Introduction

Typology Central is a discussion forum and was created on April 17 of 2007 as a place to learn and share information about personality type. The core objective of the forum is to establish a communal atmosphere helping people to learn more about themselves, personality type and psychology; as well as understanding different points of view and manners of expression. It’s a place to make friends and form meaningful interpersonal relationships. Our goal is to support high quality debate/discussion about challenging topics in a mature, civil and open manner.

The community is focused on the practical use of personality type – how typology can be applied in real life situations. Through the forum discussions, media library and a member maintained Wiki, the objective is to establish a place where you can obtain high quality and in-depth information on the various typology related systems, personality types, and type development including areas such as Jungian Cognitive Functions, Enneagram, Big 5 and other personality systems.

It’s not all about typology. There is a lot of light-hearted discussion as well as spirited debate in a whole host of topical areas listed in the Forum tab – from politics to religion to significant media events. This is a place for people to hang out, get to know each other and chat. In addition to the forum and private messaging system, we’ve also got an interactive voice/text chat system for members who prefer it.

Typology Central Rules and Reporting Posts/Messages

Our forum is designed to promote a general tone of open, honest and respectful debate, even with occasional strong conflict, as well as having an environment of inclusion and openness. To support that environment, we have developed a set of rules for members to abide by. The rules for participating in TypologyCentral.Com can be found here. Please read these rules and become familiar with them. Occasionally we run into situations where members may break these rules. We have a team of moderators on the forum that are responsible for collaborating on situations where there is a violation of the site rules and determining what actions should be taken. Your job is to report instances where you see the Rules being violated by clicking on the report post icon at the bottom of a post. Posts, Visitor Messages and Private Messages can all be reported. In order for the moderators to have the best possible information to respond to a reported post, please provide a good explanation including which specific area of the forum rules are being violated. It helps to make sure that the issue you are concerned about receives the best possible attention.

Typology Central Interactive Chat and Voice Communication

Discord is a program which provides both text, voice, and soon possibly video chat. It's a fun and highly interactive way to connect with forum members because you have a combination of instant messaging capability and can also speak to them directly from your computer or mobile device. You'll notice on the home page there is a display of who is currently online with Discord. Discord is accessible in browser if you are on a computer, though there are desktop and phone apps available as well. Instructions on how to join can be found in the Discord Information Thread. All members with 100 posts or more are eligible to join.

What Is Personality Type (or Traits)?

We all have habitual patterns of thinking/cognition. Personality type (or traits) 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 it 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 and professional certifications are created related to testing instruments. Some examples of systems that describe personality type or traits 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., MBTI™) 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 Personality Type (or Traits) Is Not

Our DNA, our surroundings, the culture we live in, our life experience and choices – these things help to shape us as individuals. Personality type or traits are 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 a 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. Traits (such as Big 5) measure personality characteristics on a spectrum. 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 On Personality Type

The following are some good links to introductory videos. If any of them seem too dense or complicated, just skip to the next link :).

Good Books About Personality 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:

Best Introductory Books on MBTI and Cognitive Functions

Best Introductory Enneagram Books

Personality Type Profiles

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

How To Figure Out Your Personality Type

The best way to determine your type is through the administration of a test by a certified type professional, typically coupled with an interview. The price varies from $10 to over $100. There are a number of popular free assessments out there but this is one of those things where you often get what you pay for. You can also start a “Type Me” thread on the site here. However before you do that, it’s recommended that you do a little bit of personal research first. You’ll get much better responses if you’ve narrowed things down a little and ask both thoughtful questions and provide meaningful information. Read some materials on the systems, understand the basics about the different types and take one or two reputable assessments. Don’t be surprised if it takes you a little bit of time to accurately figure out your type (weeks to months) and realize that these assessments are far from perfect.

Blogging On TypologyCentral

There are two types of blogs on the forum.
1) Member Blogs
2) Private Blogs

Member Blogs

Member Blogs can be found under The Commune on the main forum menu. It is simply a thread that you start and others can comment on your posts.

Private Blogs

Private Blogs can be also be found under The Commune on the main forum menu. It is also simply a thread that you start and others can comment on your posts. The difference is that these blogs can only be viewed by members who have 500 posts or more.

Providing Feedback to TypologyCentral Forum Leadership

We're always looking for feedback and there are a few ways you can do this.

1. Start a thread in the Feedback Subforum. This is a good way to initiate feedback on something and to stimulate discussion with a broader set of members.

2. Start a thread in the Private Feedback Subforum. The only people who will see your feedback there will be the moderators and administrators (and of course you). It's a way to engage all of the mods/admins in one place all at once.

3. Send a PM to a mod or admin. This is also a way to provide feedback. The only disadvantage is that it only goes to the admins/mods that you directly send the message to. That might be ok depending on what it is you're trying to communicate.