ABSTRACT
A PERSONALITY type characterized by excessive DRIVE, intense competitiveness, high ambition, an exaggerated sense of time urgency, an unwillingness to tolerate criticism, an inability or extreme reluctance to make self-evaluation, and a tendency to prioritize quantity over quality. It follows that Type A Personality Behavior, or TABP, is a pattern, or complex, described by M. Friedman and R. H. Rosenman, in 1974, as ‘‘an action-EMOTION complex that can be observed in any person who is aggressively involved in a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more in less time, and if required to do so, against the opposing efforts of other things or other persons.’’ Type A is thought to be a RISK factor in susceptibility to STRESS and coronary heart disease. Because Type A individuals are intemperately competitive, they
have been shown, by, among others Kevin Masters et al., to APPROACH exercise activities with an inappropriate attitude and do not benefit from the enhanced MOOD or several of the other benefits deriving from exercise, unless in specifically noncompetitive environments (for example, using a cycling machine for twenty minutes and being told ‘‘Go ahead,’’ as opposed to ‘‘ Go as far as you can. Your distance will be recorded and compared to that of other participants’’).
