150 Types of People

John Spacey, updated on December 09, 2024

People imagine themselves and others as having characteristics that can be described with powerful archetypes that have broad explanatory power. These originate with storytelling and other culture such as myths and legends whereby the same archetypes appear in many narratives such that they are extended over time to become quite complex and layered. The following are common examples of archetypes.

The Absent-minded Professor	The Adventurer
The Alpha Male	The Angry Loner
The Anti-Hero	The Athlete
The Attention Seeker	The Authority Figure
The Beautiful Loner	The Beta Male
The Big Baby	The Born Lucky
The Broken Optimist	The Builder
The Bully	The Caregiver
The Class Clown	The Clumsy Hero
The Coward	The Creative Genius
The Crusader	The Cynic
The Diplomat	The Disaffected Goth
The Dreamer	The Eccentric Billionaire
The Eccentric Misfit	The Egomaniac
The Empath	The Enchantress
The Enigmatic Scholar	The Everyman
The Explorer	The Fallen Hero
The Father Figure	The Femme Fatale
The Fool For Love	The Free Spirit
The Gamer	The Gangster
The Geek	The Gentle Giant
The Girl / Boy Genius	The Glutton
The Good Samaritan	The Gourmet
The Great Imposter	The Guardian Angel
The Guide	The Hardboiled Detective
The Healer	The Hipster
The Honorable Adversary	The Hopeless Romantic
The Hopelessly Boring	The Huntress
The Idealistic - believes their personal ideas become reality	The Imposter
The Incompetent Ruler / Boss / Chief	The Jock
The Leader of the Gang	The Likeable Villain
The Lone Hero	The Loose Cannon
The Lovable Rogue	The Lover
The Loyal Servant	The Loyalist
The Loyalist	The Mad Scientist
The Man Alone	The Master Builder / Craftsperson
The Matriarch	The Mentor
The Misunderstood Visionary	The Momma’s Boy
The Mother Figure	The Musician
The Mysterious Stranger	The Mystic
The Narcissist	The Natural Leader
The Nemesis	The Nerd
The Nice Guy	The Noble Journalist
The Noble King / Queen	The Nonconformist
The Nurturer	The Obstructive Bureaucrat
The Old Master	The Old Soldier
The Overachiever	The Patriarch
The People Person	The Philosopher
The Polished Professional	The Pollyanna
The Precocious Child	The Prep
The Priestess	The Provocateur
The Psychopath	The Queen Bee
The Rebel Without a Cause	The Reformer
The Reformer	The Reluctant Hero
The Reluctant Monster	The Resilient Survivor
The Rightful Leader	The Ronin - Samurai without a master
The Saboteur	The Scorned Goddess
The Scoundrel	The Seeker
The Shallow Rich Girl / Boy	The Shape-shifter
The Sidekick	The Sleazy Politician
The Smug Intellectual	The Social Climber
The Socialite	The Sociopath
The Star-Crossed Lovers	The Starving Artist
The Stickler	The Strong Silent Type
The Teacher's Pet	The Team Player
The Thug	The Trickster
The Trickster	The Try Hard
The Tyrant	The Useful Idiot
The Usurper	The Victim
The Village Idiot	The Voice of Reason
The Wanderer	The Warrior
The Weakling	The Whisky Priest
The Wicked Stepmother	The Wild Card
The Wingman	The Wise Old Sage
The Workaholic	The Worker Bee

Archetypes vs Personality Types

It is more common to try to describe people using concepts from popular psychology as opposed to using archetypes. The tendency here is to use a handful of labels whereby it is imagined that all people can be sorted into as few as 4 to 24 types that can each be logically explained with a few bright line rules.

Archetypes are much broader and far more layered, paradoxical and uncertain. People try to categorize others in order to simplify complex social situations and relationships. As such, the oversimplifications offered by popular psychology are attractive for this purpose.

Nevertheless, it is perhaps more imaginative to think of yourself or others using archetypes. As with personality types, this isn't going to be completely accurate but allows you to view others as having great depth that isn't readily explainable.

Thinking of yourself in terms of positive archetypes is one way to position your self-concept or the type of person you would like to become. This follows a greater theme in life where it is common for storytelling to shape goals and to become reality with time.

Labeling

As they originate in storytelling, archetypes aren't always the most realistic way to look at people. Likewise, it is judgmental to directly label people with archetypes in any serious way. Nevertheless, archetypes are a rich culture that reflect reality to some degree. That is to say, that stories are usually designed to communicate truths about people, society and life. Conversely, archetypes are viewed as greatly influencing culture and culture in turn greatly influences personality and behavior. As such, they are perhaps a useful, if overly dramatic, set of concepts for thinking about behavior.

150 Types of People

Archetypes vs Personality Types

Labeling

Behavior

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