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)

Related Words:

defensive pessimism

extreme tourism

hurry sickness

thrillax

upshifter

velocitize

Categories:

Psychology

Lifestyles