How rich is our conception of personality typing?

[ygolo]

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]

• 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]

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.