Personality Types

This post is continued from the previous article, Myers Briggs Type Discussion: The Four Attitudes . If you haven’t read that yet, you should also give it a look. The Functions There are two kinds of functions in Myers Briggs theory: ones that help you perceive the world around you (the perceiving functions: Intuition or Sensation) and ones that help you make decisions based on the info you have perceived (the judging functions: Thinking or Feeling). The Perceiving Functions: Intuition vs. Sensation The people that have a Perceptive attitude towards life (also called P-types: ISTP, ESFP, INTP, ENFP, etc.) use one of these two functions as extroverted (Ne or Se): this is the way they prefer to deal with their external environment. Extroverted P-types (ExxP) use it as their primary function, and Introverted P-types (IxxP) use it as secondary. The Judging types (J-types: ESTJ, ENTJ, INFJ, ISFJ, etc.) will use one of these functions for dealing with their own inner world, as an in...

I was thinking, I never got the chance to talk about the theory that underlies the Myers Briggs typology (which is further based upon Jung’s personality types). So in the next few posts I will talk about what the letters in the Myers Briggs type stand for and how you can discern your type by using the four dichotomies: Introversion vs. Extroversion, Intuiting vs. Sensing, Thinking vs. Feeling and Judging vs. Perceiving. As most of you probably know, the Myers Briggs type is an acronym that indicates our preference in each dichotomy. The first and fourth letters indicate your preferred attitudes , while the two letters in the middle indicate your preferred functions . The Attitudes There are two kinds of attitudes: the one you have towards the outer world (an introverted attitude or an extroverted attitude), and the one that you have towards making decisions in the outer world (a perceptive attitude or a judging attitude). The Introverted vs Extroverted Attitude (I/E) Introver...

The concept of the Enneagram Tritype has recently caught my attention as another great way of explaining subtle but surprising differences among individuals of the same type, and also a wonderful way of expanding and diversifying the description of personality. This idea originally belonged to Oscar Ichazo, and was afterwards studied and further developed by Katherine and David Fauvre. What is the tritype? Theory says that we do not make use of only one single Enneagram type, but of actually three of them – one in each triad: the Heart Triad (2,3,4), the Head Triad (5,6,7) and the Gut Triad (8,9,1). This means we have a preferred coping strategy in each Centre and our personality is thus tridimensional to an extent. While we basically use our main type (and main Centre) the most, we will occasionally employ different strategies and coping methods belonging to the other two types (and Centres) in our tritype. The order in which we engage these and their prevalence in our thoug...

Although it was never possible to exclusively assign different Myers Briggs types to certain Enneagram points, extensive research has proven that a statistically significant correlation does exist between the two typologies. Different studies provided somewhat different data, however there are many similarities among the results, so I will focus on these particular correlations that remain valid in a large number of cases. The following table reflects the reseach results of many studies and theories (revealed to us by different experts such as John Fudjack, Patricia Dinkelaker, Don Riso, Richard Hudson, Elisabeth Wagele and others), but also my personal vision on the matter, based on my own theories. I put the MB types in order of their prevalence in each Enneazone, from left to right for each frequency group (the meaning of 'often', 'sometimes' and 'rarely' is explained at the end of the table). Enneagram Type Jungian Functions MB Types One Extraverted...

In this article, I will try to clear up some of the differences between Enneagram Type Eight and the rest of the Enneagram types respectively. The comparison tables will be subject to modifications and additions as more information reveals itself. I hope it will be a useful tool for people who have trouble mistyping or aren't sure of their type - I'm one of them too. 8 and 1 Mistyping frequency: often (generally 1s mistype as 8s) Eight "My way" Impose Focus on power Visceral Subjective Concern for “their people” Proud of their anger Revenge Physical Openly aggressive Expansive Crude Informal One The right way Convince Focus on morality Abstract Objective Concern for humanity Ashamed of their anger Moral justice Cerebral Moderated Reserved Refined Formal 8 and 2 Mistyping frequency: sometimes (usually 2 men mistype as 8s) Eight Dominate for power Open conflict Show anger Direct speaking Intimidate Tough Self-focused Want authority Two Dominate to help Manipulation Hi...