Type A Behavior Pattern and The Anal-Obsessive Time Attitude

Abstract

It would seem that in highly industrialized countries, a certain personality mechanism is of the greatest importance to an individual in maintaining himself. Above all he must possess the capacity of accurately timing behavior. One might almost assert that our economic preoccupations imply that time becomes a purely economic factor, a commodity that is scarce in the sense that many people experience that they suffer increasingly from lack of time. One could say: they are anxious about the flow of time. This attitude toward time has other implications too; the higher the position on the social scale, the more this commodity is economized upon, for example by employing such aids as calendar, memorandum book, planmaster and clock. It is noticeable that unpunctuality with regard to appointments often gives rise to considerable irritation; on the other hand, some highly qualified persons, amongst whom we might consider certain professors, seem to consider it their prerogative to let others wait.