ON MBTI AND OTHER PERSONALITY MODELS – INCLUDING MY OWN (worth repeating) FWIW:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10585240MORE ON MBTI AND OTHER PERSONALITY MODELS – INCLUDING MY OWN

(worth repeating)

FWIW: Here is how I look at it:

1) big five factor a) has correlation of observation but no basis in evolutionary construction, and b) is very clearly biased by freudian authoritarian feminist rather than aristocratic excellence and innovation. This method helps diagnosis but not causality. If that is its purpose then that’s fine.

2) The Alternative Five Factor reflects my understanding of the current state of evolutionary impulses. When combined with IQ, class, and gender they probably represent the best we have so far.

3) the problem is that as a grid, they aren’t easily translated into stereotypes that we can empathize with. It’s bad enough that we are limited when we deal in one or two dimensions of analysis, but in five we just don’t function that well. And it takes a lot of training to use it.

4) MBTI is pretty useful because we can anthropomorpize 16 different ideal types, and that’s pretty rich, without being confusing. You can teach it to almost anyone. And in the workplace you can figure out how to talk to someone using it. While any individual test has a high error rate, taking the test repeatedly over time will tend to help you understand yourself as one or more of the personalities on the grid. On the other hand, statistically, it’s incredibly predictive of behaviors and tastes in large numbers, so it has to be fairly accurate model regardless of its accuracy.

So the reason I like it is that it can be used by people to assist in cooperating on the work place and I don’t know any other model that’s better, and I”ve been doing this since 1982.

5) Curt’s Model (from very early studies)

In the method I learned, we use these four factors:

1) Dominance-Submission, (aggressiveness)

2) Extroversion-Introversion, (internal vs external dependence)

3) Patience-Impulsivity (need for rewards)

4) Risk Attraction – Blame Avoidance (want of new experience)

I have added this one for ’empathy’ and it’s an innovation I think.

5) Solipsistic(female) – Autistic(male)

Based upon the work of (what’s his name.. lol)

And this last is always present in every case, but impolitic:

6) Intelligence.

Intelligence is the only linear measure with higher being better. All others are equilibrating, with ‘average’ being the optimum.

As far as I know this six factor model is the most accurate to date, and none other is superior. That said,

As far as I know these have evolutionary bases in all creatures not just humans.

As far as I know this is one of the secrets to human adaptability: we can express variations in these traits fairly rapidly in response to stresses, and reproduce those traits as well by selection.

ALSO: This reflects my understanding of the chemical processes that drive us:

—“Cloninger suggests that the three dimensions,

1) novelty seeking,

2) harm avoidance, and

3) reward dependence,

are correlated with low basal dopaminergic activity, high serotonergic activity, and low basal noradrenergic activity, respectively”—

With the fourth being:

4) persistence (unstated cause )

FOR MORE INFORMATION SEE:

The Dopaminergic Theory Of Evolution

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10585240

This is still the working theory I operate by.