Role of Emotional Expression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 53(4): 783-792.
• Friedman, M. (1977). Type A behavior pattern: some of its pathophysiological component. Bull. N. Y Acad. Med. 53(7): 593-604.
• Rosenman, R. & Friedman, M. (1977). Modifying type a behavior pattern. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 21(4): 323-331.