Type A Personality Test
Read each of the 16 situations and pick the answer that fits what you would really do. The test takes about 4 minutes, and at the end it names the style, Type A, B, C or D, that your answers match, with a description.
Type A
Type A moves fast, and a free minute rarely stays free for long.
A meeting that runs ten minutes over gets noticed, and so does a project that stalls. Decisions come quickly, sometimes before all the facts are in, and a change of course halfway through costs little as long as the pace holds. Colleagues hand this type the loose ends that need chasing.
Rest comes harder than work. The to-do list gets its first lines crossed off before breakfast. A free Sunday turns into a plan with milestones, and a hobby without a score can feel like wasted time.
With people the style is direct. Disagreement gets said at once, and a careless remark or a missed detail can draw a sharp reaction, so a small thing sometimes grows. Plans, on the other hand, get settled fast.
Type A can set aside one hour a week with no result attached, say a walk without a route.
Type B
Type B keeps an even pace and lets small annoyances pass.
A late train or a clumsy comment gets a shrug, and a disagreement seldom grows past the first conversation. Friends and colleagues find this type easy company. Time off is real time off, a long lunch or a board game played purely for its own sake.
On the job, the days run at one speed. A task gets full attention while it is on the desk and stays behind when the day ends. A phone call in the middle of it is picked up and put down without much fuss.
Settings that reward visible hurry can read the calm pace differently from how it is meant, and a hard deadline sometimes asks for more push than the usual rhythm holds.
Type B often writes the week's plan on a shared board with dates, so the steady pace comes with deadlines attached.
Type C
Type C keeps things pleasant and puts other people's comfort first.
Personal preferences, from the choice of restaurant to the meeting time, are set aside before anyone asks. A complaint is more likely to be swallowed than voiced, and a disagreement ends with a smile. At a dinner the guests get the good chair, and this type takes whatever is left.
Needs go unheard. Objections and requests that stay inside do not reach anyone who could act on them, so the people nearby often learn about a problem late.
At work, this style takes on the awkward tasks and fills the gaps nobody else has noticed. A request gets met, and the job gets done even in a rough week, while the person who did it seldom mentions what it took.
A habit that works for Type C: naming one small preference a day out loud, like where to eat or which task to take first.
Type D
Type D holds back and keeps most opinions to itself.
Among people who are not well known, opinions stay inside. In a meeting the idea gets rehearsed in silence and often goes unsaid, while a first impression of the room forms through a lot of watching and little talking. Reactions that go unvoiced leave friends and colleagues guessing, and a bad week can pass without anyone nearby noticing. Small talk comes slowly, and real opinions surface with a few trusted people first.
Work shows the careful side. Plans get checked twice and risks are spotted early. A shift in a colleague's tone rarely slips past, and the work it sends out is well prepared. Decisions follow a long look at what could go wrong, so the plan usually has a second route built in.
People of this type who want to be heard sometimes begin with one real opinion a day, offered to a person already trusted, like a verdict on a film.
Keys 1–4 pick an answer
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One type that explains it all
Five tests, five results, and not one tells you why the same things keep happening to you. The CoreTypes system gives the answer many people spend years looking for: why your life plays out exactly the way it does.
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Select a type to read its description and compare it with yours.
About the test
Methodology
The test has 16 everyday situations with four answers each. Every answer belongs to one of four styles, Type A, Type B, Type C and Type D, and the style that collects more answers than any other is the result. If two styles collect the same number, the one listed first wins, in the order A, B, C, D.
Type A and Type B are the two ends of one scale of pace and drive, and they come from mid-twentieth-century studies of behavior patterns: hurry, competitiveness and quick irritation on one side, an unhurried and even pace on the other. Type C and Type D are separate descriptions, each with its own research. Type C comes from later work on a coping style that smooths things over for others. Type D comes from research on a reserved, cautious manner around other people. The result describes the manner of behaving that the answers point to.
The score is a count of answers, and the test relies on a person's own answers about themselves. A short definition of the original pattern is in the APA Dictionary of Psychology; the sources are listed below the test.
Author: Lex Tarrel, Creator of the CoreTypes system
Sources
- Friedman, M., & Rosenman, R. H. (1959). Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings; blood cholesterol level, blood clotting time, incidence of arcus senilis, and clinical coronary artery disease. Journal of the American Medical Association, 169(12), 1286–1296. doi:10.1001/jama.1959.03000290012005.
- Denollet, J. (2005). DS14: Standard assessment of negative affectivity, social inhibition, and Type D personality. Psychosomatic Medicine, 67(1), 89–97. doi:10.1097/01.psy.0000149256.81953.49.
Frequently asked questions
What do Type A and Type B mean?
Type A is a pattern built around hurry, drive and competitiveness. Type B is a more even and easygoing pace, with little sense of racing the clock. Both are ways of acting in everyday life, and the test shows which of the two the answers fit.
How do the four letters differ from each other?
In daily life Type A hurries and pushes, and Type B goes at an even pace; the two are opposite ends of one scale. Type C smooths things over and Type D holds opinions and reactions back, and each is a description of its own. The result is the one letter the answers point to.
Can one person fit both Type A and Type B?
Answers can come from several styles at once. The result names the style chosen more often than any other, and its description reads as the leading manner.
Is the test based on research?
Type A, Type B and Type D draw on published research, listed below the test, and Type C is described in later work on coping style. The questions describe ordinary reactions, and the result reads as a description of a manner of behaving.