Type Theory
So just what is type?
Type theory is a theory of personality preferences based on the work of the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Jung described various aspects of the human personality as having to do with preferred ways of acting - for each of four different areas of interaction, there was a double-ended scale on which someone's personality could be placed.
The process of understanding that leads to successful e-coaching is based on the YourPreferences tool, a psychometric personality test that you can take online at www.yourpreferences.net. The tool gives you a set of choices to make between pairs of pictures, and constructs a personalised report based on your answers.
Type Scales
Your personality profile is composed of a preference in each of four different areas. It's best to think of these as scales of preference - a person will generally be nearer to one end of a scale than the other, giving a preference letter for that area. The 16 possible combinations of these eight letters give 16 distinct codes to describe personality preferences.
Here are the scales of type, along with their associated letters - follow the links to read about them in more detail.
- energising (E/I)
- paying attention to things (S/N)
- making decisions (T/F)
- living life (J/P)
Preferred, Not Exclusive
It is important to remember, however, that although the choices made in a type preferences test are either/or, the categories are not.
We all do things according to all 8 preferences - showing E characteristics as well as I; S, T and J as well as N, F and P. A test such as YourPreferences merely indicates which we're likely to prefer.