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Informal Approaches to
Personality
Examples of informal approaches to
personality include: Type A, Type B, Type C personality
"types," personality/trait temperaments, and attitudes.
Personality Types
Sometimes people's personalities are described through
generalized personality types; you may already be familiar with the Type
A and Type B personality types as an example. The stereotypical Type A
personality is characterized by impatience, aggression,
anger, hostility, and the need for control over
situations. Individuals labeled as "Type A"
appear to experience more cardiovascular complications
(high blood pressure, heart disease, e.g.). The Type B
personality is characterized by patience, being
"laid back" or calm, and much less time-urgent.
There is also a Type C personality. Actually, there
appear to be two 'Type C' personality types referenced in the
literature. One of these Type C's seems to fit the
individual who may be very busy, task-driven, and
independent, but who does not seem to suffer from the
cardiovascular health problems often seen in Type A
individuals. Another Type C description fits the person
who may be very busy and task-driven (as in the first
example), but may have a tendency to be passive and hold
anger inside. Dr.
Nick Hall discusses Type A, Type B and the latter
'Type C' personalities. He also describes a 'Type-T' personality
in the sixth through tenth paragraphs of his
web document, but students will only be responsible for information
related to Type A, B and C personality descriptions. (R)
Are you Type A? If interested, take a test to assess
your Type A tendencies at the Body Mind Queendom Page (O). Please use this test not as a diagnosis, but
as an understanding into the components which make up the
"Type A" personality. (O)
Personality Traits/Temperaments
Another way of analyzing an individual's
personality is in terms of personality traits. Trait
theories are actually formal assessment tools, researched and designed by such
famous psychologists as Allport,
Cattell, and
Eysenck
(O--allpsych.com). These theories are often applied in an informal manner, however,
which is why they are described in this course as "informal
approaches" to personality.
A
trait is a quality individuals have in common with
each other, though one person may have more of this
quality than another. Examples of traits are
friendliness, outgoingness, sensitivity, trust, etc. One of
the most famous evaluation tools is the Meyers-Briggs
test.
A temperament is generally thought of as a set of
characteristics a person shares, as exhibited in behavioral
patterns. One available online temperament assessment tool is called the Keirsey
Temperament Sorter (O). If interested in using the tool, follow the instructions on
the website and use it more for fun than for
self-diagnosis. You will need to register before
completing the 70-item Keirsey test but there is no cost
to do so.
Educational
Enrichment
Travel to ibiblio.org for further resource
information on personality
typing.
Harvard
Health Publications features an article about the Type D
personality, thought to be more predictive of cardiovascular disease
than the Type A personality
The attitudes we exude to friends,
family, acquaintances, and strangers often reveal a lot
about who we are. An example of an attitude is the
optimist/pessimist point of view. An optimist usually has
a positive bent on potentially stressful situations,
while a pessimist usually has a negative outlook. As many
may already be familiar, an optimist considers a glass
filled halfway as "half full" while a pessimist
considers the same glass "half empty."
Optimistic and pessimistic attitudes not only demonstrate
the effects on a person's outlook on life, but may also
affect a person's state of health. Travel to a Mayo Clinic abstract
presented through the UK's Centre for Confidence, about how optimism
and pessimism assessed in the 1960's compared with the health
status of the same individuals 30 years later (R).
Last Revised: 1-2-10
