David Keirsey's
Temperament model is considered by some as simply an off-shoot
of MBTI™ type theory that does
nothing more than build on the basic type framework. However, others
maintain that Keirsey's personality theories go far beyond the usual
scope of MBTI™ type by identifying four fundamental personality
groups, which Keirsey calls "temperaments."
According to Keirsey,
each of the 16 MBTI personality types can be divided into one of four
basic temperaments which are defined according to the letter pairs NT,
NF, SP and SJ. Thus an INFJ would be an NF, an
ENTP an NT, and so on. Keirsey also gave each of these temperaments
a name:
| NT
= Rational |
| NF
= Idealist |
| SP
= Artisan |
| SJ
= Guardian |
It should be noted
that in Keirsey's immensely popular first book on temperaments, "Please
Understand Me" (released in 1978), he originally referred to
the temperaments by the names of various gods of Greek mythology, i.e.
NT = Promotheus, NF = Apollo and so on. Since they were
considered somewhat obscure, these names have now been superseded. From
now on only the "modern" equivalents listed above will be
used.
The impact of the
temperament model on type theory and MBTI™ is debatable, but most
would agree that it has played a significant role in determining the
course of current and future research into personality typing. The amazing
success of the book "Please Understand Me" is testament to
that. It is by far the most widely-read of all type-related books, which
is ironic as type purists do not regard temperament as part of the standard
type model.
The temperament
model has much to offer to the field of type. For the first time a definite
link between the common personality "drives" of various types
has been established.
An INFJ
and an INTJ may appear to differ only on the Feeling/Thinking
dimension, but things are much more complex than that. The INFJ,
being an NF Idealist, will tend to seek out meaning and ideals
in life. The INTJ on the other hand will approach life in a logical
and rational fashion as an NT Rational does. These two personality
types are fundamentally different in outlook because they have different
temperaments.
Most experienced
students of temperament will agree that being able to identify a person's
temperament will significantly speed up the personality typing process.
Instead of looking at the "alphabet soup" of F versus
T, N versus S and so on, one focuses on identifying
the temperament first, then working on filling in the remaining letters.
Temperament doesn't displace type; it reinforces and supports it.
That is not to
say pinning down a person's temperament is easy; often it is not. Social
pressures, conformity, environmental factors all contribute to how a
person appears to us.
However, using
temperament allows us to see traits and characteristics typical to each
of the temperaments, and hence we can more easily narrow down the possibilities
as to what MBTI™ type a person is.
