KNOWING PERSONALITY TYPES (SELF-AWARENESS)

Awareness about personality types

As in the case of Locus of Control, "personality types" are just another area wherein you need to build up some sort of awareness. Depending on how one goes about on a day-to-day basis doing one's tasks, personality type can be put under two categories,

namely 1) Type "A" Personality    2) Type B Personality.

• Type A personality

When a person is seen as aggressively involved in a chronic incessant struggle to achieve more m less time and if necessary against the opposing efforts of other people or things, as Friedman and Rosenman (1974) put it, such a person can be said to be a Type A personality.

Robbins (2003) has listed some of the characteristics with the help of which a person With a type A personality can be identified. Some of these characteristics are as follows: A person With Type A Personality 

• is always seen moving, walking and eating rapidly
• feels impatient with the rate at which events take place
• strives to do two or more things at the same time
• finds it difficult to cope with leisure time
• is obsessed with measuring success in terms of cash or goods 

• Type B personality

The type B personality has characteristics that are just the opposite of those of personality type A. Type B are never much seen running after money or position. Nor are they found participating In an endlessly growing series of events. Some of the characteristics by which we can identify them, opines Robbins (2003), are as follows:

• They never suffer from a sense of emergency with regard to time with its accompanying impatience
• They feel no need to display their accomplishments unless such display is demanded by the situation
• They play for fun and relaxation rather than to exhibit superiority of any kind
• They can relax without feelings of guilt.

As compared with type B, those in type A operate under moderate to high levels of stress. They subject themselves not only to continuous time pressure but also choose themselves a life of deadlines. Type "A" are fast workers. The demonstration of their competitiveness is limited to working long hours. They frequently make poor decisions as they are always in a hurry to do things. They are also rarely seen to be creative as they mostly rely on past experiences when faced with problems, obsessed as they are with quantity and speed rather than quality. They are found to be unwilling to allocate time for solutions of problems that are new and unique.

Now, despite the hard work put in by type "A", it is the B type who are generally seen making their way to the top. Senior executives in most organizations are found to belong to type B. Type A trade off quality for quantity. Promotions usually go to those who are tactful rather than to those who are hostile; and to those who are creative rather than those who are merely agile.

Type A can be found in every country. However, they are found more in capitalist countries where achievement and material success are rated high. According to Friedman and Rosenman (1974), about 50% of North Americans are of type A. Unlike the USA and Canada which value time management and efficiency and stress accomplishments and acquisition of wealth, the Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran believe that life is essentially preordained. These countries have less type A in their work force than those of the USA and Canada.

By now you know what personality types A and B are and the characteristics that distinguish one from the other. Reflect and find out whether your affinities go with Type A or Type B. Bring about appropriate changes in your personality and make your life more effective and rewarding.