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How rich is our conception of personality typing?

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,988
The way I use personality types is as an aid to shift perspectives (a brainstorming aid when dealing with people). So I need discrete categories along which to make the shifts, even if the dimension/trait is continuous rather than discrete.

So most of us know about the 16 types of Myers-Briggs. But we can look at these sixteen types from various lenses.
  • The 4 dichotomies
  • The 4 temperaments
    • Utilitarian vs. Cooperative
    • Motive vs. Structure
    • Abstract vs. Concrete (a temperament take on N vs S)
    • Core Needs
    • Core Values
    • Likely Talents and Roles
    • Likely Behaviors
    • What they bring to character and morality
  • The 4 interaction styles
    • Directing vs. Informing
    • Control vs. Movement
    • Initiating vs. Responding (and interaction styles take on E vs. I)
    • Correspondence with DiSC and Social Styles (Analytical, Amiable, Driver, Expressive)
    • Core Drives
    • Chief Aims
    • Core Beliefs
    • Likely Talents
    • Likely Attributes
  • The 16 combinations of primary and auxiliary functions, thinking of functions in general
    • Development
    • Inner Conflicts
    • The Shadow functions
    • Function Roles
    • Communication Problems
    • Road Blocks in Life
  • Mind Types
  • We can also study the relative strengths of functions or dichotomies in a person, but I don't think it really counts as a mechanism for sub-classing.

Many also know the 9 pure types of the Enneagram...and if we stick with the conventional idea of wings, we could have zero, one (two ways for this), or two wings--Making a total of 9*4=36 Enneagram types. There are also many lenses to look at ennegram.
  • Type in Direction of Integration vs. Type in Direction of Stress(Disintegration)
  • The Fear and Desire cycles
  • Primary Relationship with Maternal, Paternal, or Both parents, and a Neutral, Attachment, or Detachment Orientation Toward Primary Parent.
  • Here again we can study the relative strengths of each type, but I don't think it should be used as a mechanism for sub-classing.
  • We can study levels of health, but I think of that as being "within perspective"

The Big Five is another popular measure of personality (and academically favored). Once can conceptualize a typology as the SLOAN types (32 types)
  • Social or Reserved
  • Limbic or Calm
  • Organized or Unstructured
  • Accommodating or Egocentric
  • Non-curious or Inquisitive

Even though there are heavy correlations between them, each person can come out different on many of the systems.

So far the Myers-Briggs related system, though the most conceptually rich, has the least number of total perspectives to switch through. But if we include flavors and life themes, the number becomes 16*16*(life theme possibilities).

COUNTING THE NUMBER OF PERSPECTIVES

If we say that anyone could have 0 to 8 life themes, then there are 2^8=256 possibilities, making for a total of 16*16*256=6556 possibilities.

But I think it is unreasonable to think of someone who has one or less life themes active, or more than three. So I believe people will have between 2 and 3 life themes that are serious parts of their lives, making for 9choose3=84 possibilities (choose 3 items from 8 life themes and a "blank"). This makes the total number of Myers-Briggs related types 16*16*84=21504 possibilities.

With 21504 different perspectives (and that is not including peoples pasts or presents) available to us, we ought to be tolerant and partially understanding of a lot of different types of people.

If we include the enneagram along with the 21504 different Myers-Briggs related types, we'll have 21504*36=774144 different perspectives to cover.

Not only that, but each one of those 774144 perspectives will have rich detailed conceptualizations of what that perspective means.

For each perspective, we have a conceptualization of:
  • Core Needs
  • Core Values
  • Core Drives
  • Chief Aims
  • Core Beliefs
  • Core Fears
  • Core Desires
  • Likely Attributes
  • Likely Talents and Roles
  • Likely Behaviors
  • What they bring to character and morality
  • Development
  • Inner Conflicts
  • Road Blocks in Life
  • Communication problems
  • Defense Mechanisms and how to overcome them
  • Primary relationship with Maternal, Paternal, or Both parents
  • Neutral, Attachment, or Detachment Orientation Toward primary Parent(s).
  • Utilitarian vs. Cooperative style
  • Focus Motive vs. Structure
  • Abstract vs. Concrete language
  • Directing vs. Informing style
  • Control vs. Movement focus
  • Initiating vs. Responding style
  • Preference for Logical vs. Emotional decision making realm
  • Scheduled vs. Probing approach to life
  • Independent vs. Participative Style
  • Global vs. Local Perspective
  • Hard vs. Soft Demeanor
  • Mainstream vs. Counter-Cultural Attitude

I think the Big Five and Socionics (I know nothing about Socionics) are extremely similar to Myers-Briggs, but different enough that it would confuse the perspectives, so I don't include them in the count.
 

VagrantFarce

Active member
Joined
Nov 19, 2008
Messages
1,558
  • Core Needs
  • Core Values
  • Core Drives
  • Chief Aims
  • Core Beliefs
  • Core Fears
  • Core Desires
  • Likely Attributes
  • Likely Talents and Roles
  • Likely Behaviors
  • What they bring to character and morality
  • Development
  • Inner Conflicts
  • Road Blocks in Life
  • Communication problems
  • Defense Mechanisms and how to overcome them
  • Primary relationship with Maternal, Paternal, or Both parents
  • Neutral, Attachment, or Detachment Orientation Toward primary Parent(s).
  • Utilitarian vs. Cooperative style
  • Focus Motive vs. Structure
  • Abstract vs. Concrete language
  • Directing vs. Informing style
  • Control vs. Movement focus
  • Initiating vs. Responding style
  • Preference for Logical vs. Emotional decision making realm
  • Scheduled vs. Probing approach to life

good luck anyone who tries to fit all this into their signature
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,988
good luck anyone who tries to fit all this into their signature

I actually edited that list adding the flavor related dichotomies.

But think about how amazing a tool this is for developing charachters for fiction.
 
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