Re: CHAT: the enneagram

>[snip]
> >Can you recommend something along the lines of what I am
> >after: something that defines not so much a small set of types
> >but rather the principal parameters of variation?
>
>Beyond the 4 pairs in the Meyer-Briggs? There must be something
>on this somewhere, since it seems an awful lot has been done
>in personality testing over the years.
>
>A quick google brought up this:
>http://www.dfki.uni-sb.de/~baldes/rocco/personality/node8.html
>which includes the following:
>      "Describe people in terms of their manner, type and motivation,
>       emotional state, and how they relate to each other.
>           Open: curious, broad interests, creative, original,
>                 imaginative, untraditional
>           Conscientious: organised, reliable, hard-working,
>                 self-disciplined, honest, clean
>           Extravert: sociable, active, talkative, optimistic,
>                 fun-loving, affectionate
>           Agreeable: good-natured, trusting, helpful, forgiving,
>                 gullible, straightforward
>           Neurotic: worries, nervous, emotional, insecure,
>                 inadequate, hypochondriac"
>Though I suspect there are other parameters besides/beyond these.
The Cattell "16 PF" provides a few other parameters - Meyers-Briggs style
with 16 binary pairs of traits and several higher order traits.  However,
the general consensus seems to be that there are five major traits (the "Big
5").  Though the names may change, they are pretty much those listed above -
Extroversion, Agreeableness, Concientiousness, Emotional Stability
(Neroticism), and Openness - although they are often given different names.
Sometimes they are rated in terms of opposing pairs (eg. Introversion -
Extroversion) or simply by percentile (High vs. Low scoring)...  The main
thing about the Big 5 that the MBTI seems to overlook Neuroticism / Anxiety.

A google search for "Personality Theory" or "Archetype" gives a lot of good
hits.  Also try looking for "Cattell" if you're interested, or Eysenk
(Eysenk thought Personality could be summarized by only 3 general traits).
Also see www.outofservice.com for a reputable inventory / test on the big 5
(plus some fun ones, including one that tells you which Star Wars character
would probably score the same as you on a particular trait).   There's a
good site out there (which escapes me at the moment) that compares about 15
different personality theories and their various names for the big 5 traits.

It should also be pointed out that Introversion in the Big 5 is somewhat
different than what Jung meant by it, which on the Big 5 would amount to a
moderate to low score on Extroversion, and a high score on openness -
although generally these two traits tend to vary together.

Of course, there is debate about whether openness is a cognitive /
operational factor rather than a personality factor - although I don't know
how they can so neatly separate these aspects of conciousness...

Andy



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