Personology

[Eric B]

Having passed over Keirsey's Brains and Careers, from about three years ago (figuring it was to help people find careers), yet interested in seeing his development of a theory of Interaction Styles, which his student Berens had done first, I recently decided to get his latest (and likely, last) book, Personology.

I noticed, Keirsey attributes to Plato ("more interested in our sense than our motions") an "observant vs imaginative" distinction (temperaments are called "Iconic, Pistic, Dianoetic and Noetic" p.8). I had thought Kant and Kretschmer were the source of perception as a temperament factor, as they seemed to be the earliest ones mentioned as havingperceptive factors.

Personology new names

Cooperative: Compliant with Norms
Pragmatic: Adaptive to Circumstances

Role Directive: Proactive (Enterprise)
Role Informative: Reactive (Inquiry)

p.75 He appears to have completely dropped E/I (reportedly termed "expressive" vs "attentive" in B&C) as factors in the "roles" in favor of cross factors (tying together what were previously "opposites", as Berens outlined):

Control(Outcome): Interlinking
Movement/(Process): Intersecting

Interlinking: the role of one person is related to the role of another such as to be linked or fit together. Such as when one person directs, and the other does as directed.

Intersecting: When we line up opposite of opponents, and besides proponents, the roles intersect; each person intent upon their own agenda. Such as in any competition where we side with our team mates, and oppose the opposite team.

(From APS descriptions, you see how the Choleric and Supine perfectly fit right into interlinking! The Sanguine will be personable, while the Melancholy is trying to be alone. Both will tend to gravitate to like-minded people. Both involved in their own agenda; thus fitting intersecting).

16 type and 8 role variant name changes (Others remain the same).

NTP Engineer: Constructor
NFP Advocate: Mediator
STJ Administrator: Monitor (revert to Portraits of Temperament)
SFJ Conservators: Providers (takes on old ESFJ name, below)
STP Operators: Expeditors
SFP Entertainers: Improvisors (Berens' name for the entire SP temperament)

(Only NFJ "Mentors", and NTJ "Coordinators" are the same. Half of the types are changed):

ESFJ Provider: Supplier
INTJ Mastermind: Arranger
INFP Healer: Reconciler
INTP Architect: Designers (similar to Berens)
ENFP Champion: Advocate (Similar to Berens)
ENFJ Teacher: Educator
ENTP Inventor: Modelers
ENTJ Fieldmarshal: Mobilizer (similar to Berens)

There is a heavy focus on what were known as "skills sets" (Diplomatic, Logistical, Strategic, Tactical). Used more, it seems, than the official temperament names.
Also, an alternative set of descriptive names used with these: Enablers, Safekeepers, Builders, Manipulators

There are also descriptive titles for the four roles:

Preemptive Initiators, Confrontative Contenders, Complementary Collaborators, Responsive Accomodators

He also crosses Proactive/Reactive, with Compliant/Adaptive creating four groups comprising of (not using the letters, of course) STJ/NFJ, NTJ/STP, NFP/SFJ, and NTP/SFP.

With all these new names and combinations all over the place, it takes time to remember what's what.

Makes me wonder more about what Brains and Careers was like. The Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=112912698740647&id=63618021003 says this was sust a rewrite of it (one evidence is that B&C is omitted in the "Temperament Revisited" section (p24) listing his other three main previous books), but I wonder if he still kept the letters, and gave more of a description of the four roles (I was looking forward to seeing him break them down with E/I and D/Inf as the factors). Has anyone seen that book? (would hate to get it if is is just a rewrite with only the names changed).

 

[Eric B]

Forgot to mention that he also renamed two of the new roles of interaction:

Collaborator had been Coworker
Accomodator had been Responder

These two names match the corresponding types int he Thomas Kilman Instrument (TKI)

Keirsey uses the four card suits to represent the temperaments:
♦ diamonds: Artisans
♥ hearts: Idealists
â™  spades: Guardians
♣ clubs: Rationals

(I had used the suits for the four function blocks of the eight function model:
1/2: ♦ diamonds: the ego's most cherished goals--preferred functions (dom/aux)
3/4: ♥ hearts: tertiary/inferior
5/6: â™  spades: opposing/witch
7/8: ♣ clubs: trickster/demon

Note, the red suits are items of value, while the black ones are both weapons.
So notice, the structure-focused temperaments are the black suits, while the motive-focused ones are the red suits!
(He still does not acknowledge the structure/motive dimension. He really should realize that the Rationals are the Cholerics, and the Idealists are Phlegmatic. Choleric is anything but a "heart" temperament, despite the so-called "emotions").

There's also a temperament/role matrix for each type, with the roles as the horizontal rows and the temperaments as the vertical columns. The type being profiled is in upper right position and is more likely to play the role of the type in the row or column in descending order. INTP "Accomodating Strategist" [again, names are used, not the type code] will more easily play the role of fellow Rational ENTP than the lower down Rationals the NTJ's. It will be the same for fellow "Accomodators" ISFP, followed by INFP and ISFJ. The type in the far lower right corner will be the ESTJ, the Initiating Logistician.

(This is Keirsey's newest and last book. No one is interested at all?)

 

[wolfy]

I read it and was interested but I just had nothing to add, mostly because I couldn't get a grasp on where I fit.

 

[INTP]

I dont get this trend of taking existing terms and misusing them. archetypes, shadow and now personology..

Personology = determining personality traits based on physiological traits..

 

[Totenkindly]

(This is Keirsey's newest and last book. No one is interested at all?)

I didn't even realize he had a new book. Keirsey is so... 90's!

I'll have to look over this and get back to you.

 

[jenocyde]

I didn't know about this book either, Eric. thanks for updating us.