Personality Types

BY: ABDULRAHMAN B. AMLIH, RN

 Personality

Refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking,

feeling and behaving. The study of personality focuses on two broad
areas: One is understanding individual differences in particular
personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. The other
is understanding how the various parts of a person come together as
a whole.
 Personality Type

Refers to the psychological classification of different types of

individuals. Personality types are sometimes distinguished
frompersonality traits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of
behavioral tendencies.
Effective personality typologies reveal and increase knowledge and
understanding of individuals, as opposed to diminishing knowledge
and understanding as occurs in the case of stereotyping. Effective
typologies also allow for increased ability to predict clinically relevant
information about people and to develop effective treatment
strategies.
 Importance of knowing your
Personality Type
1. Knowing your personality type brings heightened self-awareness, which has many
benefits.Several benefits are:
Accepting yourself and feeling good about who you are. You will see the best aspects of
yourself.
Identifying your natural strengths. Everyone does best when they are working with their
innate strengths. Working in our strengths also gives us energy and enjoyment.
Identifying your natural weaknesses and blind spots. Working in our weaknesses drains us of
energy and typically causes frustration. When confronted by a situation that hits our blind
spot, we typically speak and act in ways we regret. Identifying blind spots allows us to act
consciously rather than unconsciously when these situations occur.
Choosing a career that is satisfying to you. Whether it is the actual work or the work
environment that means most to you, you can plant yourself where you will thrive rather than
just survive.
Developing better relationships by becoming more understanding and accepting of people
who are different from you.
 Importance of knowing your
Personality Type
2. Knowing your co-workers personality types and those with whom you work in teams has many
benefits as well.It helps you:
Become a better leader and team member. Recognizing their strengths, weaknesses, preferences, habits
of mind and potential blind spots gives you the knowledge you need to make the most out of each person
on the team.
Improve communication since you understand others points of view, concerns and comments based upon
what is most important to them.
Resolve conflicts quickly and effectively
Make better decisions as a team
Conduct better meetings
Manage change so that everyone is moving forward with you
Negotiate ethical differences among employees
Become a better interviewer
Match talent to job requirements better

3. Personality type matters because it impacts everything we think, say and do.
4. When you understand yourself better you can improve quicker and easier by addressing the
 Four functions of consciousness

The rational (judging) functions:

1. Thinking
2. Feeling
The irrational (perceiving) functions:
3. Sensation
4. Intuition

Jung went on to suggest that these functions are expressed in either

an introverted or extraverted form
Four basic functions:

Sensationperception by means of the sense organs

Intuitionperceiving in unconscious way or
perception of unconscious contents
Thinkingfunction of intellectual cognition; the
forming of logical conclusions
Feelingfunction of subjective estimation
 Personality Types

According to Carl G. Jung's theory of psychological types [Jung, 1971], people can be characterized by their
preference of general attitude:
a) Extraverted (E) vs. Introverted (I)
their preference of one of the two functions of perception:
b) Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)
and their preference of one of the two functions of judging:
c) Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
The three areas of preferences introduced by Jung are dichotomies (i.e. bipolar dimensions where each pole
represents a different preference). Jung also proposed that in a person one of the four functions above is
dominant either a function of perception or a function of judging. Isabel Briggs Myers, a researcher and
practitioner of Jungs theory, proposed to see the judging-perceiving relationship as a fourth dichotomy
influencing personality type [Briggs Myers, 1980]:
d) Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)
 Personality Types

1) Extraversion Introversion
- signifies the source and direction of a persons energy expression. An extraverts
source and direction of energy expression is mainly in the external world, while an
introvert has a source of energy mainly in their own internal world.

2) Sensing Intuition
- represents the method by which someone perceives information. Sensing means
that a person mainly believes information he or she receives directly from the
external world. Intuition means that a person believes mainly information he or she
receives from the internal or imaginative world.
 Personality Types

3. Thinking Feeling
- represents how a person processes information. Thinking means that a person
makes a decision mainly through logic. Feeling means that, as a rule, he or she
makes a decision based on emotion, i.e. based on what they feel they should do.

4. Judging Perceiving
- reflects how a person implements the information he or she has processed.
Judging means that a person organizes all of his life events and, as a rule, sticks to
his plans. Perceiving means that he or she is inclined to improvise and explore
alternative options.
 Personality Types

All possible permutations of preferences in the 4 dichotomies above yield 16 different

combinations, or personality types, representing which of the two poles in each of the
four dichotomies dominates in a person, thus defining 16 different personality types.
Each personality type can be assigned a 4 letter acronym of corresponding combination
of preferences:
The 16 personality types
 Personality Types

The first letter in the personality type acronym corresponds to the first letter of the
preference of general attitude - E for extraversion and I for introversion.
The second letter in the personality type acronym corresponds to the preference
within the sensing-intuition dimension: S stands for sensing and N stands for
intuition.
The third letter in the personality type acronym corresponds to preference within
the thinking-feeling pair: T stands for thinking and F stands for feeling.
The forth letter in the personality type acronym corresponds a persons preference
within the judging-perceiving pair: J for judging and P for perception.
 Dominant function

All four functions are used at different times depending on the

circumstances. However, one of the four functions is generally used
more dominantly and proficiently than the other three, in a more
conscious and confident way. According to Jung the dominant function
is supported by two auxiliary functions. (In MBTI publications the first
auxiliary is usually called the auxiliary or secondary function and the
second auxiliary function is usually called the tertiary function.) The
fourth and least conscious function is always the opposite of the
dominant function. Jung called this the "inferior function" and Myers
sometimes also called it the "shadow function".