What is type?

[highlander]

Here is a draft of an intro section for the FAQ on type in general. Thoughts/feedback?

What is type?

The best way to think about type is that it provides a little bit of information about you as a person. Humans are far too complex to be defined by a series of letters and numbers. Our DNA, our surroundings, the culture we live in, our life experience and choices – these things help to shape us as individuals. Type is merely one way to aid in understanding. The best way to think about it then is that type can provide information or data points about us as individuals.

There are many different systems out there and new ones are being created as time goes on. Some die out. Others gain acceptance and as more is written about them, professional certifications are created related to testing instruments. Some examples of typing systems include the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Eneagram, Socionics, Gallup StrengthsFinder, Big 5, and DISC. On this forum, the two most popular ones are based on Jungian Cognitive functions (e.g., MBTIâ„¢) and Enneagram. There is a wealth of information available about both, which provides a rich set of information for practical use. HR consultants, personal coaches, counselors and others use these systems as a tool in their profession.

These systems have a variety of practical uses or applications but the primary ones are that they provide tools for you to:

• Understand yourself better
• Understand others better
• Understand the dynamics behind conflict between individuals
• Understand how different types can complement each other
• Support personal development
• Facilitate more effective communication and interaction

Some good introductory videos are:

Introduction to Personality Type

Introduction to Typology

Introversion/Extraversion Primer

Introverted and Extraverted Cognitive Functions

Dario Nardi Talks About Cognitive Functions

Introduction to Enneagram

There are a variety of good books out there as well. Some good introductory ones are:

Enneagram

MBTI and Cognitive Functions

 

[Mole]

The Meaning of Typology

Typology is the study of types. Here it means the study of personality types, but typology also means the study of literary types, the study of battle types, the study of musical types, the study of animal and plant types, the study of types of ideas, etc. In fact typology means the study of any kind of type. So we might say typology is the abstract study of type.

Here we call our site Typology Central for political or business reasons. We were told we could not use 'MBTI' in our title, so as second best we called ourselves the anodyne 'Typology Central'.

But actually our title 'Typology Central' is a fraud, quite like astrology or mbti.

 

[highlander]

Any feedback on this? The idea is to start populating the FAQ this kind of stuff. The forum rules has been separated off into a different tab.

Feel free to edit what I posted.

 

[greenfairy]

Good information!

 

[Seymour]

I might add a bit to the "tools provided":

• Provide a better understanding of one's type's typical weaknesses, and how to compensate.
• Provide a more precise template for discovering how you don't (and do) follow the patterns for your type (rather than general "compared to most folks" approach). This may be grist for additional self reflection and insight.

I'd be also tempted to add a "what type is NOT" section:

• Your type is not complete and precise definition of you, your true self, and all that you are or can be. In practice there are a limited number of types, and at best each is a general pattern or template. You, as an individual, will never match any given type precisely in every detail. Keep in mind the idea "best fit," rather than "perfect fit." Even so, it may be that two types describe you equally well and you may have to flip a coin to decide, or you may just accept that there's not even a "best fit" type for you.
• Your type is not a way to confer virtues and abilities you wish you had. Deciding on a type will not make you suddenly insightful, selfless, powerful, strong, sensitive, or intelligent. Nor will it, conversely, make you weak and vulnerable.
• Your type is not a way to excuse all your shortcomings as forgivable and/or unchangeable. You don't get to opt out of areas of life "because you are an INTP" or "because you are an enneagram type 4." We all have to find a balance between who we are and how to successfully adapt to our environment. While your type may allow you step down from judging yourself overly harshly for a particular shortcoming, your type is not a "get out of jail free" card.

I'm sure there're more things others can add.

 

[Ene]

I have watched the first video and found it insightful, especially the analysis of why people type differently at different times in their lives. I'm going to watch the others and may have questions or responses. Thanks for tagging me. This is a worthwhile thread.

 

[21%]

I agree with [MENTION=8074]Seymour[/MENTION] -- great idea!

Also, I think there could be something on how no type or function is inferior, but just different.

 

[INTP]

Type is a habitual attitude of orienting your psyche via some functions over others.

Nuff said . If i were to write some faq on type, i would probably start with that and then start to open what the functions and other stuff are. The video series that you posted one part here too explains all that really well, but maybe some info from jung lexicon or psytypes might be handy as well.

 

[Jaguar]

What the hell is Nardi wearing?

 

[wolfy]

What the hell is Nardi wearing?

If it wasn't much you could say nardi a thing

 

[indra]

differentiation of form

2 ez

 

[highlander]

Here is a new version. I think it's going to be better if we keep the content in the FAQ lite (thank you [MENTION=9811]Coriolis[/MENTION]) and then have pointers to threads and links that have more information.

What is type?

We all have habitual patterns of thinking/cognition. Personality type attempts to capture these habitual attitudes, preferences or ways of orienting of our psyche via some functions over others. The best way to think about type is that it provides a little bit of information about you as a person.

There are many different systems out there and new ones are being created as time goes on. Some die out. Others gain acceptance and as more is written about them, professional certifications are created related to testing instruments. Some examples of typing systems include the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Eneagram, Socionics, Gallup StrengthsFinder, Big 5, and DISC. On this forum, the two most popular ones are based on Jungian Cognitive functions (e.g., MBTIâ„¢) and Enneagram. There is a wealth of information available about both, which provides a rich set of information for practical use. HR consultants, personal coaches, counselors and others use these systems as a tool in their profession.

These systems have a variety of practical uses or applications but the primary ones are that they provide tools for you to:

• Understand yourself better
• Understand others better
• Understand the dynamics behind conflict between individuals
• Understand how different types can complement each other
• Provide a better understanding of one's type's typical weaknesses, and how to compensate
• Provide a more precise template for discovering how you don't (and do) follow the patterns of your type
• Support personal development
• Facilitate more effective communication and interaction

What type is not

Our DNA, our surroundings, the culture we live in, our life experience and choices – these things help to shape us as individuals. Type is merely one way to aid in understanding. The best way to think about it then is that type can provide information or data points about us as individuals. Your type is not complete and precise definition of you, your true self, and all that you are or can be. In practice there are a limited number of types, and at best each is a general pattern or template. You, as an individual, will never match any given type precisely in every detail. Keep in mind the idea "best fit," rather than "perfect fit." Even so, it may be that two types describe you equally well and you may have to flip a coin to decide, or you may just accept that there's not even a "best fit" type for you. Also, your type is not a way to confer virtues and abilities you wish you had. Deciding on a type will not make you suddenly insightful, selfless, powerful, strong, sensitive, or intelligent. Nor will it, conversely, make you weak and vulnerable. Finally, your type is not a way to excuse all your shortcomings as forgivable and/or unchangeable. You don't get to opt out of areas of life "because you are an INTP" or "because you are an enneagram type 4." We all have to find a balance between who we are and how to successfully adapt to our environment. While your type may allow you step down from judging yourself overly harshly for a particular shortcoming, your type is not a "get out of jail free" card.

Introductory Videos

The following are some good links to introductory videos.

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...ntroduction-personality-type.html#post2325201

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...-typology-lesson-1-introduction-typology.html

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...oversion-extraversion-primer.html#post2325202

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...d-functions-whats-difference.html#post2325203

http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/enneagram/69751-enneagram-introduction.html

Good Books About Type

There are a variety of good books out there as well. You'll get some of the best information by reading them. Some good introductory ones are:

MBTI and Cognitive Functions

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...differing-understanding-personality-type.html

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...tivities-develop-eight-jungian-functions.html

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...ews/68142-personality-type-owners-manual.html

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...veryday-stress-brings-hidden-personality.html

Enneagram

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...understanding-yourself-life-helen-palmer.html

http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...views/68294-wisdom-enneagram-riso-hudson.html

Finally, check out the Type Profile Threads for more information about each of the Enneagram and MBTI types.

http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/forum106/

http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/forum107/

 

[highlander]

The only thing I wonder is if some of this content is too technical for new members...

http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/faq.php?faq=new_member_resources

Thoughts?

 

[Chad of the OttomanEmpire]

Thanks for that intro. I'll read it if I ever get the time.

My thoughts are that enneagram type is basically a psychological orientation rather than any "personality" type per se. I certainly lack many of the stereotypical characteristics of someone of my core type. But my mindset is right.

Cognitive functions seem to be your particular filter for receiving and evaluating information and your environment, as well as the sorts of logical and interpersonal decisions you are inclined to favor, in what order.

They're brain processes, possibly biochemical, and that's about as far as I like to get into it.

 

[highlander]

My thoughts are that enneagram type is basically a psychological orientation rather than any "personality" type per se.

You could say that about both MBTi as well as Enneagram

 

[uumlau]

You could say that about both MBTi as well as Enneagram

Different aspects of psychology.

The commonality of the personality typing systems is that "personality" is used to help determine the type. And they thus all share the same flaw: it's nearly impossible to map all personality traits of a human being to a single type, whatever the system. This is because each type is really an underlying psychological tendency, whether cognitive processes (MBTI) or raw emotional reactions (Enneagram), which TENDS TO indicate particular personality traits, but doesn't govern all personality traits.

I do see what Sanjuro means, however, as Enneagram is strongly related to the DSM, thanks to the Riso-Hudson work on the topic. MBTI, especially due to Keirsey's work, feels more related to pure personality, than to any particular aspect of psychology, to the point that a lot of people will take MBTI as it stands, but reject "function theory" which tries to relate it more closely to Jung's original work.