WÃ¸rd of the week – type T personality

By Robert On June 4, 2006 · Leave a Comment

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type T personality n. A personality type that regularly seeks out thrilling or dangerous experiences.

Example Citation:

I used to skydive off buildings in south county. I've climbed most of the peaks in the Southern California, like Mount Baldy and Mount Whitney. I like to climb them when they're covered with snow. I need the rush. I need the endorphins. I'm a type T personality: thrill seeker.
—Gary Copeland, "Who's this?," Orange County Register, November 8, 2002

Earliest Citation:

Comedian John Belushi. Gangster John Dillinger. Nobel Biologist Francis Crick. All are classic Type T personalities, and so, fittingly enough, is television's Mr. T.

As Psychologist Frank Farley of the University of Wisconsin tells it, many of the world's daredevils, doers and delinquents share a common personality, Type T (for thrill seeking). Whether scientists or criminals, mountain climbers or hot-dog skiers, says Farley, all are driven by temperament, and perhaps biology, to a life of constant stimulation and risk taking. Both the socially useful and the socially appalling Type Ts, he says, "are rejecting the strictures, the laws, the regulations — they are pursuing the unknown, the uncertain."
—John Leo, "Looking for a Life of Thrills," Time Magazine, April 15, 1985

Notes:

We all know the classic type A personality, which was identified in 1959 by the cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman. But there's a whole type taxonomy out there, of which today's type T personality is but one example. Here's a list of all the personality types I was able to identify (note that many of these require your tongue to be planted relatively securely in the cheek of your choice):

Type A	—	Competitive, driven, stressed, workaholic
Type B	—	Relaxed, patient, friendly
Type C	—	Reticent, unassertive, nice to a fault
Type D	—	Anxious, insecure, gloomy, depressed
Type E	—	High-achieving, perfectionist, everything to everybody
Type F	—	Prone to forwarding e-mail messages
Type H	—	Hostile, hateful
Type I	—	Egocentric
Type J	—	Orderly, neat
Type M	—	Melodramatic
Type O	—	Prone to making spelling mistakes
Type P	—	Persistent
Type R	—	Responsive
Type S	—	Doesn't get enough sleep
Type T	—	Thrill-seeking
Type V	—	Plain, simple (vanilla)
Type W	—	Wacko
Type X	—	Domineering, tyrannical
Type Z	—	Extremely laid back (the "opposite" of a Type A)