I'm a type A, you're in denial

I am a type A personality. I don’t have all the characteristics of a type A, but I have enough to be solidly in type A territory. On this test, I scored 305 out of 380, with 380 being absolutely type A and 35 being absolutely type B. And I have no illusions about my type A-ness. I practice yoga and meditate because it tempers some of my more type A traits (impatience, inability to slow down, always feel rushed). But I could do all the yoga in the world, and at the end of the day, I’d still be a type A.



A funny thing happened this week around personality type. I was at dinner at a friend’s house with my sister and dad and some others. Somehow personality type came up and I said something like, “type As like us Kleinfelds”—referring to my sister, my dad, and myself—and my sister screamed, “I’m not a type A! Type As are uptight! I’m not uptight!” All this with her arms crossed tightly across her chest. (I thought, “If that’s not a type A response, I don’t know what is.”) My dad was silent.



Later I talked to each of them separately. My sister insists she’s not a type A, although she says that I am “obviously a type A.” My dad said, “Oh, you were including me in that statement about Kleinfelds being type As? I thought you just meant you and your sister. I’m so laid back,” and then he mentioned five minutes later that when he wants a small post-it note and only has medium ones, he cuts a medium one down to size with a single-edged razor. Again, I thought, “If that’s not type A behavior, I don’t know what is.” He's also the kind of person who when he orders a pizza and they say, "We'll be there in xx minutes," he sets his oven timer for that amount of time, "just for grins." When the delivery person arrives, my dad always tells them, "You took xx minutes to get here." They never care.



I find it strange that two of the most type A people I know easily identify me as a type A but don’t see it in themselves, while I actually think I am a tad less type A than they are. Maybe there’s an aspect of denial in being a type A, although as I said, I know I’m a type A.

Update (added 9/8): How type A is this? I decided to retake the test because I rethought some of my answers. This time I got a 235. Still more type A than type B.

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