The ancient Greeks had four temperament types – these were sanguine (pleasure-seeking and sociable), choleric (ambitious and leader-like), melancholic (analytical and thoughtful), and phlegmatic (relaxed and quiet). In this model we all have more of less of each of these types.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, so loved by corporate HR, also has four dimensions of personality types. Based on Jungian psychology the four types are; the “rational” (judging) functions: thinking and feeling, and the “irrational” (perceiving) functions: sensation and intuition. Again, in this model, we each have more or less of each of these functions.
And now, a US-based biological anthropologist (what is that?) has correlated brain chemicals and neural networks systems with personality types. There is the dopamine system – dominant in ‘explorers’ who like novelty, experience and adventure, are susceptible to boredom, lack introspection and are intellectually curious. Serotonin types, ‘builders’, are cautious and orderly, respect authority, show self-control, are interested in detail and like precision. The ‘directors’ are testosterone dominant and are notable for enhanced visual-spatial perception and a keen understanding of ‘rule-based systems’, from mechanics to computers, maths, engineering or music. They have deep but narrow interests and tend to be less socially aware, with poorer emotion recognition, less verbal fluency and reduced empathy. The last group, those expressive of oestrogen and the closely related oxytocin, are called ‘negotiators’. They exhibit holistic and long-term thinking, as well as linguistic skills, agreeableness, co-operation, intuition, empathy and nurturing. This group are also characterised by generosity and trust, heightened memory for emotional experiences, imagination and mental flexibility. We are all, more or less in each of these personality type ‘systems’.
I have even come up with my own version of ‘personality types’ in the context of teams and meetings, as a way of (a) figuring out why teams sometimes don’t work, (b) what can be done to fix it when they don’t, and (c) to resolve my boredom in a particularly bad board meeting a few years back.
The evidence is in. We are, all seven billion of us, describable by just 4 personality dimensional types. Seems amazing doesn’t it? That gives us 16 dominant personality types, which proves what I have always thought – that astrology is rubbish. They are 4 dominant personality types short of a theory, for god’s sake!
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