My Favourite Personality Typologies
You as a human are a beautiful mess. On the one hand, you are completely unique and original, and no amount of study could ever explain you. On the other, you engage with the world in distinct and predictable patterns of behaviour.
These patterns are known as personality archetypes. An archetype is essentially the blueprint of your cognitive, emotional, and behavioral structure. In the world of fiction, archetypes appear as recurring characters across myths, stories and cultures. They can take on many shapes, sizes, and colours, but they perform more or less the same role in their respective stories. Dumbledore is basically Gandlaf is basically Obiwan is basically Merlin, and yet they each show up in their own unique ways. The characters themselves are not the same, but the blueprint underlying their makeup is.
The same is true for the world of non-fiction that we inhabit. And personality typology is the branch of psychology that studies human archetypes throughout the various areas of life.
People have been noticing these patterns of feeling, perceiving and behaving since they began noticing things in general. They have attempted to describe our similarities and differences through letters, numbers, colours, elements, constellations, characters and overly complex groupings of words.
Some systems of typology go back thousands of years. Others are relatively new or are still emerging. In this post, I will introduce you to three of my favourite typologies that look at three different aspects of our personalities.
They can help you understand yourself and the people around you from various useful angles. But no single typology will give you a complete picture of who you are; nor will all of them put together.
They will, however, shed light on aspects of yourself that you always knew but never had words for. At times, you may feel like they are telling your life story. Perhaps you will finally feel seen and heard and understood. At others, you will think they are complete bullshit because some of the descriptions will not line up with your personal experience.
Either way, when engaging with a personality typology, keep in mind that it is merely a map. And as Polish scholar Alfred Korzybski said, “A map is not the territory.”
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The Myers-Briggs is probably the most famous personality typology out there. It is also terribly misunderstood. For me, it was my gateway drug into the world of typology and psychology in general, so it holds a very special place in my heart.
The MBTI sorts people into 16 distinct personality types based on how they perceive information and make decisions. It is based on a theory that Swiss psychologist Carl Jung proposed in his 1921 book Psychological Types.
In working with various clients, Jung noticed recurring patterns in the ways they engaged with their inner and outer worlds. And after a lot of careful thought and analysis — Psychological Types is like 1000 pages long — he extracted 8 mental processes that we rely on to take in and evaluate information.
He called these processes cognitive functions. They are Sensation, Intuition, Thinking and Feeling. Each of them has an introverted version that is oriented towards the inner world and the self, and an extraverted version that is oriented towards others and the outer world.
So, we have Introverted Intuition and Extraverted Intuition. Introverted Thinking and Extraverted Thinking. And so on.
You can think of the cognitive functions as lenses through which we look at the world. We use all 8 of them to a certain extent, but Jung believed that each person has one dominant cognitive function they rely on most often, making it the most prevalent part of their personality.
For example, a person who engages with the world primarily through Extraverted Intuition would be known as an Extraverted Intuitive type.
Despite believing that there was more to this theory, Jung left it unfinished. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabelle Briggs-Myers took up Jung’s work, fleshed it out significantly and developed it into what we know today as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
The 16 types are essentially the 16 different ways that Jung’s 8 cognitive functions can be arranged in a specific order to create a balanced personality.
They then gave each of the 16 types a 4-letter code based on the following 4 dichotomies.
Extraversion — Introversion (E vs I)
I(n)tuition — Sensing (N vs S)
Thinking — Feeling (T vs F)
Judging — Perceiving (J vs P)
In the Myers-Briggs, you can be an ENFP, ISTJ, ESFJ, INTP, ENTJ and so forth. This 4-letter code is meant to help us decipher which of the 8 cognitive functions each type prefers in which order.
Because taking in information and making decisions are quite a significant part of our personality, you can learn a lot about a person from their Myers-Briggs type. It is an incredibly useful tool that helps you understand why you seem to get along so effortlessly with some people, while others seem like they are from another planet.
The Enneagram
Most personality typologies will tell you how awesome you are for being you. Not the Enneagram, though!
The Enneagram will tell you all the ways in which you are uniquely awful, which makes it a brilliant tool for shadow work.
It is one of the oldest personality systems with perhaps the most obscure roots, combining ancient wisdom traditions, sacred geometry, a bit of alchemy and numerology, with a dash of Christianity and a generous sprinkle of Freud.
Its patterns can also be found in Homer’s The Odyssey, Dante’s The Divine Comedy and the Jewish Kabbala among other places.
At its core, the Enneagram looks at our inner motivations and the strategies we use to deal with trauma. It then divides people into 9 main types (but actually 27 and technically 54 — well arguably, 108) based on their dominant patterns. Each type has its core fears, desires and fixations, and learning your Enneagram type will probably make you more than a little uncomfortable.
That is why, if you are willing to go there and be faced with some unpleasant truths about how selfish and manipulative you have the potential to be, it is an incredibly handy tool for personal growth and development.
The Enneagram symbol itself is a 9-pointed star inscribed in a circle. The points represent the personality types that are labeled from 1 to 9. Each of the 9 types is connected to its adjacent two types as well as two others across the circle. This means that they share similar behaviours, which usually manifest during times of stress.
Although it sounds kind of woo-woo (and it totally can be if you want to explore it from that angle!), the Enneagram can also be highly practical and it is often used in businesses to help people understand their colleagues better.
I cannot begin to dive into the depths of this model here because there is a lot to cover, but perhaps I will share some of my favourite aspects of it in future posts.
I will say, though, that if you have ever asked yourself, “WHY AM I LIKE THIS??!!” the Ennegram can offer some interesting answers.
The Four Tendencies
Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies model is my most recent discovery, and I kind of love it because it helped a few little pieces fall into place. It is perhaps the simplest typology on this list, which makes it very accessible.
The Four Tendencies looks at the four main ways that people tend to approach internal and external expectations. Meaning, how good are we at meeting the demands and expectations that are placed on us by ourselves and others.
According to Rubin, some people are better at holding themselves accountable to accomplish their goals and tasks, while others require external structure and accountability.
The four archetypes are:
Upholders: people who are good at meeting both internal and external expectations
Obligers: people who are good at meeting external expectations but struggle with internal ones
Questioners: people who are good at meeting internal expectations but resist external ones
Rebels: people who struggle with/resist both internal and external expectations
Most people have one main tendency and an auxiliary one that they lean on when pressed.
This is a great model to explore with colleagues and team members because it shows you what people need to work effectively. It is also handy for those who struggle with habits, deadlines, commitments, and achieving goals because it can help you identify the reasons behind it and come up with effective solutions.
Putting People In Boxes
At this point, you might be thinking that all these typologies are attempting to put you in a box. They are.
Or rather, as Enneagram teacher Beatrice Chestnut said, “You’re already in the box. I’m just pointing it out.”
Personality archetypes help you understand the strengths, weaknesses, gifts and potential pitfalls of the way you operate in the world. And your personality is always operating whether you are aware of it or not. Typologies are not meant to limit you. They show you just how complex, rich and colourful you really are.
When you find your own underlying patterns, you can maximize your strengths and stop your weaknesses from holding you back from the life you want to live.
In other words, you can either use them to break out of the box or make it the best box ever. Or, you know, just leave it alone if that’s what you want.
I have only scratched the surface of all these boxes here. And perhaps, we’ll go digging deeper into them in future posts. For now, I will just say that apart from helping you get to know yourself better, they can transform how you see the people around you and take your relationships to places you have never even dreamed of.
Take care, guys.
Hi, I’m Noemi, a certified relationship coach. I help you understand your patterns and cultivate self-love, confidence, and compassion to create the deep, fulfilling conscious relationships your heart desires.
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