Glossary
Type C Personality
What is Type C personality?
Type C personality is a proposed pattern involving inhibited emotional expression and excessive accommodation of others. Descriptions often concern conflict avoidance and difficulty expressing negative feelings. Definitions vary; it is not a settled third category alongside Type A and Type B personality.
Type C personality traits: a research definition
Rymarczyk and colleagues' 2020 study refined the construct into submissiveness and restricted affectivity. The first concerns interpersonal accommodation; the second concerns inhibited emotional experience or expression. They tested a preliminary measure in 232 adults.
Health claims and limitations
The paper discusses the historical idea of a cancer-prone personality and conflicting findings around it. Its own study examines measurement and relationships with other personality variables. It does not show that suppressing emotions causes cancer.
The authors treat clinical value as a question for further research. A description of conflict avoidance does not justify predicting disease or choosing a treatment from the label.
Why it matters
Emotional expression and accommodation can be studied directly. Keep those specific tendencies separate from unsupported health predictions attached to the Type C name.