Personalities and Behavior Patterns, Type A and Type B

Michael J. Strube

The type A personality is a collection of behaviors that include impatience and a sense of urgency about accomplishing most tasks; aggressiveness and sometimes hostility toward others, especially those who “get in the way”; and a desire for achievement that leads to exaggerated competitiveness and striving for success. Type A personalities lead fast-paced lives; they speak quickly, walk quickly, eat quickly—all in an attempt to accomplish as much as possible in as little time as possible. By comparison, type B personalities are relaxed and easygoing, less concerned with the pressures of success (but are not lazy), and generally lead less hectic lives. Interest in type A behavior first arose in the 1950s when two cardiologists, Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, noticed that patients with coronary problems seemed to behave differently from noncoronary patients. Careful observation led Friedman and Rosenman to describe the type A behavior pattern as “an action-emotion complex ...

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