Born with your E-type?

[Sunshine]

Are you born with your enneagram type or does it develop in response to your environment when growing up?

Have studies been done on this?

I have a hard time seeing it as something that you are 100% born with because of my own personal situation. There was a clear point in time in which my four tendancies began to develop heavily and I can pinpoint events that triggered my extreme concern with identity.

 

[edcoaching]

Right now at CPP ICON Success Pat Wyman, who's done tons of work with MBTI, Enneagram and Inner Child Therapy, is running a forum on type and Enneagram. Try posting your question there and I bet she has some really good insights. You have to join (for free) there but they promise no marketing...

 

[redacted]

Enneagram seems much more nurture based than MBTI. It's all about psychological coping mechanisms, which would seem to be in response to childhood issues.

 

[SillySapienne]

Enneagram seems much more nurture based than MBTI. It's all about psychological coping mechanisms, which would seem to be in response to childhood issues.

I agree with this.

My "4-ness" really didn't start to develop until my mid-teens whereas my ENFP-ness has been apparent since I was a toddler or so.

 

[INTJMom]

Are you born with your enneagram type or does it develop in response to your environment when growing up?

Have studies been done on this?

I have a hard time seeing it as something that you are 100% born with because of my own personal situation. There was a clear point in time in which my four tendancies began to develop heavily and I can pinpoint events that triggered my extreme concern with identity.

According to this site:
The Enneagram Type Test
"While each of us will identify with certain behaviors from each Enneagram type, everyone has only one type that subconsciously motivates his/her behavior throughout his/her entire life. ... The basic premise of the Enneagram is that each of us developed one of nine perceptual filters (Enneagram types) in infancy to protect a specific aspect of our Essential Nature (higher, or divine, self) which felt particularly vulnerable or threatened. Depending upon the temperament of the infant and its relationship to the environment, it became so focused on protecting one of the nine specific aspects of our Essential Nature that an imbalanced, habitual focus of attention was developed."

 

[FDG]

Both my E-type and my MBTI type were very apparent since I was a little kid.

 

[Delphyne]

According to Enneagram theory you´re either born with your type or it developed in infancy. It doesn´t make any sense to suggest a development at a later time, because it wouldn´t have the same driving motivation due to the fact that you have already developed a good deal.

 

[INA]

Doubt it. It's not even constant.
Of course the developers of the theory would claim it is congenital or deeply ingrained -- It sounds less flimsy.

 

[Delphyne]

It´s certainly up to believe, but if you don´t see the fixation and motivation as deeply ingrained you´re proposing a new theory and you´re not talking about the enneagram anymore.

 

[ajblaise]

I was more of semi-extroverted class clown when I was really young, I've become a little more introverted and less of a sensor as I aged I believe.

 

[redacted]

It´s certainly up to believe, but if you don´t see the fixation and motivation as deeply ingrained you´re proposing a new theory and you´re not talking about the enneagram anymore.

Deeply ingrained, yes. That doesn't mean you're born with it, though.

 

[substitute]

I agree with this.

My "4-ness" really didn't start to develop until my mid-teens whereas my ENFP-ness has been apparent since I was a toddler or so.

Yeah. Same here. I can see my ENTP-ness going right back to my earliest memories, but when I look back to before the age of about 22 I can see an Enneagram 5 at work, between 22 and 28 I was more eightish and now 7w8.

 

[Bufo]

I think, the personality type, or more reasonably the traits, can be well explained (reproducibly) in terms of the chronological sequence of interactions of an individual with the environment (not necessarily excluding the gestation period). So, I don't feel like attributing them to certain genotypes.

 

[mlittrell]

though some types tend to lean towards some enneagram types versus others, i personally think that it is almost completely a nurture thing