Type A personality
a personality pattern characterized by chronic competitiveness, high levels of achievement motivation, impatience and a distorted sense of time urgency, polyphasic activity (e.g., shaving or eating while reading a newspaper), and aggressiveness and hostility. The entire array of traits and behaviors characterizing Type A personality was believed at one time to be connected to the development of coronary heart disease. Epidemiological studies have failed to confirm that connection, but evidence does suggest that one Type A feature in particular—hostility—does contribute to the pathogenesis of heart disease. Compare Type B personality. [outlined in the 1970s by U.S. physicians Meyer Friedman (1910–2001) and Ray H. Rosenman]