What is the difference between a personality type and a personality trait?
Personality is the collection of characteristic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are associated with a person. Personality traits are characteristic behaviors and feelings that are consistent and long lasting. Show
Ancient Greek IdeasThe ancient Greeks believed that people’s personalities depended on the kind of humor, or fluid, most prevalent in their bodies. The ancient Greeks identified four humors—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile—and categorized people’s personalities to correspond as follows:
The Greek theory of personality remained influential well into the eighteenth century. Cattell’s Sixteen TraitsLike the ancient Greeks, modern researchers believe in the existence of a few basic personality traits. Combinations of these basic traits, they believe, form other traits. Psychologist Raymond Cattell used a statistical procedure called factor analysis to identify basic personality traits from a very long list of English words that identified traits. Factor analysis allowed Cattell to cluster these traits into groups according to their similarities. He found that personality is made up of sixteen basic dimensions. The Big Five TraitsOther researchers have since clustered personality traits into even fewer categories. Today, many psychologists believe that all personality traits derive from five basic personality traits, which are commonly referred to as the Big Five:
The Big Five traits remain quite stable over the life span, particularly after the age of thirty. Although researchers identified the Big Five traits by using a list of English words, these traits seem to be applicable in many countries. The phrase "Type A" refers to a pattern of behavior and personality associated with high achievement, competitiveness, and impatience, among other characteristics. In particular, the positive traits of a Type A personality include:
Meanwhile, the more difficult traits that come with a Type A personality definition include:
Are Type A Personalities Stressed Out?Yes. Because of tendencies to engage in urgent and achievement-oriented behavior, people with a Type A personality may feel more stressed or develop stress-related disorders. Other characteristics that make people with a Type A personality likely to experience stress include:
Is it Bad for Your Health to Be a Type A Personality?There is some evidence that the Type A personality trait of hostility, in particular, might contribute to the development of CHD. In one trial of men, researchers found that more than twice as many people with a Type A personality developed CHD when compared to people with a Type B personality. By the end of the study, it turned out that 70% of the men who had developed CHD had Type A personalities. However, because the trial only looked at adult men, it's unclear if the results can be applied to everyone with a Type A personality. In fact, later studies in women have not shown such a big difference between Type A and Type B personalities when it comes to health outcomes, suggesting that how people cope with their Type A personality traits is just as important as the traits themselves. If you have a Type A personality or relate to the aforementioned characteristics, it's important to find healthy ways of managing your stress. These strategies could include: People with a Type A personality are often contrasted to people with a Type B personality, which is associated with the following traits: When it comes to Type A vs Type B personality, there's no clear "winner." As with all personality types, people who fit either the Type A or Type B personality type have both positive traits and flaws they should work on. In fact, personality types are best understood as a spectrum with extreme Type A traits on one end and extreme Type B traits on the other. Most people tend to fall somewhere along the spectrum rather than right at its ends. SOURCES: APA Dictionary of Psychology: "Type A Personality." Journal of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences: "Role of stress prone Type a personality and anxiety among heart patients." |