Let’s clear up our understanding of A Level PE Type A and Type B personality and introverts and extroverts.
While reviewing this topic recently, some of my students got into their heads that Type A and Type B personalities are the same as introverts and extroverts. They were under the misunderstanding that introverts are Type B personalities and extroverts are Type A personalities, so I thought it would be useful to unpick this misconception.
So what are the characteristics of A Level PE Type A and Type B personalities?
A Level PE - Type A Personality
A Type A personality is an individual who displays or is prone to the following characteristics
- – they are prone to anxiety or stress,
- – they are impatient or intolerant
- – they like to be in control of the situation
- – they are competitive
- – they work fast
- – they have a strong desire to succeed
- -and they show high levels of ambition
A Level PE - Type B Personality
A Type B personality is an individual who displays or is prone to the following characteristics
- – they are relaxed, patient or tolerant
- -they experience lower levels of stress
- – they do not like to be in control
- -they are less competitive
- -they work at a slower pace
- – they lack a desire to succeed
- – and they are unambitious
As you can see, Type B personality characteristics are almost the complete opposite to Type A personality characteristics.
Therefore A Level PE students who need to know about Type A and Type B personality characteristics only need to remember the characteristics of Type A. Once they have mastered their knowledge of Type A personality characteristics all they need to do is apply the opposite to Type B.
And what are the characteristics of A Level PE Introverts and Extroverts?
A Level PE - Introverts
- – tend to be less sociable / they like to be on their own / they are shy
- – do not seek excitement
- – like peace and quiet
- – are focused / concentrate well
- – are aroused more quickly (than extraverts)
- – have a sensitive reticular activating system / RAS
Let’s just check in on those last two points. What does it mean that “introverts are aroused more quickly than extroverts?” and “introverts have a sensitive reticular activating system”?
The reticular activating system controls the level of internal arousal in an individual. Introverts tend to have a higher level of internal arousal and therefore they are aroused more quickly than extroverts because they have a sensitive reticular activating system. Introverts have high levels of arousal naturally occurring in their brains so they tend to avoid external situations.
However, for extroverts the RAS inhibits and reduces the effects of external sensory stimuli, this means the brain experiences low levels of arousal. So extroverts seek more external stimulation to achieve higher levels of internal arousal.
A level PE - Extroverts
- – tend to be sociable
- – are outgoing
- – seek excitement
- – may lack concentration
- – are aroused more slowly (than introverts)
- – and have low sensitivity of reticular activating system / RAS
As we can see, in a similar way to type A and Type B personalities, if our A Level PE students know the characteristics of an introvert they can simply use the opposite characteristics to describe an extravert.
