Quick How To Guides (Part Seven)

Quick How To Guides (Part Seven) - Jungian Personality Types Most of my faithful readers will remember I promised to do Jungian Personality types as a Quick Dirty Guide a while back (I think it was a few months ago). Tonight, I was answerign someone's (iesnek's) question regarding Jung on ST's site. As it was basically the post I'd promised to write, I've copied it here, and will now alter it slightly for a more POST friendly read. Who was Carl Jung? Carl Jung was one of the forefathers of modern Psychology. Where as Freud was obsessed by sex and thought everyone else was, Jung was ... well, balmy in his own way. Let's refer to him as 'The Mystic' side of Psychology. Jung brought us Dream Interpretation, Personality types and Analytical Psychology. Jung brought the symbolic into Psychology. Today, we'll just talk about the four personality types - Choloric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic and Sanguine. The Personality Types: We start with what Jung calld the TWO PSYCHOLOGICAL ATTITUDES - INTROVERT and EXTROVERT. The Choloric and Sanguine are extroverts, the Melancholic and Phlegmatic are introverts. The names actually come from Hippocrates in the late 5th century BC. They were believed to be psychological temperaments based on he elements:

• Fire - Choloric
• Air - Sanguine
• Earth - Melancholic
• Water - Phlegmatic (Sounds like something moist!) :-)

The Choloric and Melancholic are more THINKING based. The Sanguine and Phlegmatic are more FEELING oriented (in the case of he Sanguine, their own feelings!) :-) This is the RATIONAL side of the equation as it is based on evaluated experiences from the person. Then, there is the IRRATIONAL side of the equation. Sensation and Intuition. The Choloric and Sanguine are more SENSATION based. The Melancholic and Phlegmatic are more INTUITION based. Cholorics are basically ACTION people (to throw it into one word). They like things to be happening and get quite frustrated if things aren't (and in lot of cases, they need it done almost immediately and in the way they say it should be done.) They tend to get a lot done, but in some cases it is a lot of spinning of wheels, as they don't care how it gets done and when it's done wrong they sometimes have to do it again. SENSATION - THINKING. Sanguines are more PARTY people. But they love attention to be focused on them and if the focus changes to someone else, they have to jump up and down or do something stupid in order to get the spot light back. SENSATION - FEELING Melancholics are planners. They think deep and you wouldn't want to argue with one, as they are most likely right. That said, they have poor people skills and often their message gets lost along the way, as sometimes things will seem like a personal attack by them, when really, they're just interesed in diseminating the facts. INTUITION - THINKING Phlegmatics are FEELY People - often friendly and always concerned for others, they often act as the diplomats between warring factions. That said, they often cause more problems than they fix by trying to please everyone and make sure everything runs smooth and no one gets upset. (Which is sure to p*** off the other personality types as the choloric just wants things to happen, the melancholic is concerned that things are not being done right, and the sanguine wants to take all the credit). INTUITION - FEELING CAVEAT Needless to say, most people are NOT completely one of these personality types, but are made up of combinations of all four. [In fact, it can be broken into EIGHT TYPES as well - using the two attitudes (Intro and Extro) and the four personality traits (Intuition, feeling, thinking, sensation)] However, most people have one dominating personality type and that usually comes through. Some people can have personalities with more than one type in close percentage, [So they will appear to be 50/50 almost] but that's a little more rare, rarer still is the person with three types [Which I happen to be, though my subconscious has a very phlegmatic nature, but my conscious is Phlegmatic, Melancholic and Sanguine in that order with one percentage difference]. Rarest of all, is someone who is almost balanced between all four personality types. These type of people make great managers, as they are able to communicate to all their workers as they can appeal to their personailities nature. Hope that all makes sense. WHY UNDERSTAND IT ALL? The usefulness of understanding which personality type someone is, is it allows you to communicate more effectively to them, and causes less friction. In the case of the Melancholic, just givethem the facts, don't worry about 'feelings' or 'attention' or trying to 'force something to happen NOW' [which would be the mistakes the three other types would make]. In the case of the Phlegmatic, you have to ensure that they know that no one is getting hurt. That everyone is fine and dandy. In the case of the Sanguine, they are really in it for tthe FUN. Make sure they know that it will be FUN based. (Otherwise they might run for the hills). In the case of the Choloric, you need to make sure that they understand that action is being taken (or will be in the near future). In most cases, you'll find the exact opposites hate each other. Melancholics and Sanguines will normally have problems are the Melancholic is an 'Intuition and Thinking' type person. The Sanguine is a 'Sensation and Feeling' type person. The Sanguine will want all the attention to be focused on themselves and want to party (regardless of who gets hurt along the way), while the Melancholic would rather be planning something useful. The Choloric and Phlegmatics will have problems as the Choloric wants to DO DO DO and the Phlegmatic wants to wait and chill till they know everyone is fine by what's happening. It's a lot more complex than what I've described. The Choloric is the 'Sensation Thinking' person, while the phlegmatic is the 'feeling intuition' person. So, hopefully what I've jsut described will be of use to you. Next time you run into someone who is really annoying and you can't figure out WHY, it's probably because their dominant personality type is the exact opposite of your own. The facts [crap] I've just written, hopefully will be of use next time you want to communicate with them (or anyone else). I hope you use this information to bridge the gap between yourself and others (don't use it as a weapon). And Smile a lot. I don't know why, I just thought I'd add that! :- ) :-) :-) :-) :-)