Personality theories, types and tests

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personality types, behavioural styles theories, personality and testing systems - for self-awareness, self-development, motivation, management, and recruitment

Motivation, management, communications, relationships - focused on yourself or others - are a lot more effective when you understand yourself, and the people you seek to motivate or manage or develop or help.

Understanding personality is also the key to unlocking elusive human qualities, for example leadership, motivation, and empathy, whether your purpose is self-development, helping others, or any other field relating to people and how we behave.

The personality theories that underpin personality tests and personality quizzes are surprisingly easy to understand at a basic level. This section seeks to explain many of these personality theories and ideas. This knowledge helps to develop self-awareness and also to help others to achieve greater self-awareness and development too.

Developing understanding of personality typology, personality traits, thinking styles and learning styles theories is also a very useful way to improve your knowledge of motivation and behaviour of self and others, in the workplace and beyond.

Understanding personality types is helpful for appreciating that while people are different, everyone has a value, and special strengths and qualities, and that everyone should be treated with care and respect. The relevance of love and spirituality - especially at work - is easier to see and explain when we understand that differences in people are usually personality-based. People very rarely set out to cause upset - they just behave differently because they are different.

Personality theory and tests are useful also for management, recruitment, selection, training and teaching, on which point see also the learning styles theories on other pages such as Kolb's learning styles,  Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, and the VAK learning styles model.

Completing personality tests with no knowledge of the supporting theories can be a frustrating and misleading experience - especially if the results from personality testing are not properly explained, or worse still not given at all to the person being tested. Hopefully the explanations and theories below will help dispel much of the mistique surrounding modern personality testing.

There are many different personality and motivational models and theories, and each one offers a different perspective.

The more models you understand, the better your appreciation of motivation and behaviour.


                   personality models on this page

                   The Four Temperaments/Four Humours
                   Carl Jung's Psychological Types
                   Myers Briggs® personality types theory (MBTI® model)
                   Keirsey's personality types theory (Temperament Sorter model)
                   Hans Eysenck's personality types theory
                   Katherine Benziger's Brain Type theory
                   William Moulton Marston's DISC personality theory (Inscape, Thomas Int., etc)
                   Belbin Team Roles and personality types theory
                   The 'Big Five' Factors personality model
                   FIRO-B® Personality Assessment model
                   The Birkman Method®
                   Lumina Spark
                   Other personality theories and psychometrics tests models

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Personality theories and models - introduction

Behavioural and personality models are widely used in organisations, especially in psychometrics and psychometric testing (personality assessments and tests). Behavioural and personality models have also been used by philosophers, leaders and managers for hundreds and in some cases thousands of years as an aid to understanding, explaining, and managing communications and relationships.

Used appropriately, psychometrics and personality tests can be hugely beneficial in improving knowledge of self and other people - motivations, strengths, weaknesses, preferred thinking and working styles, and also strengths and preferred styles for communications, learning, management, being managed, and team-working.

Understanding personality - of your self and others - is central to motivation. Different people have different strengths and needs. You do too.

The more you understand about personality, the better able you are to judge what motivates people - and yourself.

The more you understand about your own personality and that of other people, the better able you are to realise how others perceive you, and how they react to your own personality and style.

Knowing how to adapt the way you work with others, how you communicate, provide information and learning, how you identify and agree tasks, are the main factors enabling successfully managing and motivating others - and yourself.

Importantly you do not necessarily need to use a psychometrics instrument in order to understand the theory and the basic model which underpins it. Obviously using good psychometrics instruments can be extremely useful and beneficial, (and enjoyable too if properly positioned and administered), but the long-standing benefit from working with these models is actually in understanding the logic and theory which underpin the behavioural models or personality testing systems concerned. Each theory helps you to understand more about yourself and others.

In terms of 'motivating others' you cannot sustainably 'impose' motivation on another person. You can inspire them perhaps, which lasts as long as you can sustain the inspiration, but sustainable motivation must come from within the person. A good manager and leader will enable and provide the situation, environment and opportunities necessary for people to be motivated - in pursuit of goals and development and achievements that are truly meaningful to the individual. Which implies that you need to discover, and at times help the other person to discover, what truly motivates them - especially their strengths, passions, and personal aims - for some the pursuit of personal destiny - to achieve their own unique potential. Being able to explain personality, and to guide people towards resources that will help them understand more about themselves, is all part of the process. Help others to help you understand what they need - for work and for whole life development, and you will have an important key to motivating, helping and working with people.

Each of the different theories and models of personality and human motivation is a different perspective on the hugely complex area of personality, motivation and behaviour. It follows that for any complex subject, the more perspectives you have, then the better your overall understanding will be. Each summary featured below is just that - a summary: a starting point from which you can pursue the detail and workings of any of these models that you find particularly interesting and relevant. Explore the many other models and theories not featured on this site too - the examples below are a just small sample of the wide range of models and systems that have been developed.

Some personality testing resources, including assessment instruments, are available free on the internet or at relatively low cost from appropriate providers, and they are wonderful tools for self-awareness, personal development, working with people and for helping to develop better working relationships. Some instruments however are rather more expensive, given that the developers and psychometrics organisations need to recover their development costs. For this reason, scientifically validated personality testing instruments are rarely free. The free tests which are scientifically validated tend to be 'lite' introductory instruments which give a broad indication rather than a detailed analysis.

There are dozens of different personality testing systems to explore, beneath which sit rather fewer basic theories and models. Some theories underpin well-known personality assessment instruments (such as Myers Briggs®, and DISC); others are stand-alone models or theories which seek to explain personality, motivation, behaviour, learning styles and thinking styles (such as Benziger, Transactional Analysis, Maslow, McGregor, Adams, VAK, Kolb, and others), which are explained elsewhere on this website.

In this section are examples personality and style models, which are all relatively easy to understand and apply. Don't allow providers to baffle you with science - all of these theories are quite accessible at a basic level, which is immensely helpful to understanding a lot of what you need concerning motivation and personality in work and life beyond.

Do seek appropriate training and accreditation if you wish to pursue and use psychometrics testing in a formal way, especially if testing or assessing people in organisations or in the provision of services. Administering formal personality tests - whether in recruitment, assessment, training and development, counselling or for other purposes - is a sensitive and skilled area. People are vulnerable to inaccurate suggestion, misinterpretation, or poor and insensitive explanation, so approach personality testing with care, and be sure you are equipped and capable to deal with testing situations properly.

For similar reasons you need to be properly trained to get involved in counselling or therapy for clinical or serious emotional situations. People with clinical conditions, depression and serious emotional disturbance usually need qualified professional help, and if you aren't qualified yourself then the best you can do is to offer to help the other person get the right support.
Beware of using unlicensed 'pirated' or illegally copied psychometrics instruments. Always check to ensure that any tools that are 'apparently' free and in the public domain are actually so. If in doubt about the legitimacy of any psychometrics instrument avoid using it. Psychometric tests that are unlikely to be free include systems with specific names, such as DISC®, Situational Leadership®, MBTI®, Cattell 16PF, Belbin Team Roles. If in doubt check. These systems and others like them are not likely to be in the public domain and not legitimately free, and so you should not use them without a licence or the officially purchased materials from the relevant providers.

Personality types models and theories
As a general introduction to all of these theories and models, it's important to realise that no-one fully knows the extent to which personality is determined by genetics and hereditary factors, compared to the effects of up-bringing, culture, environment and experience. Nature versus Nurture: no-one knows. Most studies seem to indicate that it's a bit of each, roughly half and half, although obviously it varies person-to-person.

Given that perhaps half our personality is determined by influences acting upon us after we are conceived and born, it's interesting and significant also that no-one actually knows the extent to which personality changes over time.

Certainly childhood is highly influential in forming personality. Certainly major trauma at any stage of life can change a person's personality quite fundamentally. Certainly many people seem to mature emotionally with age and experience. But beyond these sort of generalisations, it's difficult to be precise about how and when - and if - personality actually changes.

So where do we draw the line and say a personality is fixed and firm? The answer in absolute terms is that we can't.

We can however identify general personality styles, aptitudes, sensitivities, traits, etc., in people and in ourselves, especially when we understand something of how to define and measure types and styles. And this level of awareness is far better than having none at all.

Which is is purpose of this information about personality and style 'types'. What follows is intended to be give a broad, accessible (hopefully interesting) level of awareness of personality and types, and of ways to interpret and define and recognise different personalities and behaviours, so as to better understand yourself and others around you.

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The four temperaments - the fourhumours/humors
The Four Temperaments, also known as the Four Humours, is arguably theoldest of all personality profiling systems, and it is fascinating that thereare so many echoes of these ancient ideas found in modern psychology.
The Four Temperaments ideas can be traced back to the traditions of theEgyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations over 5,000 years ago, in which thehealth of the body was connected with the elements, fire, water, earth and air,which in turn were related to body organs, fluids, and treatments. Some of thisthinking survives today in traditional Eastern ideas and medicine.
The ancient Greeks however first formalised and popularised the FourTemperaments methodologies around 2,500 years ago, and these ideas came todominate Western thinking about human behaviour and medical treatment for overtwo-thousand years. Most of these concepts for understanding personality,behaviour, illness and treatment of illness amazingly persisted in the Westernworld until the mid-1800s.
The Four Temperaments or Four Humours can be traced back reliably to AncientGreek medicine and philosophy, notably in the work of Hippocrates(c.460-377/359BC - the 'Father of Medicine') and in Plato's (428-348BC) ideasabout character and personality.
In Greek medicine around 2,500 years ago it was believed that in order tomaintain health, people needed an even balance of the four body fluids: blood,phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. These four body fluids were linked (indaft ways by modern standards) to certain organs and illnesses and alsorepresented the Four Temperaments or Four Humours (of personality) as theylater became known. As regards significant body fluids no doubt natural bodywaste products were discounted, since perfectly healthy people evacuate a goodvolume of them every day. Blood is an obvious choice for a fluid associatedwith problems - there'd have generally been quite a lot of it about when peoplewere unwell thousands of years ago, especially if you'd been hit with a club orrun over by a great big chariot. Phlegm is an obvious one too - colds and fluand chest infections tend to produce gallons of the stuff and I doubt theancient Greeks had any better ideas of how to get rid of it than we do today.Yellow bile is less easy to understand although it's generally thought havebeen the yellowish liquid secreted by the liver to aid digestion. In ancienttimes a bucketful of yellow bile would have been the natural upshot, so tospeak, after a night on the local wine or taking a drink from the well thatyour next-door neighbour threw his dead cat into last week. Black bile isactually a bit of a mystery. Some say it was congealed blood, or more likelystomach bile with some blood in it. Students of the technicolour yawn mighthave observed that bile does indeed come in a variety of shades, depending onthe ailment or what exactly you had to drink the night before. Probably theancient Greeks noticed the same variation and thought it was two differentbiles. Whatever, these four were the vital fluids, and they each relatedstrongly to what was understood at the time about people's health andpersonality.
Imbalance between the 'humours' manifested in different behaviour andillnesses, and treatments were based on restoring balance between the humoursand body fluids (which were at the time seen as the same thing. Hence suchpractices as blood-letting by cutting or with with leeches. Incidentally thetraditional red and white striped poles - representing blood and bandages - canstill occasionally be seen outside barber shops and are a fascinating reminderthat these medical beliefs and practices didn't finally die out until the late1800s.
Spiritually there are other very old four-part patterns and themes relatingto the Four Temperaments within astrology, the planets, and people'sunderstanding of the world, for example: the ancient 'elements' - fire, water,earth and air; the twelve signs of the zodiac arranged in four setscorresponding to the elements and believed by many to define personality anddestiny; the ancient 'Four Qualities' of (combinations of) hot or cold, and dryor moist/wet; and the four seasons, Spring, Summer Autumn, Winter. The organsof the body - liver, lungs, gall bladder and spleen - were also stronglyconnected with the Four Temperaments or Humours and medicinal theory.
Relating these ancient patterns to the modern interpretation of the FourTemperaments does not however produce scientifically robust correlations. Theywere thought relevant at one time, but in truth they are not, just as bloodletting has now been discounted as a reliable medical treatment.
But while the causal link between body fluids and health and personality hasnot stood the test of time, the analysis of personality via the FourTemperaments seems to have done so, albeit tenuously in certain models.
The explanation below is chiefly concerned with the Four Temperaments as apersonality model, not as a basis for understanding and treating illness.

Early representations of the four temperaments as a personality model
Stephen Montgomery (author of the excellent book People Patterns - A ModernGuide to the Four Temperaments) suggests that the origins of the FourTemperaments can be identified earlier than the ancient Greeks, namely in theBible, c.590BC, in the words of the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, who refers(chapter 1, verse 10) to four faces of mankind, represented by four creatureswhich appeared from the mist:
"As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man,and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an oxon the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle." (from the Bookof Ezekiel, chapter 1, verse 10)
Montgomery additionally attributes personality characteristics to each ofthe four faces, which he correlates to modern interpretations of the FourTemperaments and also to Hippocrates' ideas, compared below.

Four temperaments - earliestorigins

Ezekiel c.590BC		Hippocrates c.370BC
lion	bold	blood	cheerful
ox	sturdy	black bile	somber
man	humane	yellow bile	enthusiastic
eagle	far-seeing	phlegm	calm

N.B. The Ezekiel characteristics, (bold, sturdy, humane, far-seeing), do notappear in the Bible - they have been attributed retrospectively by Montgomery.The describing words shown here for the Hippocrates Four Temperaments are alsothose used by Montgomery, other similar descriptions are used in differentinterpretations and commentaries.

Later, and very significantly, Galen, (c.130-201AD) the Greek physicianlater interpreted Hippocrates' ideas into the Four Humours, which you mightmore readily recognise and associate with historic writings and referencesabout the Four Temperaments and Four Humours. Each of Galen's describing wordssurvives in the English language although the meanings will have alteredsomewhat with the passing of nearly two thousand years.

Hippocrates c.370BC	Galen c.190AD
cheerful	sanguine
somber	melancholic
enthusiastic	choleric
calm	phlegmatic

The Four Temperaments or Four Humours continued to feature in the thinkingand representations of human personality in the work of many great thinkersthrough the ages since these earliest beginnings, and although differenttheorists have used their own interpretations and descriptive words for each ofthe temperaments through the centuries, it is fascinating to note the relativeconsistency of these various interpretations which are shown in the historyoverview table below.
Brewer's 1870 dictionary refers quite clearly to the Four Humours using thetranslated Galen descriptions above, which is further evidence of thepopularity and resilience of the Four Temperaments/Humours model and also ofthe Galen interpretation.

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The Four Temperaments also provided much inspiration and historicalreference for Carl Jung's work, which in turnprovided the underpinning structures and theory for the development of MyersBriggs'® and David Keirsey's modern-day personality assessment systems, whichcorrelate with the Four Temperaments thus:

Isabel Myers 1950s	Galen c.190AD	David Keirsey 1998
SP sensing-perceiving	sangine	artisan
SJ sensing-judging	melancholic	guardian
NF intuitive-feeling	choleric	idealist
NT intuitive-thinking	phlegmatic	rationalist

N.B. Bear in mind that certain copyright protections apply to the MBTI® andKeirsey terms so I recommend that you be wary of using these in the provisionof chargeable services or materials since under certain circumstances they arelikely to be subject to licensing conditions.

David Keirsey's interpretation of the Four Temperaments is expressed byMontgomery in a 2x2 matrix, which provides an interesting modern perspectiveand helpful way to appreciate the model, and also perhaps to begin to apply itto yourself. Can you see yourself in one of these descriptions?

artisan   says what is,   does what works	rationalist   says what's possible,   does what works
guardian   says what is,   does what's right	idealist   says what's possible,   does what's right

Again bear in mind that nobody is exclusively one temperament or type. Eachif us is likely to have a single preference or dominant type or style, which isaugmented and supported by a mixture of the other types. Different peoplepossess differing mixtures and dominances - some people are strongly orientatedtowards a single type; other people have a more even mixture of types. It seemsto be accepted theory that no person can possess an evenly balanced mixture ofall four types.
Most people can adapt their styles according to different situations.Certain people are able to considerably adapt their personal styles to suitdifferent situations. The advantages of being adaptable are consistent with thepowerful '1st Law Of Cybernetics', which states that:"The unit (which can be a person) within the system (which can be asituation or an organisation) which has the most behavioural responsesavailable to it controls the system".
The ability to adapt or bring into play different personal styles inresponse to different situations is arguably the most powerful capability thatanyone can possess. Understanding personality models such as the FourTemperaments is therefore of direct help in achieving such personal awarenessand adaptability. Understanding personality helps you recognise behaviour andtype in others - and yourself. Recognising behaviour is an obviouspre-requisite for adapting behaviour - in yourself, and in helping others toadapt too.

Overviewhistory of the four temperaments - or fourhumours
From various sources and references, including Keirsey and Montgomery, hereis a history of the Four Temperaments and other models and concepts related tothe Four Temperaments or Four Humours. The words in this framework (fromHippocrates onwards) can be seen as possible describing words for each of thetemperaments concerned, although do not attach precise significance to anyof the words - they are guide only and not definitive or scientificallyreliable. The correlations prior to Hippocrates are far less reliable andincluded here more for interest than for scientific relevance.

N.B. the colours in these charts do not signify anything - they merelyassist (hopefully) with continuity between the different tables. The initials Kand M denote interpretations according to Keirsey and Montgomery. Ancient datesare approximate. Some cautionary notes relating to the inclusion of some ofthese theorists and interpretations is shown below the grid. For believers inastrology and star-signs please resist the temptation to categorise yourselfaccording to where your star-sign sits in the grid - these associations are notscientific and not reliable, and are included merely for historical context andinformation.

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Keirsey/MBTI® reference	artisan/SP sensing-perceiving	guardian/SJ sensing-judging	idealist/NF intuitive-feeling	rationalist/NT  intuitive-thinking
Ezekiel 590BC	lion	ox	man	eagle
Empedocles 450BC	Goea (air)	Hera (earth)	Zeus (fire)	Poseidon (water)
The Seasons	Spring	Autumn	Summer	Winter
Signs of Zodiac	Libra, Aquarius, Gemini	Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo	Aries, Leo, Sagittarius	Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Hippocrates 370BC	blood	black bile	yellow bile	phlegm
Hippocrates 370BC 'Four Qualities'	hot and moist	cold and dry	hot and dry	cold and moist
Plato 340BC (M)	artistic	sensible	intuitive	reasoning
Aristotle 325BC 'contribution to social order' (K)	'iconic'- artistic and  art-making	'pistic' - common-sense and  care-taking	'noetic' - intuitive sensibility  and morality	'dianoetic' - reasoning and  logical investigator
Aristotle 325BC Four Sources of Happiness (K)	'hedone' - sensual pleasure	'propraieteri' - acquiring  assets	'ethikos' - moral virtue	'dialogike' - logical  investigation
Galen 190AD Four Temperaments or Four Humours	sanguine	melancholic	choleric	phlegmatic
Paracelsus 1550 'Four Totem Spirits' (K)	Salamanders - impulsive and changeable	Gnomes - industrious and guarded	Nymph - inspiring and passionate	Sylphs - curious and calm
Eric Adickes 1905 Four World Views (K)	innovative	traditional	doctrinaire	sceptical
Eduard Spranger 1914 Four Value Attitudes (K)	artistic	economic	religious	theoretic
Ernst Kretschmer 1920 (M)	manic	depressive	oversensitive	insensitive
Eric Fromm 1947 (K)	exploitative	hoarding	receptive	marketing
Hans Eysenck 1950s (trait examples from his inventory)	lively, talkative, carefree, outgoing	sober, reserved, quiet, rigid	restless, excitable, optimistic, impulsive	careful, controlled, thoughtful, reliable
Myers 1958 (M)	perceiving	judging	feeling	thinking
Myers 1958 (K)	probing	scheduling	friendly	tough-minded
Montgomery 2002 on Jung/Myers	SP - spontaneous and playful	SJ - sensible and judicious	NF - intuitive and fervent	NT - ingenious and theoretical
Montgomery 2002 on Keirsey's Four Temperaments	says what is,   does what works	says what is,   does what's right	says what's possible,   does what's right	says what's possible,   does what works

Empedocles (c.450BC), the Sicilian-born Greek philosopher and poet wasprobably first to publish the concept of 'the elements' (Fire, Earth, Water,Air) being 'scientifically' linked to human behaviour: in his long poem 'OnNature' he described the elements in relation to emotional forces that we wouldrefer to as love and strife. However 1870 Brewer says that Empedocles preferredthe names of the Greek Gods, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and Goea. (1870 Brewer, andChambers Biographical, which references Jean Ballock's book, 'Empedocle',1965.)
Aristotle explained four temperaments in the context of 'individualcontribution to social order' in The Republic, c.325BC, and also used the FourTemperaments to theorise about people's character and quest for happiness.Incidentally 1870 Brewer states that Aristotle was first to specificallysuggest the four elements, fire, earth, water, air, and that this was intendedas an explanation purely of the various forms in which matter can appear, whichwas interpreted by 'modern' chemists (of the late 1800s) to represent 'theimponderable' (calorie), the gaseous (air), the liquid (water), and solid(earth).
Paracelsus was a German alchemist and physician and considered by some to bethe 'father of toxicology'. His real name was Phillippus Aureolus TheophrastusBombastus von Hohenheim, which perhaps explains why he adopted a pseudonym.According to Chambers Biographical Dictionary he lived from 1493-1541, whichsuggests that his work was earlier than 'c.1550'. Keirsey and Montgomery citethe connection between Paracelsus's Four Totem Spirits and the FourTemperaments, however there are others who do not see the same connection to orinterpretation of the Four Totem Spirits. If you are keen to know more perhapsseek out the book The Life Of Paracelsus Phillippus Aureolus TheophrastusBombastus von Hohenheim, by A Stoddart, published in 1911, referenced byChambers Biographical.
Hans Jurgen Eysenck was aGerman-born British psychologist whose very popular scalable personalityinventory model contains significant overlaps with the Four Temperaments. It'snot a perfect fit, but there are many common aspects. See the Eysenck section.

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Galen was a Greek physician (c.130-201AD - more correctly called ClaudiusGalenus), who became chief physician to the Roman gladiators in Pergamum fromAD 157, and subsequently to the Roman Emperors Marcus Aurelius, Lucius AureliusCommodus and Lucius Septimus Severus. Galen later interpreted Hippocrates'ideas into the Four Humours, which you might more readily recognise andassociate with historic writings and references. Galen's interpretationsurvived as an accepted and arguably the principal Western medical scientificinterpretation of human biology until the advancement of cellular pathologytheory during the mid-late 1800s, notably by German pathologist Rudolf Virchow(1821-1902, considered the founder of modern pathology), in his work 'Cellular pathologie' (1858), building on the work of fellow cellular scientists Theodor Schwann, Johannes Muller, Matthias Schleiden and earlier, Robert Brown.

Beware of erroneous correlations between the various sets of fourtemperaments, humours, elements, body organs, star-signs, etc - it's easy toconfuse so many sets of four. I believe the above to be reliable as far as itgoes. Please let me know if you spot a fault anywhere. Also remember that thecorrelation between these sets is not precise and in some cases it's verytenuous.

The above table of correlated four temperaments and other sets of four isnot designed as a scientific basis for understanding personality - it's ahistorical over view of the development of the Four Temperaments - includedhere chiefly to illustrate the broad consistency of ideas over the pasttwo-and-a-half thousand years, and to provoke a bit of thought about describingwords for the four main character types. Keep the Four Temperaments inperspective: the history of the model provides a fascinating view of thedevelopment of thinking in this area, and certainly there are strands of thevery old ideas that appear in the most modern systems, so it's very helpful andinteresting to know the background, but it's not a perfect science.

You'll see significant echoes of the Four Temperaments in David Keirsey's personality theory, which of all modern theories seems most aligned with the FourTemperaments, although much of the detail has been built by Keirsey onto a FourTemperaments platform, rather than using a great amount of detail from old FourTemperaments ideas. The Four Temperaments model also features in Eysenck's theory, on which othershave subsequently drawn. To a far lesser extent the Four Temperaments can alsobe partly correlated to the Moulton Marston's DISC theory andthis is shown in the explanatory matrix in the DISC section. Jung, Myers Briggs® and Benziger's theories also partlycorrelate with the Four Temperaments; notably there seems general agreementthat the phlegmatic temperament corresponds to Jung's 'Intuitive-Thinking', andthat the choleric temperament corresponds to Jung's 'Intuitive-Feeling'. Theother two temperaments, sanguine and melancholic seem now to be represented bythe Jungian 'Sensing' in combination with either Jungian 'Feeling' or apreference from the Myers Briggs® Judging-Perceiving dimension.

The Four Temperaments are very interesting, but being over two-thousandyears old they are also less than crystal clear, so correlation much beyondthis is not easy. Connections with modern theories and types and traits, suchas they are, are explained where appropriate in the relevant sections belowdealing with other theories.

Dr Stephen Montgomery's 2002 book 'People Patterns' is an excellent guide tothe Four Temperaments, in which he provides his own interpretations, andexplains relationships between the Four Temperaments and various otherbehavioural and personality assessment models, notably the David Keirsey modeland theories. Incidentally Montgomery is Keirsey's long-standing editor andalso his son-in-law. Keirsey's acknowledges Montgomery's depth of understandingof the Four Temperaments in Keirsey's book, Please Understand Me II, which alsoprovides a very helpful perspective of the Four Temperaments.

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Carl Jung’s psychological types
Given that Carl Jung's psychological theory so fundamentally underpins mostof the popular and highly regarded personality systems today it makes sense toexplain a little about it here.
Carl Gustav Jung was born 26 July 1875 in Kesswil Switzerland and was theonly son of a Swiss Reformed Church Evangelical Minister. According to MaggieHyde who wrote the excellent Introduction to Jung (Icon Books 1992), he was astrange melancholic child who played his own imaginary games, alone, for thefirst nine years of his life. Eight of Jung's uncles were in the clergy, as washis maternal grandfather, who held weekly conversations with his deceased wife,while his second wife and Carl's mother sat and listened to it all. A recipefor Jung's own extraordinary personality if ever there was one. The boy Jungwas raised on diet of Swiss Protestantism and pagan spirituality and seeminglyhis only outlets were his father's books and sitting on a big rock. Poor kid...His weird family clearly had a lot to with Jung's troubled young life and hispsychotic break-down in mid-life, and his ongoing obsession with trying to makesense of it all.
It is amazing that from such disturbed beginnings such a brilliant mindcould emerge.
Jung's work and influence extend way beyond understanding personality - heis considered to be one of the greatest thinkers ever to have theorised aboutlife and how people relate to it. For the purposes of this explanation however,we must concentrate on just the relevant parts of his work - Jung'sPsychological Types - or we'll be here for ever.
Carl Jung was among many great personality theorists who drew inspiration andguidance from the ancient Greek Four Temperaments model and its variousinterpretations over the centuries. Carl Jung's key book in this regard, whichextended and explained his theories about personality type, was PsychologicalTypes, published in 1921. His theory of Psychological Types was part of a widerset of ideas relating to psychic energy, in which he developed importantconcepts for clinical psychological therapy and psycho-analysis (psychiatricdiagnosis and therapy).
It's helpful to note that Jung approached personality and 'psychologicaltypes' (also referred to as Jung's psychological archetypes) from a perspectiveof clinical psychoanalysis. He was a main collaborator of Sigmund Freud - alsoa seminal thinker in the field of psycho-analysis, psychology and humanbehaviour. Jung and Freud were scientists, scholars, deeply serious andpassionate academics. They were concerned to discover and develop and extendknowledge about the human mind and how it works. They were also great friendsuntil they disagreed and fell out, which is a further example of the complexityof the subject: even among collaborators there is plenty of room fordisagreement.
In psychoanalysis, it is important for the analyst to understand thestructure or nature or direction of the 'psychic energy' within the otherperson. More simply we might say this is 'where the person is coming from', or'how they are thinking'. Logically if the analyst can interpret what's goingon, then he/she is better able to suggest how matters might be improved. Aswith any analytical discipline, if we have some sort of interpretive frameworkor model, then we can far more easily identify features and characteristics.Jung's work was often focused on developing analytical models - beyond simplybeing a psycho-analyst.
Modern psychometrics has benefited directly from the analytical models thatJung developed for psycho-analysis, and while this section is essentiallyconcerned with explaining the model for the purpose of understandingpersonality types, if you can extract some deeper therapeutic knowledge andself-awareness from the theories and ideas which underpin the models, then Iwould encourage you to so so. There is enormous value in deepeningunderstanding of ourselves as people, and Jung's ideas help many people toachieve this.
Jung accordingly developed his concepts of 'psychological types' in order toimprove this understanding.
The fact that Carl Jung's 'psychological types' structure continue toprovide the basis of many of the leading psychometrics systems and instrumentsin use today, including Myers Briggs® and Keirsey, is testimony to the enduringrelevance and value of Jung's work.

Jung’s ideas about the conscious and the unconscious
First it's important to understand that Jung asserted that a person'spsychological make-up is always working on two levels: the conscious andthe unconscious. According to Jung, and widely held today, a person's'psyche' (a person's 'whole being') is represented by their conscious andunconscious parts. Moreover, a person's conscious and unconscious states are ina way 'self-balancing', that is to say - and this is significant - if aperson's conscious side (or 'attitude') becomes dominant or extreme, then theunconscious will surface or manifest in some way to rectify the balance. Thismight be in dreams or internal images, or via more physical externally visibleillness or emotional disturbance. Jung also asserted that at times in peoplethe unconscious can surface and 'project' (be directed at) the outside world,particularly other people. This acknowledgement of the power of the unconsciousfeatures strongly in the thinking of Freud and notably in the underpinningtheory of Transactional Analysis (it's abig section - take time to look at it separately).

Jung’s psychological 'general attitude types' - introverted and extraverted
Jung divided psychic energy into two basic 'general attitude types': Introverted and Extraverted.
These are effectively two 'type' behaviours that combine with othersexplained later to create Jung's psychological types. Moreover Jung's Introvertand Extravert 'general attitude types' feature strongly as two oppositecharacteristics within very many modern personality systems, including MyersBriggs® and Keirsey.

MySense

The 1923 translation of Jung's 1921 book Psychological Types uses the wordsIntroverted and Extraverted to describe these types, which in German would havebeen Introvertiert and Extravertiert. Some interpretations of Jung's ideas usethe alternative words Introvert and Introversion, and Extravert andExtraversion to describe Jung's types. The word Extravert was devised by Jung,which is how it appears in German. He formed it from the Latin words 'extra'meaning outside, and 'vertere' meaning to turn. The words extrovert,extroverted and extroversion are English adaptations which appeared soon afterJung popularised the word in German. Both 'extra' and 'extro' versions areacceptable English. Jung formed the word Introvert from the Latin 'intro'meaning inward and 'vertere' to turn.
The word 'attitude' in this sense means a deeper more settled mode ofbehaviour than the common day-to-day use of the word.
In his 1921 book Psychological Types, Jung described the introverted andextraverted general attitude types as being:
".... distinguished by the direction of general interest or libidomovement..... differentiated by their particular attitude to the object.."
and
"....The introvert's attitude to the object is an abstracting one....he is always facing the problem of how libido can be withdrawn from theobject...... The extravert, on the contrary, maintains a positive relation tothe object. To such an extent does he affirm its importance that his subjectiveattitude is continually being orientated by, and related to theobject...."
(The 1923 translation by H Godwyn Baynes is understandably a little awkwardfor modern times. 'Abstracting' in this context means 'drawing way', from itsLatin root meaning. 'Libido' in this context probably means 'desire', althoughthe word seems first to have appeared in earlier translations of Freud, whoused it in a more sexual sense.)
Both attitudes - extraversion and introversion - are present in everyperson, in different degrees. No-one is pure extravert or pure introvert, andmore recent studies (notably Eysenck) indicate that a bigmajority of people are actually a reasonably well-balanced mixture of the twotypes, albeit with a preference for one or the other. Not black and white -instead shades of grey.

extraverted	introverted
psychic energy is directed out of the person to the  world outside them	the person's psychic energy is internally directed
objective -  outward	subjective -  inward
"... maintains a positive relation to the object.  To such an extent does he affirm its importance that his subjective attitude  is continually being orientated by, and related to the object...."  (Jung)	".... attitude to the object is an abstracting  one.... he is always facing the problem of how libido can be withdrawn from  the object...." (Jung)
"an extravert attitude is motivated from the  outside and is directed by external, objective factors and  relationships" (Hyde)	"an introvert is motivated from within and  directed by inner, subjective matters" (Hyde)
"behaviour directed externally, to influence  outside factors and events" (Benziger)	"behaviour directed inwardly to understand and  manage self and experience" (Benziger)

Jung's 'general attitudes' of Introverted and Extraverted are clearly quitedifferent.
It is no wonder then that strongly orientated extraverts and introverts seethings in quite different ways, which can cause conflict and misunderstanding.Two people may look at the same situation and yet see different things. Theysee things - as we all tend to - in terms of themselves and their own ownmind-sets.
It is almost incredible to think that these words - extravert and introvert- that we take so much for granted today to describe people and theirpersonality and behaviour, were not used at all until Jung developed his ideas.
Without wishing to add further complication Jung said that extraversion andintroversion are not mutually exclusive and will be self-balancing orcompensating through the conscious and unconscious. A strongly outward consciouslyextravert person will according to Jungian theory possess a compensatory stronginward unconscious introvert side. And vice versa. Jung linked thiscompensatory effect for example to repression of natural tendencies and theresulting unhappiness or hysteria or illness.
We are each born with a natural balance. If our natural balance is upset dueto repression or conditioning then our minds will in some way seek to restorethe balance, which Jung saw as the power of the unconscious surfacing as 'thereturn of the repressed'.

Jung’s psychological types - the 'four functional types'

In addition to the two attitudes of extraversion and introversion, Jung alsodeveloped a framework of 'four functional types'.
Jung described these four 'Functional Types' as being those from which the"...most differentiated function plays the principal role in anindividual's adaptation or orientation to life..." (from PsychologicalTypes, 1921) By 'most differentiated' Jung meant 'superior' or dominant.
Jung's Four Functions contain significant echoes of the Four Temperaments and of the manyrelated four-part patterns or sets ('quaternities') that relate to the FourTemperaments, dating back to ancient Greece and arguably earlier, althoughJung's ideas are more a lot sophisticated and complex than the FourTemperaments model.
Like many theorists before him who had attempted to define personality Jungopted for a four-part structure, which he used alongside hisIntroverted-Extraverted attitudes:
Jung's Four Functions of the psyche are:

• thinking     and
• feeling
  

which he said are the functions that enable us to decide and judge,(Jung called these 'Rational') and

• sensation     and
• intuition
  

which Jung said are the functions that enable us to gather informationand perceive (Jung called these 'Irrational').

Significantly Jung also asserted that each of us needs to be able to both perceiveand to judge (gather information and decide) in order to survive and tocarry on normal functioning behaviour.
And he also said that in doing this each of us prefers or favours one of thefunctions from each of the pairings.

MySense

Jung's Four Functions are described below. These very brief definitions andkeywords are based respectively on descriptions by Hyde, Fordham and Benziger,all experts and writers on Jungian theory. The final column explains thepairings according to Jung's 'Rational' and 'Irrational' criteria, whichnowadays correspond to the Myers Briggs® functions of 'Judging' and'Perceiving' as featured in Myers Briggs'® theories. The colours are to helpthe presentation and are not part of Jung's theory:


Jung’s four functional types - definitions

Thinking	what something is	meaning and understanding	analytic, objective, principles, standards, criteria,	both are opposite reasoning and judging  functions - people consciously 'prefer' one or the other - Jung called these  functions 'rational'
Feeling	whether it's good or not	weight and value	subjective, personal, valuing intimacy, humane
Sensation	something exists	sensual perception	realistic, down-to-earth, practical, sensible	both are opposite perceiving functions - people  consciously 'prefer' one or the other - Jung called these functions 'irrational'
Intuition	where it's from and where it's going	possibilities and atmosphere	hunches, future, speculative, fantasy, imaginative

Katherine Benziger, a leading modern thinker in the field of personality, isnot alone in suggesting Jung's Sensation function equates to Galen's Phelgmatictemperament, and that Jung's Intuition function equates to Galen's Cholerictemperament. Relationships between Jung's two other functions (Thinkingand Feeling) and the other two of the Four Temperaments (Melancholicand Sanguine) are more complex and are not a direct match, althoughcommon elements do exist between these Jungian functions and Galentemperaments. You might find Benziger's model helpful forunderstanding more about each of the four functional types and thecharacteristics each represents. Benziger's four quadrants of the brain equatedirectly to Jung's four functional types.
Jung said that Thinking and Feeling are 'Rational' because both of thesefunctions evaluate experience. In Jung's theory the Thinking and Feelingfunctions are 'Rational' because they reason and decideand judge.
Jung said that Intuition and Sensation are 'Irrational' since they areconcerned with perception and do not evaluate. According to Jung the Intuitionand Sensation functions are 'Irrational' because they simply gatherinformation and perceive the nature of something - they do notreason or decide or judge.
The Rational and Irrational descriptions that Jung attached to the fourfunctions might not appear particularly significant at first, especially giventhat Jung's use of the words is rather different to the modern meanings.However consider the modern words that describe Jung's meaning of Rational andIrrational, respectively Judging ('rational' Thinking and Feeling) and Perceiving('irrational' Sensation and Intuition) and you can begin to see how Myers Briggs® arrived at their Judgingand Perceiving dimension, which they developed from Jung's ideas,largely as a way of determining the dominance or priority of auxiliaryfunctions within the Jungian model. (This will hopefully make more sense whenyou know something of the Myers Briggs® model.)
Here's another perspective - some short descriptions of each of Jung's FourFunctional Types:


Jung’s four functionaltypes - descriptions

Thinking	Jung's 'Thinking' function is a 'rational' process of  understanding reality, implications, causes and effects in a logical and  analytical way. It is systematic, evaluates truth, and is objective to the  extent that evaluation is based on personal intelligence and comprehension.  'Thinking' is the opposite to 'Feeling'.	judging      (Jung's 'rational' functions)
Feeling	Jung's 'Feeling' function makes judgements on a personal  subjective basis. It is a 'rational' process of forming personal subjective  opinion about whether something is good or bad, right or wrong, acceptable or  unacceptable, etc., and involves sentimentality and humanity. 'Feeling' is  the opposite to 'Thinking'.
Sensation	Jung's 'Sensation' function translates signals from the  senses into factual data. There is no judgement of right or wrong, good or  bad, implications, causes, directions, context, possibilities, themes, or  related concepts. Sensation sees what is, as what it is. 'Sensation' is the  opposite to 'Intuition'.	perceiving        (Jung's 'irrational' functions)
Intuition	Jung's 'Intuition' function translates things, facts and  details into larger conceptual pictures, possibilities, opportunities, imaginings,  mysticism and new ideas. Intuition largely ignores essential facts and  details, logic and truth. 'Intuition' is the opposite to 'Sensation'.

At this point you might like to pause and go make a cup of tea and sometoast. Have a rest. Don't try to absorb and understand all this in one sittingif it's new to you.

Jung accordingly arranged his four functional types as two pairs ofopposites, thinking or feeling (the rational 'judging' pairing), and sensationor intuition (the irrational 'perceiving' pairing), which are often shownas four points (like North South East West) on a compass.

	thinking
intuition	or	sensation
	feeling

Jung said that each person has a main natural conscious orientation towardsone of the four functions (their 'superior' or most 'differentiated' function),in which case the opposite function (the 'inferior' or unconscious function)would be represented and compensated within the person's unconscious.
Of the other two functions, either one could be next dominant, depending onthe person, and generally would 'serve' as an auxiliary function in support ofthe person's 'superior' function. (Again just to complicate matters Jung saidthat in some cases both of these functions could serve as auxiliary functions,but generally the interpretation is that one auxiliary function would be moreprevalent than the other. The point here is that the auxiliary functions arenot as polarised - into conscious-unconscious - as the superior and inferiorfunctions, which are more strongly polarised into conscious-unconscious.)
So, a personality would generally be represented by a conscious dominantfunction from each opposite pair: one of these dominant functions beingdominant overall ('superior') and the other dominant function being thesupporting ('auxiliary') function.
In the example above, the superior functionis Thinking. The opposite Feeling function would largely orentirely be a compensatory unconscious elementwithin the whole person. Depending on the person either the Sensation orIntuition function would be the prevalent auxiliary function, causing itsopposite partner to reside to an appropriate extent in the unconscious, soagain balancing the whole person.

MySense

Jung's important principle of personality being represented by one type fromtwo opposing types (or a series of single types from pairs of opposites) isfeatured strongly in the models developed by Keirsey and Myers Briggs®, amongstothers.
In his Psychological Types book and theory Jung presented his (major eight)'psychological types' as simple combinations of Introverted or Extravertedtogether with one 'superior' function, eg, 'Introverted-Thinking' (IT). It ishowever perfectly appropriate and proper (as Jung explained) to extrapolate orextend the number of Jung types to include auxiliaries, eg,'Introverted-Thinking-Sensation' (ITS - commonly shown as IT[S]) in which case'S' is the auxiliary. So, while Jung's work originally presented eight mainpsychological types (each represented by a two-letter abbreviation), subsequentinterpretations commonly add the auxiliary function (resulting in athree-letter abbreviation). In fact to assist this extension Myers Briggs®later introduced the Judging-Perceiving dimension, which acted mainly as ameans of identifying which two of the four functions are dominant and auxiliarywithin the Jung framework for any particular personality (of which more laterbelow).

Here are the four conscious orientations (aside from extraversion andintroversion which are added to the model later). In these examples theprevalent auxiliary function is not indicated. It could be either of the rightor left functions, depending on the person.

thinking is superior function                  

	thinking	< conscious   'superior'
intuition	< either is  auxiliary >	sensation
	feeling	< unconscious

                                      
                                      feeling is superior function                  

	feeling	< conscious  'superior'
intuition	< either is auxiliary >	sensation
	thinking	<  unconscious

                                      
                                      intuition is superior function                  

	intuition	< conscious   'superior'
thinking	< either is auxiliary >	feeling
	sensation	< unconscious

                                      
                                      sensation is superior function                  

	sensation	< conscious  'superior'
thinking	< either is auxiliary >	feeling
	intuition	< unconscious

                                      
                   Jung's eight psychological types
This all leads us to Jung's eight major 'Psychological Types', which as already explained Jung constructed by adding one or other of the introversion or extraversion 'general attitude types' to each of the possible four superior functions described above.
Logically this produces eight main psychological types. The eight psychological types do not include 'auxiliary' functions and as such do not represent full personalities in themselves. The 'type characteristics' below are generally applicable keywords - they are not absolutes or exclusive. Interpretations can vary a lot - it impossible to summarise a personality type that encompasses millions of variations within it in just a few words, although hopefully the matrix helps to convey some sense of the collective and  comparative types within the model. Fuller descriptions are available on specialised resources, for instance at Dr Robert Winer's excellent website www.gesher.org. Some commentators and resources suggest 'job examples' for the different types, and some also suggest examples of famous people falling into each type, although stereotypical 'typing' guesswork of this sort can be        misleading if taken at all seriously. Remember again that these eight main types are not the 'whole person' - people comprise a least one other functional preference, plus unconscious balancing functions, all to varying degrees, all of which which produce personality types that are much more complex than the basic eight main types shown here.
                                             

type name	type characteristics
Extraverted Thinking	analytical, strategic, plans,                                  implements, organises others
Introverted Thinking	contemplative, discovering,                                  theoretical, seeks self-knowledge
Extraverted Feeling	sociable, sentimental, seeks                                  personal and social success
Introverted Feeling	inaccessible, enigmatic,                                  self-contained, seeks inner intensity
Extraverted Sensation	practical, hands-on,                                  pleasure-seeking, hard-headed
Introverted Sensation	intense, obsessive, detached,                                  connoisseur, expert
Extraverted Intuition	adventurous, innovative, seeks                                  novelty, proposes change
Introverted Intuition	idealistic, visionary, esoteric,                                  mystical, aloof

Jung’spsychological types - principal and auxiliary functions

Jung's eight main psychologicaltypes are in themselves an over-simplification. This is borne out by Junghimself in his 1921 book Psychological Types following his presentation of eachof the eight main types:

"...In the foregoingdescriptions I have no desire to give my readers the impression that such puretypes occur at all frequently in actual practice. They are, as it were, onlyGaltonesque family-portraits, which sum up in a cumulative image the common andtherefore typical characters....... Accurate investigation of the individualcase consistently reveals the fact that, in conjunction with the mostdifferentiated function, another function of secondary importance, andtherefore of inferior differentiation in consciousness, is constantly present,and is a relatively determining factor..." (Psychological Types, Chapter10, General Description of the Types, point 11: The Principal and AuxiliaryFunctions)

(Incidentally, the word'Galtonesque' is a reference to Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911), an eminentEnglish scientist, cousin of Charles Darwin, who asserted that personality andother traits and abilities are hereditary (inherited or genetic) factors.Interestingly Galton also devised the finger-printing identification systemwhich he first published in his book Finger Prints in 1892. Jung's use of theword Galtonesque intends to convey a general 'broad brush' meaning - the mainfamily groups of personality - as if 'inherited' - not detailed personalitytypes which implictly within Jung's concepts are subject to much influence andchange after a person's conception, and therefore outside Galton's ideas ofinherited 'genetic' traits.)

Jung's theory does not aim to'pigeon-hole' all people into one of eight personality types. The eightPsychological Types are simply the eight main groupings represented byExtraversion or Introversion and one 'Four Functional Types' (the superior orprincipal function). In reality each of these eight type-combinations(represented by E or I plus one Function) is augmented by one or other'auxiliary' function according to the Jungian theory whereby consciouspersonality is represented by a dominant function from each of the 'Rational'and 'Irrational' (judging and perceiving) functional pairs of opposites.

So, for example, an 'ExtravertedThinking' main psychological type would be augmented by a preferredauxiliary function from the 'Irrational' (or perceiving) Sensing-Intuitionpairing, on the basis that Thinking is the preferred 'Rational' (or judging)Function.

And also for example an 'IntrovertedIntuition' main psychological type would be augmented by a preferredauxiliary function from the 'Rational' Thinking-Feeling pairing, on thebasis that Intuition is the preferred 'Irrational' (or perceiving) Function.