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Thursday, April 2, 2009
Personality Types
I always cringe when people try to categorize me into some semblance of personality “type.” There’s “Type A” versus “Type B,” the Meyers-Briggs categorization, and probably tons of others that I’ve never even heard of. Between personality typing and astrology, people seem to spend so much time evaluating that they can’t possibly have any more time to spend actually living as these supposed “types.”
One example that really sticks with me is an anecdote from a recent conversation at work. I was lamenting to my supervisor that some others don’t take any personal responsibility and that they seem to expect others to constantly feed them the information that they need to know, rather than being proactive and acquiring the information that they’re lacking. My boss just laughed at me and told me for what must be the fifth or sixth time now that I’m “such a Type A personality.” I’m sure she didn’t mean it in a negative way, but after searching the internet for the true meaning of “Type A,” out of sheer curiosity, I came across site after site of lists that were full of largely negative traits. (Or at least, traits that I would classify as negative.) For instance, Wikipedia says:
Symptoms of Type A Behavior
- An intrinsic insecurity or insufficient level of self-esteem, which is considered to be the root cause of the syndrome. This is believed to be covert and therefore less observable.
- Time urgency and impatience, which causes irritation and exasperation.
- Free floating hostility, which can be triggered by even minor incidents.
If you ask me, these don’t sound like positive things to be associated with. I’ll admit that it’s a different set of traits than I learned were associated with the personality type when I was in middle school (where it was simplified that type As were outgoing and proactive as well as incredibly organized), but even so, it’s a typing that frustrates me. It’s oversimplified, and sways to focus only on the negative. After all, I’m sure Type As have some positive traits with the negative, as Type Bs will have some negatives with the positive. It’s a very skewed way of looking at things.
The same can be said of astrological personality typing. While there doesn’t seem to be a marked focus on the negatives of personality traits, it’s another way of trying to fit people cleanly into boxes. Perhaps this is motivated by a need to identify as a certain something and share that identification with others. But how far should it be taken? Surely this shouldn’t be a way of cleanly categorizing people so that we can decide whether they’re worthy people to be doing X, Y or Z.
An inherent problem with the need to sort people into categories by personality is that it simplifies things to the point that it makes it okay to judge others. One day when I was working at one of the offices, we had a rather… exhuberant customer in who was trying to tell us what kind of personalities we had based on our astrological sign. He and the other girl I was working with had the same sign, so it was easy for him to extol all of the good traits that she supposedly had in common with him. He decided to describe me, and I played along. The second I told him that I was a “cancer,” he went off on me. He started telling me how evil, conniving, underhanded, moody and bitchy that I am. He told me that cancers are never to be trusted and that they’re the worst people to be friends with or associate with, ever.
Well, then. I don’t know if I’m evil and conniving – maybe I am; but how would he have known that? We hadn’t had any real interaction up to that point, and even if we had, I don’t think a five minute conversation is enough to guage how someone truly is as a person. Perhaps I’m moody, I could be bitchy and evil, but thanks to his view of the cancer sign, that’s all he’d see if we’d spent any amount of time together. He’d judged me as he thought I should be rather than as what I am.
I’m pretty sure that my supervisor didn’t mean anything bad by putting me into a category. She and I get along really well, and I think her point was just that I’m incredibly organized and proactive when I’m at work. It’s just how I need to be at work to feel like I’m doing my job to the best of my ability. I don’t think that means that my self-esteem is suffering, that I’m generally hostile or impatient.
I know that this is something that I’m just not going to be able to change, but that unfortunately doesn’t ease my frustration at the simplistic way of classification.
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Agreed. I’ve got a girl at work who’s very much into astrology, numerology and just became part of a Wiccan clan. All the more power to here if that’s what makes her happy. But it really irritates me when she starts telling me what I “like” because that’s what the “book” says. Apparently, I hate Scorpio’s (Craig’s sign), my favorite color is blue and I’m a high class clothes kind of girl. And I *love* dresses and skirts (they’re the bane of my existence and you’re lucky to see me in one or the other). It makes me want to strangle her. I’m engaged to a Scorpio, my favorite color is black or green and I’m so not into high class clothes. -snicker-
As an overall basis, then yes, I guess I could see the classifications. But there’s always exceptions to the rule, many exceptions, and people tend to forget that. People are more comfortable when they can assign a person to a “group” of standards that they alone didn’t have to create.
Dani — April 3, 2009 @ 3:24 am