Type A personality is a category used to describe a particular type of response to stress. 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 served to describe how people relate to each other and how they react to external factors. Below we will see what a type A personality looks like and what its relationship is to cardiovascular disease, as well as the research that has linked it to it.

Type A Personality Characteristics

The classification we know as “type A personality” was suggested by American cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Raymond Rosenman in the 1950s.

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

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

1. 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 fulfilling them, rather than the fact of enjoying the process.

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

2. Sense of urgency

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

For the same reason, they are usually impatient people who get very involved in their work activities and who tend to overreact on some occasions, for example when things don’t go as planned.

3. Hostility

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

In short, the Type A personality implies an orientation to success with a tendency to competitiveness, a sense of urgency and little tolerance for frustration. They tend to be ambitious, extremely hardworking and demanding people who are committed to 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, proposed that the Type A personality could be A-1 or A-2; and it could also be Type B , which 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 the letter B, and in the middle are the codes A-1, A-2, B-3 and B-4. We would find the type A personality, and the subtype A-1 at the first end, which is the most notorious manifestation of the traits we explained above.

The A-2 personality is the next segment, and refers to people who are less afflicted and less oriented to competitiveness. On the other hand, if the person has a successful orientation, but is more calm than overloaded , then he is a type B-3 personality.

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 (that would be type B-4 personalities).

However, the research that followed Friedman and Rosenman’s studies was not limited to studying 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 carried out a longitudinal study with 3154 healthy men between 39 and 59 years of age to whom they applied 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 it were men with type A personality patterns.

They also found that people at the A and B ends 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 Type A Personality Pattern Research

These should not be understood as closed, fixed or immovable categories , but as a continuum. That is, 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 realized that people at the extreme end of the Type A personality could be found more at the extreme B end on weekends or when very demanding routines were modified.

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

Likewise, it has been found that there are other more determining risk factors for the development of cardiovascular diseases , such as smoking, a sedentary lifestyle or obesity.

Because of this, 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.

Bibliographic references

  • McLeod, S. (2017). Type A Personality. Recovered April 3, 2018. Available at 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). Patrón de comportamiento tipo A: algunos de sus componentes patofisiológicos. Toro. N. Y Acad. Med. 53(7): 593-604.
  • Rosenman, R. & Friedman, M. (1977). Modificando el tipo de patrón de comportamiento. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 21(4): 323-331.