03.31.08
Keirsey
A woman in my writing group and I were discussing the religious stages and something in our discussion rang a bell for her regarding something she had studied in grad school. She ran to another room in her house and came back with the book, Please Understand Me, by David Keirsey. It seems this Keirsey had taken the Myers-Briggs Personality Types and simplified them into four Temperament Styles. As we were discussing th four belief stages it seemed the temperament styles more or less correlated with the belief stages!
Sure enough, as we read through them, they did seem to correlate. What a shock! Keirsey named his four styles The Artisan, the Guardian, the Rational and the Idealist. Well, the Artisan it seems is a pleasure-seeking, sensation-seeking personality, hedonic about the present and focused on the here and now. Is this similar to our Lawless person? The Guardian is summarized as the “security-seeking” personality: conformity-oriented, trusting in legitimacy of authority and hungering for membership (as in a church.) Is this not similar to our Faithful group? Keirsey’s Rationals are a “knowledge-seeking” group - seeking autonomy and trusting in reason above all else. Of course that sounds like it corresponds to our Rational group. Then Keirsey’s Idealists are an “Identity-seeking” group, hopeful about the future, mystical about the past…..similar to our Mystics! You can read more about these groups at Keirsey.com.
Now the dilemma this brought up for me was IF temperament type corresponds with belief stage, then how could a person GROW over time? Surely their temperament style would not change over time! Well, I spent a month or two stewing over that, and that is one reason I have not been writing so much on this blog. For me that dilemma almost invalidated the growth stages entirely! But by now I have consulted a few authorities of sorts and think I have reconciled my doubt with something that allows me to continue on the path of trying to disclose the belief stages to the public. More later……
Malcolm Muir (Mac) said,
August 28, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Two points:
We do grow both within a lifetime and over lifetimes plural.
I suspect if there is a correlation between the M-B types and your work, and I think that there is. It may be that There are more than 4 stages or that there are a number of varieties in your stages or both.
PS: I am an INFP with a strong T.
PPS: Would love to discuss these ideas either by email or phone
518-326-5991
Paul Mendenhall said,
April 21, 2011 at 4:04 pm
I don’t think that personality types are written in stone. For years I tested as a very strong INTJ, but as I have aged, I am tending much more toward INFP. And really, isn’t this kind of change what one would expect? I don’t think personality typing presupposes a static model. It is merely a snapshot of where one is NOW.