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
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
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) |
