getting my psych on: personality types

Blog Challenge Day 4

Today's post is all about personality types. Last summer, a friend of mine sent me a link to a personality test. I did it as a diversion during the work day, but the results had a profound impact on me. I'll talk about that tomorrow! For today, here is some background on personality types (Source: http://www.personalitypage.com).

Psychologist Carl Jung first developed the theory that individuals each had a psychological type. He believed that there were two basic kinds of "functions" which humans used in their lives: how we take in information (how we "perceive" things), and how we make decisions. He believed that within these two categories, there were two opposite ways of functioning. We can perceive information via our senses or our intuition. We can make decisions based on objective logic or subjective feelings. Jung believed that we all use these four functions in our lives, but that each individual uses the different functions with a varying amount of success and frequency. Jung defined eight personality types: Extraverted Sensing; Introverted Sensing; Extraverted Intuition; Introverted Intuition; Extraverted Thinking; Introverted Thinking; Extraverted Feeling; and Introverted Feeling.

Katharine Briggs developed Jung's theories further. Then Briggs' daughter Isabel built on both her mother's work and Jung's work to assert the importance of the auxiliary function working with the dominant function in defining Personality Type. She also concluded that there was another distinctive preference which hadn't been defined by Jung: Judging versus Perceiving.

The developed theory today is that every individual has a primary mode of operation within four categories:
   - our flow of energy: defines how we receive the essential part of our stimulation. Do we receive it from within ourselves (Introverted) or from external sources (Extraverted)? Is our dominant function focused externally or internally?
   - how we take in information: deals with our preferred method of taking in and absorbing information. Do we trust our five senses (Sensing) to take in information, or do we rely on our instincts (Intuitive)?
   - how we prefer to make decisions: refers to whether we are prone to decide things based on logic and objective consideration (Thinking), or based on our personal, subjective value systems (Feeling).
   - the basic day-to-day lifestyle that we prefer: concerned with how we deal with the external world on a day-to-day Basis. Are we organized and purposeful, and more comfortable with scheduled, structured environments (Judging), or are we flexible and diverse, and more comfortable with open, casual environments (Perceiving)?

We all naturally use (or "prefer") one mode of operation within each category more easily and more frequently than the other. The combination of our four "preferences" defines our personality type (of which there are 16 possible combos). So, according to the theory of Personality Types:
  
    - An individual is either primarily Extraverted (E) or Introverted (I)
    - An individual is either primarily Sensing (S) or Intuitive (N)
    - An individual is either primarily Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
    - An individual is either primarily Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)

This does not mean, however, that all (or even most) individuals will fall strictly into one category or another. For example, just because someone is primarily Extraverted doesn't mean that they don't also perform Introverted activities. The types help to identify natural preferences and learn about our natural strengths and weaknesses within that context. Our native Personality Type indicates how we are likely to deal with different situations that life presents, and in which environments we are most comfortable.

"Learning about our Personality Type helps us to understand why certain areas in life come easily to us, and others are more of a struggle. Learning about other people's Personality Types help us to understand the most effective way to communicate with them, and how they function best."

Practical applications for Personality Types include:

    - Career Guidance: What types of tasks are we most suited to perform? Where are we naturally most happy?
    - Managing Employees: How can we best understand an employee's natural capabilities, and where they will find the most satisfaction?
    - Inter-personal Relationships: How can we improve our awareness of another individual's Personality Type, and therefore increase our understanding of their reactions to situations, and know how to best communicate with them on a level which they will understand?
    - Education: How can we develop different teaching methods to effectively educate different types of people?
    - Counseling: How we can help individuals understand themselves better, and become better able to deal with their strengths and weaknesses?

YOUR TURN! Take this personality test: 
http://www.kisa.ca/personality/


Tomorrow I'll tell you guys what my results were, and why this simple quiz may have changed my life. lol.



:-)