The Type A behavior pattern is considered to be someone who is competitive with others and themselves, in a hurry, impatient, fast talking, and extremely aggressive. People with the Type A behavior pattern tend to be self-motivating. Type A's tend to focus on fulfilling the standards that they set for themselves. The Type A's evaluate their accomplishments very harshly (Yuen and Kuiper, 1991). Heart disease could be a consequence for Type A's due to their heightened levels of stress that they put on themselves. The aggressive, competitive, and achievement driven behaviors are all maladaptive coping styles that Type A's use in stressful situations. One reason these coping styles are used is to minimizes negative self-evaluations (Martin, Kuiper and Westra, 1989).

Depression could arise in an individual with Type A personality if they feel that their achievements do not keep exceeding, and becoming even greater than their last achievement. Type A individual will have an increase in their stress level due to the lack of satisfaction with oneself and the relationship with others. When a Type A individual perceives another individual as more hostile or aggressive, the Type A individual may not socially interact with that individual. In fact, the Type A individual who perceives the another individual as more hostile or aggressive may cause an increase in the use of the Type A's dominant and aggressive behaviors. A decrease in social interaction may be caused by Type A's predetermining a negative opinion of another (Yuen and Kuiper, 1991). Some Type A individuals set goals that in reality are unreachable and rules that are to the extreme. These individuals evaluate themselves by whether or not they reach their goals. If the individual with the Type A behavior pattern does not reach his/her goals that they set for themselves, they perceive themselves negatively, and feel like no one else will respect them. If they do meet the goals that they set for themselves, they have a very positive view of themselves, and will feel as if they have the respect of others. The self-esteem of the Type A individual is threatened, if the standards set by the individual is not met. Maladaptive coping styles come into play when the individual views his/her self negatively. One coping style known to Type A's is the compulsive working habits. The individual that tends to work 24 hours/7 days a week are attempting to meet some sort of standard that they set for themselves (Martin, Kuiper and Westra).

There are two main factors about an individual who obtains the Type A personality trait that makes the Type A individual a good worker. Achievement striving and impatience-irritability are the two factors that provide a consistent prediction of work performance. In a more recent study, there are three dimensions of the two main factors (achievement striving, and impatience-irritability) that have shown that the two factors do directly reflect the Type A behavior pattern. The three dimensions consist of speed and impatience, hard-driving and competitiveness, and job involvement (Barling and Boswell, 1995).

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Martin, R. A., Kuiper, N. A., & Westra, H. A. (1989). Cognitive and Affective Components of the Type A Behavior Pattern: Preliminary Evidence for a Self-Worth Contingency Model. Personal Individual Differences, 10 ., 771-773, 781.

Yuen, S. A., & Kuiper, N. A. (1991). Cognitive and Affective Components of the Type A Hostility Dimension. Personal Individual Differences, 12, 173-174, 181-182.

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