A different approach to personalities

[Mitch1993]

This post is based on my life experience, I do not have a psychology degree.
In the gun/self defense/2a community as a whole, it seems to me that the evaluation of personality was somewhat of an afterthought. Understandably, most people are not interested in learning about how personalities are organized or identified. I believe this is why we usually just see the "Type A" or "Type B" categories of personality referenced. It's a quick and easy way to differentiate between two (not all) different types of personality. However, I for one do not believe it has adequate coverage to afford the ability to label people with one or the other. I would like to recommend that people look into the "Four Temperaments" theory. It breaks personalities down into four different types and when tested, you are given a certain score for each type, making you a mix of sorts. Most people have a dominant temperament and one that is accompanying and less dominant. I will not include an explanation of each one due to the complexity of each and the fact that I would be posting a book if I did. Also, if you have taken the DISC test for an employer, it's the exact same thing with different names.

I believe it to be important due to the fact that how we interact with others is important and understanding how to identify and appropriately respond to different personalities could be beneficial to those who go in harm's way. In general, breaking up personalities into just two different kinds doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Not only are their more than two, but you can easily be a mixture of all of them. Misidentifying someone and acting on that decision may not play out the way you intended. This of course goes for everyday life as well as possibly those with high risk careers on P&S.

I just think it's something to consider.

I'm also not trying to say I know it it all. I think everyone should do their own research. I'm going off what I have found for myself. I have found this methodology to be so spot-on when I meet people in regards to how their behaviors match up exactly to the research that has been done over the centuries. It has been so accurate I couldn't ignore it.

I will include my own DISC results just as a curiosity. I personally did mine at discoveryreport.com. I'm not affiliated with them whatsoever.

 

[pointblank4445]

Hi! Dave here "Green" personality here (per test my wife brought home from work)

I had never heard of "Type A/B" personality concept until I became police. And at first sight, I thought it was pretty much bullshit and I still cringe everytime I heard/hear "Of course we're ALL a bunch of Type A's in this room because we're all cops" in a room full of LE at training/conference/etc. Though it is fun to try an look around and see who's faking the funk and if I can't get a non-verbal "Hell yeah" head nod outta some dude wearin' a Blue Line punisher shirt or a Molon Labe embossed SERPA for his XD.

Makes sense though to know if you're a leader if you understand the psyche of those in your charge. I'd like to know not to put Jimmy the adventurous, risk-taker on the can't-miss, by the numbers project. That should probably go to Johnny, the reserved, calculating perfectionist.

Professionally, I always just assume the other person is a lying POS unless shown to be otherwise where malice is never off the table. I see quite often newer officers who think they can "size people up quickly" make an incorrect call and miss other cues because they bit on what the individual showed them and not what they actually are.

Personally, I view the human psyche like white shag carpeting, absorbing everything that touches it. A person is bent and shaped by the sum of the experiences to a given point and one significant event from becoming something different than before. That makes it a bit tricky to quantify...

 

[Mitch1993]

A person is bent and shaped by the sum of the experiences to a given point and one significant event from becoming something different than before. That makes it a bit tricky to quantify...

I agree to a point on this. You can notice behaviors in VERY young children, some who are nothing like their parents. The Sanguines will not be shy, the Phlegmatics have no issue sitting in a stroller for a long time, so on and so on. Yeah man verbal judo and knowing how someone is going to react can save brawls and maybe someone pulling a gun. As long as the stories in the book Verbal Judo are true. Cool stuff.

 

[Sunshine_Shooter]

I'll include my own results. I got them from a different website, https://openpsychometrics.org/, but it's (probably) the same test.

The main problem with these tests is their lack of repeatability. The 4-letter personality type (Myers Briggs (MBTI)) tests give repeat testers a new personality type 50% of the time. I'm not saying that these tests are useless at all. They are worlds better than "Type A/B" personality standard that gets thrown around P&S a lot, but they themselves are not a perfect standard. Using my result as an example, I'd say it's 70-80% correct.

These things are like an RMR. It's better than what most people use, but a better option can still be made.

 

[Stiltd683]

I've had some solid results from the Gallup Strengths Finder. It's more introspective than some of the other tests discussed as there is little focus on how to interact with others but it has helped me professionally and guided how I select work projects.