In the history of the study of psychology, scientists have found all kinds of ways of categorizing how different facets of someone’s personality affect their lives. Everybody is different, so it may seem like categorizing personalities is a bit like herding cats. However, it is necessary to study groups of people with similar traits to understand how these things impact society, as well as our mental and physical health.

Type A or Type B?

One way of categorizing personality types that came out of a 20^th-century study lasting almost a decade is the ‘type A’ and ‘type B’ categorization. This doesn’t suggest that there are only two types of people. However, it does looks specifically at certain aspects of where people find their drive and motivation, and how they deal with competition and stress.

If you want to know which personality type you are, then there is a good quiz at Examined Existence that can help you figure it out. But, what are the differences and why do they matter?

Classic Traits of Type A People

Type A personalities tend to be quite highly strung, ambitious, and domineering. They set very high standards for themselves and experience anxiety when they feel they are not reaching their potential or when a venture fails.

Type A people tend to feel a lot of pressure, both from within themselves and externally, to be the best at everything, and they often feel like they are short of time. These people tend to achieve great things, but there is a cost. They generally report lower levels of satisfaction with their lives as they are always setting their ambitions higher as they reach previous goals.

Unfortunately, the stress and exhaustion that comes from this were shown in the original study to correlate to a higher rate of coronary problems.

Type B People

Type B people tend to be more laid back, and while they may still strive for goals, they tend to reflect on reaching them as a journey and if things go wrong along the way, they tend to handle it better than Type A people.

Type B people are the people who do things like sport or games for fun, rather than to win, and as such tend to feel generally more satisfied, though they may be more prone to resting on their laurels in their career and other areas of life.

While it is, of course, impossible to choose your own personality, which is a result of a lot of factors including both nature and nurture, it seems that Type B is somewhat healthier and happier, and so Type A people could perhaps try to learn to push themselves a little less and enjoy the achievements they have already made, as well as becoming more accepting of their own failures as learning experiences.

Type B people, on the other hand, may be able to learn to set and achieve goals better from their Type A counterparts.