You’ve likely heard a lot about the “type A” personality style. Folks in this category tend to be very structured, high-achieving and pretty highly stressed, which often results in praise in work and school environments, said Emma Shandy Anway, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in California
“Type A is the one that usually gets most of the noise,” Shandy Anway said, “we culturally love a type A person.”
They’re also more often portrayed in the media, such as the high-powered lawyer in a TV drama series or a straight-A student in a high school rom-com.
But just because type A folks tend to get the applause doesn’t mean those with the opposite personality, which is known as a “type B” personality, don’t deserve recognition, too.
There are certain hallmarks that define a type B personality (and many of those traits could be beneficial for type A folks to learn).
Below, therapists share the signs of a type B personality and how to determine where you fall.
1. You may be more likely to procrastinate.
While everyone has put a task off from time to time, a type B person is more likely to often procrastinate, whether it has to do with work or school deadlines or to-dos in their personal life.
“They tend to not feel a sense of deadline, so timelines are a little more porous,” said Anna Lau, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with Lavender Psychiatry in New York.
But just because there isn’t as much time pressure doesn’t mean type B people never get anything done, she added.
“It sometimes does mean that, and sometimes it just means that they get them done, but on a different timeline or with a different approach,” Lau said.
2. You’re OK when plans change.
Type B people are generally pretty flexible when it comes to plans, Shandy Anway said.
They may have a goal of getting five things done over the weekend, but if those things aren’t done by Monday morning, it’s not that big of a deal — which is not the case for a type A person, who may feel like a failure if their tasks aren’t done.
Moreover, if social plans change, type B people can adapt pretty easily.
“Let’s say I’m going out with my friends and it started raining, and we were going to go have a picnic in the park,” said Shandy Anway, explaining the type B person is more likely to just shrug their shoulders and accept the change, whereas a type A person may spiral.
3. You’d rather have group consensus than a my-way-or-the-highway approach.
While a type A person often thinks their solution is the only or best way, a type B person is much more likely to want to build consensus when it comes to solutions, Lau said.
For example, a type A person may double-down on the schedule they want to follow for a family vacation, even when certain family members seem uninterested. A type B person tends to listen to opinions from the group and agree to change course.
“Instead of just saying it’s my way or the highway type of thing, it’s someone who wants to build consensus,” Lau added.
Type B people often are less stressed and more satisfied at work, experts say.
4. You’re less stressed at work and school than your type A counterparts.
According to Lau, type B people also tend to be happy at work or at school because they find “work to be less stressful — and everything to be less stressful.” This leads to more satisfaction in their careers, Lau added.
They generally handle pressure in a nonoverwhelming way, said Shandy Anway, so they aren’t often faced with high anxiety or high stress.
5. You don’t need lots of achievements to feel good about your life.
Overall, type B people just have more of a relaxed approach to life and less of a focus on achievement, Shandy Anway said. Meaning, these folks don’t necessarily have to achieve a bunch of things to feel good about their lives, Shandy Anway added.
“There’s kind of this solid [self-assurance] that is just based on being versus doing,” Shandy Anway said.
It’s normal not to fall squarely into a type B personality or squarely into a type A personality.
It’s important to understand that these personality traits exist on a spectrum, and you may be more one way than the other in certain situations, Lau said.
“Maybe there’s a certain thing that brings out our type A personality, but it doesn’t mean that we have to be like that all the time,” Lau noted.
Think about it — perhaps you’re deadline-driven, organized and super stressed in a work environment, but you’re able to be calmer and even a little messy at home.
You could certainly lean more one way or the other, but it’s common for people to have some qualities of each, Lau added.
While the type A personality tends to get more fanfare, folks in this category could probably stand to be a little more type B.
“Type A can be very attractive in the business workplace and in a productive society because type A is all about being productive, getting things done on time, but it also is associated with worse mental health outcomes,” said Lau, “like, people are more anxious, more depressed, and there’s even evidence that it’s associated with more heart disease.”
While being type A won’t in itself cause heart disease, many of the aspects of this personality type, such as high stress and anxiety, put you at higher risk of heart disease.
Meaning, there are clear positives to being a type B person. ”[Type B] people do tend to have better mental health … less anxiety, less depression and less overall stress,” Lau noted.
Shandy Anway added that type B people deserve more air time: “There’s a lot to be learned from them, especially in dealing with anxiety and overwhelm.”
You may know if you tend to be more type A or more type B, but if you’re unsure, there are quizzes you can take online to help you see where you fall, both experts told HuffPost.
You can also consider talking to a therapist or a loved one to get their read on your personality as other folks often see us differently from how we see ourselves, Lau said.
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By gathering this personality information, you can understand yourself more fully and do what you need to live a life that brings you joy.
For instance, if your relaxed type B personality is holding you back at work, you could implement some typically type A habits like list-making and deadline-setting, Lau said. Or, if you’re type A, you could work to be OK with sudden changes in plans.
“There’s lots of tricks you can learn once you understand yourself better so that you can be as productive and happy as possible with either personality type,” Lau said.
