Five Temperaments
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Five temperament theory is a relatively new theory of psychometrics, that expands upon the "four temperaments" proposed in ancient medical theory.
Contents |
[edit] Description
The development of a theory of five temperaments begins with the work of the late William Schutz, and his FIRO-B program. It is a system of calculating a person's "personality" based on a questionnaire. Although FIRO-B does not speak in terms of "temperament," this system of analysis graded questionnaires on two scales in three dimensions of interpersonal relations.
[edit] Need Areas and Grading Scales
These three areas of interaction are Inclusion (how much you generally include other people in your life and how much attention, contact, and recognition you want from others), Control (how much influence and responsibility you need, and how much you want others to lead and establish procedures and policies), and Affection (also called "openness"; How close and warm you are with others and to what extent you want others to show warmth and support to you). Note that these areas include the two scales: how you want to relate to others (known as "expressed behavior"), and how you want them to relate to you (called "wanted behavior"). Scores in these scales range from 0 to 9.
[edit] Correlation with The Ancient Four Temperaments
Other researchers employed FIRO-B, and at some point, a correlation became evident between this method of scoring and the ancient four temperaments: melancholy, sanguine, choleric, and phlegmatic.
A Melancholic basically tends to be an introverted loner, and in the area of "control" such a person would exhibit a low need to control others, and also have a low tolerance of control by others (i.e. "dependency"). In the areas of inclusion and affection, such people would display a low need to include or be close to others, and a low need to be included by others.
A Choleric, however, is an extroverted "leader"-type who, in the area of control, has a high need to control others, but a low tolerance of others controlling him. He also has a high need to include or be close to others, but a low level of responsiveness to them. He tends to be a "user", and only relates to people according to his own terms.
A Sanguine is an extrovert who has a high need to include and be close to others, but unlike the Choleric, the Sanguine genuinely likes being around people just for the sake of being with people. The Sanguine also "swings" between both control and dependency.
This system can be laid out in a 10 by 10 square grid on three charts for individuals' scores in each area. The low scores in both "wanted" and "expressed" would fall into the lower left corner of the charts, and were found to correspond to the Melancholy. Since the scale of "expression" lies on the horizontal axis of the chart, a high score in "expressed" with a low score in "wanted" falls in the lower right corner, and this corresponds to Choleric. The upper right corner represents a high score on both scales, and corresponds to the Sanguine.
[edit] The Fifth Temperament and The Phlegmatic
Basically, the left half represents introverts, the right half extroverts, the upper half those who are more "people-oriented", and the lower half those who are more serious, or "task-oriented". However, there was now a totally new twist. In the older model, the fourth temperament, Phlegmatic, had generally been regarded as "introverted" like the Melancholy, yet a less "serious" temperament than the Melancholy and Choleric, like the Sanguine. However, while the Phlegmatic is not as extroverted as the Sanguine and Choleric, nor as open and friendly as the Sanguine; he is neither as introverted as the Melancholy, nor as personable as the Sanguine. Thus the Phlegmatic (which was even once defined by critics as the absence of temperament), is basically a moderate temperament, and hence in this new system it winds up having only a mid-range score in responsiveness and expression. That placed it directly in the center. The Phlegmatic person is by definition, ambiverted, being capable of social interaction, but overall, can "take them or leave them" regarding people. This left the upper left corner unaccounted for. This would represent people with a high "wanted" score in the areas of control, inclusion and affection, but a low "expressed" score; the true "people-liking introverts". Researchers began suspecting that there might be a fifth temperament, but most simply regarded it as a "passive sanguine."
In the 1980s, the National Christian Counselors Association, Inc. founders Richard G. and Phyllis J. Arno.[1], after extensive research, identified a separate temperament, which they called Supine, which means “with the face upwards,” like a servant looking up to his/her master. The Arnos refer to it as “the serving temperament,” because the Supine “feels” that their only value is to serve others. Supines like and need people; however, they have a fear of rejection and do not initiate.
Supines are identified by strengths, such as a desire to serve, liking people, and having a gentle spirit. Their weaknesses include expecting others to read their mind (indirect behavior), harboring anger as "hurt feelings," and feelings of powerlessness. They are generally open to receiving affection, but have trouble initiating. Other profilers who use similar systems still refer to it as "Introverted Sanguine." Thus, in some respects, this can be considered as the opposite of a Choleric, just as the Melancholic is opposite of Sanguine.
Since people who fall into this category do not express themselves much, it has been speculated that this "indirect behavior" might be the reason this temperament had gone unrecognized for so long. Cholerics are also indirect, but in the opposite fashion (and in some respects can be regarded as "extroverted melancholics"). But since they are high in the expression area, their temperament was readily obvious all along.
The phlegmatic in comparison may seem to be somewhat of a loner, yet they too are peaceful at heart, making them a great asset in social, political, friendship, business, and commercial activities. Their knowledge of the society around them, and the self enables the phlegmatic to interact with the most unlikely of all people. This is one reason the Phlegmatic had held the place in the older four temperament model the Supine holds in the five temperament model. The difference is that the Supine is more "needy" for acceptance from people, and less expressive towards them than the Phlegmatic. Supines are often frustrated because they expect people to know they want interaction, while the Phlegmatic expresses a moderate need, and wants only the same moderate amount in return.
[edit] Temperament blends
The four-temperament model had 12 mixtures of the four temperaments: Mel-Chlor, Chlor-San, San-Phleg, Phleg-Mel, Mel-San, Chlor-Phleg; and the reverse of these: Chlor-Mel, San-Chlor, Phleg-San, Mel-Phleg, San-Mel, and Phleg-Chlor. The order of temperaments in these pairs was based on which temperament was the "dominant" one. This new model has two types of "blends": across the three areas of inclusion, control and affection, and within each of those areas. "Across" the three areas, a person can be one temperament in inclusion, another one in control, and yet another in affection. So a "San-Mel" in the older system would be someone dominantly Sanguine, but with some Melancholy traits. There are usually no concrete criterion given, as to in what respect they are one temperament or the other; it just states that they have the traits of both. The new system, however, ingeniously tells us where the different temperamental traits lie: namely, the three "areas of need"! So what the older system would call a San-Mel, might be Sanguine in Inclusion and Affection, and Melancholy in Control. Or they could be any other combination of two to one. The new system does not use designations like "San-Mel"; but rather "Sanguine-Melancholy-Sanguine"; listing all three in the order of Inclusion, Control and Affection. This yields 125 (5×5×5) blends of basic temperaments overall!
Within one of those areas however, there are only eight blends of the Phlegmatic temperament with the other four. These blends lie between adjacent temperaments, mid-range vertically or horizontally. Phlegmatic Melancholy and Phlegmatic Choleric lie between Melancholy and Choleric. Choleric Phlegmatic and Sanguine Phlegmatic lie between Sanguine and Choleric, and so on. The order of the temperaments in these pairs is not determined by "dominance" of one, but rather according to "expressed" and "wanted" behavior, respectively. A Phlegmatic Melancholy expresses himself as a Phlegmatic but wants the same as a Melancholy. A Melancholy Phlegmatic expresses himself as a Melancholy but wants the same as a Phlegmatic. This is different from the older system's "Phleg-Mel" and "Mel-Phleg", though those two blends may be a Phlegmatic blend in one or more of the three areas of the five-temperament theory. (If the eight Phlegmatic blends are counted separately from the primary five, the total number of possible temperament combinations is 13³ or 2197!) "Compulsive" variations of the four outer temperaments lie in the squares furthest in the corner of those areas of the grid. Since Phlegmatic is directly in the middle, it has no Compulsive variation.
[edit] Correlations with other psychometric systems
The MBTI system is more popular (and had surpassed FIRO-B in the 1970's), and is based on the cognitive functions introduced by Carl Jung. Extraverson and Introverson (E/I) basically correspond to the "Expressed Behavior" of FIRO-B and Five-temperament theory. Responsive behavior is often indirectly linked to "Thinking/Feeling" (T/F) through comparisons to The Big Five's "Agreeableness". (q.v.)
Supporting this is the fact that David Keirsey, when adapting his temperament system to the 16 types model, renamed T/F to "Tough mindedness" and "Friendly", in his Keirsey Temperament Sorter scores. However, Keirsey had diverged from the MBTI system in minimizing the role of both T/F and J/P (Judging/Perceiving). Starting with S/N ("Sensing" and "Intuition", which he renames "Observation" and "Introspection" or “Concrete” and “Abstract”, under the category of "Communication") he divides this into the new category of is "Cooperative" or “Utilitarian”; also called "Pragmatic" ("Action") leading to his new "four temperaments" (SP-Artisan, SJ-Guardian, NF-Idealist, and NT-Rational). Next, this is divided by "Role-Directive" and "Role-Informative", into eight “Role Variants” or “intelligence types”. Finally, this is divided by E/I ("Expressive/Attentive"), yielding the sixteen "types" of the MBTI. Linda Berens would also use a similar system, and just as Keirsey combined S/N and his “Cooperative-Utilitarian” into "temperaments", Berens would pair “Directing“ and “Informing“ (as she calls them) with E/I (which she calls “Initiating - Responding“; but “Responding“ is not the same as in the Arno Profile System) creating four "Interaction Styles" [1] in addition to the four "temperaments". While comparisons have been made between Keirsey's temperaments and the ancient four temperaments, there is not really an exact correlation. While the Artisan is generally compared with the Sanguine, the other comparisons are not consistent. Guardians are usually associated with Melancholies, but then they are also linked to the Phlegmatic, with the Melancholy being the Idealist. [2]. Idealists and Rationals are often switched back and forth between representing Cholerics and Phlegmatics.
The interaction styles, however, more closely match the behavior of the classic temperaments with “Directing” and “Informing” being the true counterpart to low and high "responsive" behavior. Directives are the more serious, type, defined by Keirsey as "those who communicate primarily by directing others", and Informatives are defined as "those who communicate primarly by informing others". The extroverted/directing Berens calls "In Charge", and behaves like a Choleric, as the name itself even implies. The introverted/directing is called "Chart the Course" and corresponds to the Melancholy, who is very analytical needs order and familiarity. The extroverted/informing is called "Get Things Going" and fits the description of the Sanguine, who is upbeat, enthusiastic and focused on interaction. The introverted/ informing; "Behind the Scenes" is a calm peacemaker who sees value in many contributions and consult outside inputs to make an informed decision and thus appears to be like both the Phlegmatic, and also the Supine. In fact, one of the key traits of the Supine in the area of Control is that they are good at enforcing rules set by others (thus "informing") while the Directing types prefer to make the rules. And Supine more closely fits the style because it is also low in expressive behavior (Introverted) while the Phlegmatic is again defined as being ambiverted in both dimensions.
At first, “Informing” and “Directing” may sound like they are describing Expressive behavior in the area of Control. But that they are in fact describing Responsive behavior, including the other areas outside Control is illustrated in the fact that in the area of Inclusion, the Sanguine is said to “inspire” people, while the Choleric “motivates” people. “Motivation” is a directive behavior, while “inspiring” is more compatible with informing. Likewise, the Melancholy’s rejection of others from his low want of people comes out in “directive” behavior, such as being critical or cynical.
While Directing vs. Informing do not exactly correspond to T/F, they do correspond to a certain extent both that dimension and J/P as well. Directives "lean towards" T and J, while informatives lean towards F and P. Thinking or “Toughmindedness” as well as judging or "Scheduling" as Keirsey calls it, are very compatible with Directing. Likewise, Feeling or “Friendliness” as well as Perceiving or "Probing" (Keirsey) are compatible with Informing. So each of the four types that make up each directing style have a T and/or J, and the informatives have an F and/or P. Since there are only two TJ or FP combinations per E and I, each style also contains one TP and one FJ type. The directives tie TP with S, and FJ with N; and the informatives tie TP with N, and FJ with S.
The result is that each of the four interaction styles share one personality type with each of the four Keirsey temperaments. Berens describes the Keirseyan SP, SJ, NF and NT temperaments (Which she renames “Improviser”, “Theorist”, "Stabilizer" and “Catalyst“) as the “Why” of behavior, while the interaction styles are the “How”; however the APS system does address the "why", in the form of the “driving needs” that energize the behavior of each interaction style/temperament.
So it appears that the 16 types systems have these two additional dimensions that the Five Temperament system does not have, but both systems actually cover pretty much the same ground in personality typing, though in different ways. While the FIRO-B and Arno system don't directly have Myers’ S/N, and Keirsey's Communication and Action, or separate T/F and J/P functions; they do have the distinct categories of Inclusion, Control and Affection which the others lack. This also explains the different variations of types, because when the temperaments are blended across those areas, they modify one another so that Sanguine Inclusion behavior will be influenced by a Melancholy Control, for instance; while in the “16 types” systems, the areas of behavior of Inclusion, Control and Affection are blended together throughout the 16 types.
Correlations can also be made with the 9 types of the Enneagram. If the Phlegmatic blend pairs (whose behavior is similar) are treated as one type each, then when added to the five other temperaments, there are nine, and the basic behaviors are comparable. The Enneagram also has specific “areas” similar to Inclusion, Control and Affection, known as “Social”, “Self-survival” and “Sexual”, but these are not used in a consistent fashion, and sometimes are treated as being in addition to one’s “basic” type.
