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One way of categorising people’s personality was Type A and Type B.  This categories have now been changed to Type A Behaviour Pattern (TABP) and Type B and C.

TABP is thought to lead to behaviours such as competitiveness, occasional aggression and hostility, liking control, perfectionism and a constant sense of time urgency. They are also very competitive and self-critical. They may strive towards goals constantly without feeling joy when they achieve something.  They can tend to overreact and will be easily wound up.  They can constantly experience a sense of urgency, struggling against the clock and becoming impatient with any delays.  A person with TABP may have a poor work/life balance as they may have a high involvement with work.

Type B personalities tend to be more tolerant and relaxed than people with TABP. They often have lower levels of anxiety, higher levels of reflection, creativity and imagination.

People with Type C personality will tend to suppress their emotions and have more difficulty expressive emotions, particularly negative ones such as anger. They may appear “pathologically nice”. They can avoid conflict and be over-patient and compliant.

But why is this important? Why do we need to look at a person’s personality type? In this case, Type A has been linked to heart disease. Friedman and Rosenman conducted a longitudinal study (a study carried out over a number of years). They wanted to test if a TABP could predict heart disease. They studied 3154 healthy men over 8.5 years. They gave the men a questionnaire and then classified them as Type A or Type B. 

According to the results of the questionnaire 1589 individuals were classified as Type A personalities, and 1565 Type B.  They found that twice as many men with TABP as Type B developed coronary heart disease. So if a person has TABP they are twice as likely to develop heart disease as someone with Type B personality, even when you take account of other factors, such as how much they drink or smoke. 

It isn’t quite that simple though -

Hostility is another factor found in people with TABP. Hostility is also linked to heart disease according to Forshaw, 2012. It has been argued that hostility is a better predictor of heart disease developing than TABP overall. 

Also, in another longitudinal study, they found that Type A men who survived a coronary event died at a lower rate than Type B men who survived an event (Ragland and Brand, 1988).  So there was a lower rate of deaths in Type A men after surviving a coronary event than Type B men.

Psychological profiling can therefore be useful in helping us to determine a person’s personality. In this situation, it can help us to see the type of behaviour that they show and how this can impact upon their physical health. 

 

If you are interested in psychological profiling, find out more at -

Psychological profiling ebook

Criminal psychology 100 hour course

Psychological assessment 100 hour course