Personality types and their characteristics

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

In modern psychology, socionics, conflictology, there are many different classifications of psychological personality types. This topic is quite popular today. Some authors have focused on narrowly focused and very specific areas of application of these concepts and published books on how to understand female types or how to conquer a man of a certain psychotype.

A deep understanding of your personality, your strengths and weaknesses contributes to a more conscious and therefore more successful management of the realities of your life, including its romantic component.

History of the development of the theory of personality types

The well-known Swiss psychologist K. Jung came to the conclusion that a person's actions can be foreseen, taking into account the thought processes that cause them and the manner of behavior chosen by people. In 1921, his work "Psychological Types" was published, where he described8 personality types based on 3 dimensions of personality preferences.

In 1923, the American researcher K. Briggs, who for a long time was interested in questions of human typification, got acquainted with this theory. She accepted the model proposed by Jung, and subsequently, together with her daughter I. Briggs-Myers, began to work with her. In the course of many years of research, K. Briggs and I. Briggs-Myers came to the conclusion that there are not 3, but 4 dimensions of personal preferences, and then, accordingly, not 8, but 16 psychotypes are obtained.

Around 1940, C. Briggs and I. Briggs-Myers began to develop a system of tests to determine the type of personality - MBTI. They spent more than one year on this. After the test was ready, the data was collected and analyzed, which subsequently brought the scientific rationale for the MBTI tests. The test consists of 93 questions.

Based on the work of C. Jung and I. Myers-Briggs in 1956, Professor of the University of California D. Keirsey developed a questionnaire for diagnosing a personality type. This test is an abbreviated and revised form of the Myers-Briggs questionnaire and contains 70 questions. This technique is widely used in professional and psychological counseling, as well as in the study of interpersonal relationships.

In 1992, the first edition of the book by the authors P. Tiger and B. Barron-Tiger "Do what you were born for" was published, in which these 16 personality types are described in detail, how to determine them, successful areas for self-realization and ways of organizing work. The book contains a huge amountexamples, which allows you to get a detailed idea of the features and various nuances of psychotypes.

Preferences as criteria

The personality type structure is based on its four fundamental aspects - dimensions, and two opposite values for each dimension - preferences, which is reflected in the table below.

	Measurements	Preferences
1	How to a greater extent a person interacts with the outside world and what directs energy	Extraversion - E	Introversion - I
2	Mainly what kind of information a person tends to pay attention to	Sensorics - S	Intuition - N
3	What guides a person more when making a decision	Logic - T	Ethics - F
4	Predominant tendency to lead an orderly lifestyle or more free, make decisions or absorb information	Rationality - J	Irrational - P

Of course, in ordinary life a person uses all of the above preferences. And yet, on each dimension, he will resort to one of the two preferences more naturally, more often, and with greater effect than the other.

Determination of psychological type

To determine the type of personality, psychology uses the MBTI questionnaire or the D. Keirsey test. In turn, P. Tiger and B. Barron-Tiger suggest looking at the detailed descriptions of preferences for each dimension, then thinking about habitual patterns of behavior and determining which characteristics are most relevant.

It is important to remember that these preferences describe extremes and are generalizations. Therefore, to determine the type of personality, it is the tendency of attraction to one of them that is more important than its severity - strong or weak.

Extraversion - Introversion

According to the concept of extraversion - introversion created by K. Jung, each person, being present both in the outer and inner worlds, has a natural tendency to stay mainly in one of them. People who prefer the outside world are called extroverts, the inside - introverts.

Extroverts direct their attention and energy to the outside world. They are much more social than introverts. They strive for communication, prefer to be in the company of other people and interact with the world of objects. They tend to be active. This is how they comprehend this world.

Introverts, on the contrary, try to understand the world before they come into contact with it, which takes time, solitude and intense mental activity. They are less likely to need to interact with other people. They tend to be more reserved and more introverted than extroverts.

Sensing - Intuition

Sensorics involves the collection of information using fivesense organs. Therefore, the attention of sensorics is directed to what is concrete and real. Trust is something that can be fixed, measured. For them, what is important is what you can touch, see, taste, smell, hear. Sensory people believe that the sense organs will provide them with accurate information about the world around them. They are now oriented.

Intuitives listen to the so-called sixth sense, read between the lines, look for hidden meanings in everything. For them, inspiration and insight are important. imagination. They are attracted to new ideas and approaches. They are focused on the future, they try to anticipate it and change the state of things. Sensors are especially good at remembering large amounts of facts, and intuitives are especially good at interpreting them.

Logic - Ethics

The way a person makes decisions and comes to conclusions says a lot about him. Logicians use a detached, impersonal analysis, the same approach to everyone. They have well-developed critical thinking, which makes it easy to identify errors. Truthfulness for them is a priority over tact, because they can seem heartless. Feelings are recognized only if they are considered logical. They are motivated by the desire for achievement and success.

Ethicists make decisions based on criteria that are important to them and to those around them. For them, consent and participation are valuable, tact is a priority over truthfulness. They are able to notice exceptions to the rules, therefore they tend to apply an individual approach to everyone. Feelings acknowledge without asking questionsabout their rationality. They are motivated by the desire for recognition and positive evaluation from the outside.

Rationality - Irrationality

The main differences between these preferences reflect the conceptual differences between two sayings: "Time for business, hour for fun" and "Work is not a wolf, it will not run away into the forest." Rationalists perceive time as a limited resource. Results oriented. They prefer to set goals, set deadlines for them, and work to make their plans a reality. Experience a sense of satisfaction when completing projects. They feel comfortable when decisions have already been made. They tend to desire to manage life, to regulate it. Rational people need a structured, planned, regulated world. It is important for the Rational to control everything that happens to him.

Irrationals perceive time as a renewable resource and deadlines as elastic. When new information comes in, they easily adjust and change their goals. Process oriented. They like to adapt to new conditions. They enjoy starting projects. They feel comfortable in the case of an open choice in front of them. They build their lives mainly on the principle of spontaneity, value flexibility and fluidity. They tend to strive to understand life, and not to rule over it. Irrationals prefer to perceive the world as changeable, replete with options for spontaneous choice. Rigid structure, clear framework bind them. Free swimming is what they prefer.

Psychological types

According to I. Briggs-Myers, each person can be attributed to one of the 16 types presented in Table 2. At the same time, having gathered together a hundred people belonging to the same type, you can see that they really different. And this is not surprising, because each of them has different interests, life experiences, parents, genes, and so on. But at the same time, they have a lot in common. The table below shows 16 psychological types.

Types of temperament	Traditionalists - ST	Empirics - SF	Conceptualists - NT	Idealists - NF
Personality Types	ISTJ	ISFJ	INTJ	INFJ
	ISTP	ISFP	INTP	INFP
	ESTJ	ESFJ	ENTJ	ENFP
	ESTP	ESFP	ENTP	ENFJ

Personality type does not determine intelligence or success in life. There are no better or worse types. All of them are equally valuable, and each of them has both strengths and weaknesses. Depending on what type of personality a person has, one can talk about his individual motivations, sources of energy. Knowing your psychotype allows you to understand how to use advantages and compensate for weaknesses, and it helps a lot when choosing a field of professional activity.

D. Keirsey, after getting acquainted with the works of I. Briggs-Myers, noticed that 4 combinations of personalpreferences correspond to 4 temperaments, which have been identified by various researchers throughout the history of mankind. He divided 16 personality types into four main groups, which he called the type of temperament, which is reflected in the second table. People with the same temperament types have many similarities and tend to share the same fundamental values.

Characteristics of temperament types

Traditionalists are resolute people who stand firmly on the ground. Their motto is: "Who gets up early, God gives him." They are serious and hardworking, reliable and responsible, more than others show adherence to traditions. They respect authority, hierarchy, well-functioning systems of leadership. They value rules, property, and safety. Mostly adhere to conservative views. They strongly express the need to serve the interests of society. They have a highly developed sense of duty. Trying to do the right thing.

Empiricists are people who react quickly, easily adaptable and prone to spontaneous reactions. Their motto is "Eat, drink and be merry". Relative to others, they are the most enterprising. They live in the present moment, impulses, actions. Seldom do people choose situations or activities that are heavily dictated by structure or require a lot of rules to be followed. They are prone to risk, some even seek thrills and like to be on the edge of the abyss. At the same time, they are sincere and pragmatic, they like to solve complex problems. They highly appreciate skill and professionalism, respect heroism.

Idealists -people who are characterized by concern for personal growth, the desire to understand themselves and others. Their motto is: "Be true to yourself." More than others, they have a penchant for spiritual and philosophical searches. They seem to be in an eternal search for the meaning of life. They have good communication skills, are able to understand others, enter into their position, take into account their needs. Integrity, authenticity and potential are highly valued in people. Often endowed with a gift to help others grow and develop, to act as catalysts for positive change. From this kind of activity, they feel a sense of satisfaction. Prone to idealizing people.

Conceptualists are people who have a craving for knowledge and make high demands on themselves and others. Their motto is: "Achieve excellence in everything." Appreciate a high level of intelligence and competencies. Their strengths are curiosity, the ability to see different facets of phenomena, strategic planning, and the creation of systems to achieve goals. From activities of this kind, they experience a deep sense of satisfaction. Representatives of this type of temperament are the most independent.

Development of socionics

The presented typology of Jung-Myers-Briggs is related to socionics popular in Russia. Socionics - determination of the type of personality, its social roles, features of relationships and interactions with other people.

This direction appeared thanks to the initiative of the Lithuanian researcher A. Augustinavichute, who simplified the system of scientific names of 16 psychotypes in the 70-80s and made the conceptpublic. With her filing, personality types in socionics were supplemented by literary and historical pseudonyms. In the future, I. D. Weisban, A. L. Panchenko, V. I. Stratievskaya paid attention to this topic and made their additions and improvements.

New applications of socionics

The interest in the study of psychotypes does not fade away. There are interesting areas of their practical application. So Yu. I. Simonov and A. A. Nemirovsky published the book "How to look for a life partner", where they described 16 female personality types, and L. A. Beskova, E. A. Udalova - "The way to a man's heart and back", which contains a series of recommendations on how to make the right impression and how to build relationships with any of the 16 types of men.

Conflict

A person bears great emotional and physical costs of participating in conflicts. Confrontation and hostility between the parties intensifies, the desire for good relations disappears, the problem becomes more important than its solution. If this is a frequent occurrence in a person's life, then he is almost constantly in a stressful state, which negatively affects he alth, appearance, mood, and efficiency.

In conflictology, conflict is understood as a character trait that contributes to frequent involvement in conflicts, and a personality that involves increased production of conflicts is commonly called a conflict personality. S. M. Emelyanov identifies the following types of conflict personalities:

• Demonstrative - overly emotional, wanting to be the center of attention,rational behavior is expressed very weakly.
• Rigid - with high self-esteem, unwilling to reckon with others, straightforward, inflexible, constantly demanding confirmation of his importance.
• Uncontrollable - impulsive, aggressive, uncritical, often ignoring generally accepted norms of communication.
• Ultra-accurate - overly demanding, suspicious, suspicious, prone to attaching too much importance to the remarks of others.
• Conflict-free - striving to please everyone, excessively striving for a compromise, not possessing sufficient willpower and a good enough vision of the future.

As a rule, a person does not realize that he himself is the cause of frequent conflict situations in his life. By identifying the character trait that gives rise to this tendency, he will be able to direct his life in a more calm and peaceful direction.

Character accentuations

Common are situations when a person, due to a series of troubles, labels himself a loser and decides that he should go through life under this "banner". However, knowledge is power. If you identify your weaknesses, you can change them - it's just a habit of thinking, acting and choosing in a certain way. And habits can be consciously managed - eliminate old ones and instill new ones.

In psychology, based on examples of pathology, a system of character accentuations was developed, which are understood as extreme variants of the norm. They reflect excessively enhanced character traits that causeselective vulnerability to certain types of psychogenic influences, despite good resistance to others.

They usually arise and develop during the formation of character, and in the process of growing up they are smoothed out. They can be intermittent and practically do not manifest themselves under normal conditions, but only in some situations, in a certain environment. With accentuations, periods of social maladjustment are either absent altogether, or are short-lived. In 1977, A. E. Lichko proposed the following classification of character accentuations:

• Schizoid personality type - characterized by isolation, isolation from other people.
• Hyperthymic - constantly elevated mood and tone, prone to uncontrollable activity and a thirst for communication, tend to be dispersed and not bring the work started to the end.
• Cycloid - mood changes are cyclical, depression is replaced by enthusiasm, hobbies are unstable, tend to abandon their affairs during periods of recession.
• Labile - there is an extreme degree of mood variability. The sensual sphere is strong. Very vulnerable to emotional rejection by loved ones, separation from them or their loss. Often in the role of ward.
• Astheno-neurotic - a tendency to hypochondria, increased irritability, show high fatigue when the activity is competitive.
• Sensitive - strong impressionability, characterized by shyness, shyness, a sense of inferiority. During adolescence, they often become objects forridicule.
• Able to show calmness, kindness and mutual assistance.
• Psychasthenic - prone to introspection and reflection. They cannot stand high demands on themselves, they are burdened by responsibility, whether for themselves or for others. Often fluctuate when making decisions.
• Epileptoid - characterized by excitability, tension and a tendency to dominate others.
• Hysteroid - have a pronounced egocentrism and a thirst to be in the spotlight.
• Unstable - characterized by laziness, lack of desire to engage in labor or educational activities, a pronounced craving for idle pastime, entertainment, idleness.
• Conformal - tend to think "like everyone else", be in a familiar environment, avoid sudden changes.

Given the degree of severity, there are hidden and explicit forms of character accentuation. The first reflects the norm, and the second - the extreme version of the norm, and speaks of the stability of these traits in the character.

Knowing one's personality type, strengths and weaknesses, inclination to a particular field of activity and the way it is organized, the degree of conflict, existing character accentuations gives a person the opportunity to deeply understand himself and, thus, tools to consciously manage his life.