What’s Your Personality Type?

As printed in Hearing Health, volume 20:4, Winter 2004

By Richard Carmen, Au.D.

To take a free, ten-minute personality assessment and receive a brief interpretation, log on to www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm or check your local library for David Keirsey’s Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence (Prometheus Nemesis Book Company, 1998).

There are four personality types in the Myers-Briggs inventory: artisans, guardians, idealists and rationals. Each has four subtypes. Keirsey and Bates theorize that we all fall into one of the sixteen possibilities.

Each of these types is referenced by a series of four letters, the first of which represents our inclination toward introversion or extraversion (I or E). The other letters represent these descriptive traits.

Sensory // Observant “S”
Intuitive // Introspective “N”
Thinking // Tough-Minded “T”
Feeling // Friendly “ F ”
Judging // Scheduling “J”
Perceiving // Probing “P”

You probably already have a good sense of whether you are more introverted or extraverted and by reading the descriptions of the four basic personality types below, you may be able to identify your own type.

Artisans
Artisans are fox-like: crafty, clever, practical and smart. Like the fox, artisans base their self-confidence on their ability to adapt to changes and work well in crises. They like being excited, trust their impulses, yearn to impact the world, seek stimulation, value generosity and aspire to be virtuosos. Artisans are preoccupied with the here and now, cynical in looking at the past but optimistic about the future. They typically work as promoters, operators, crafters, performers, entertainers or composers.

Guardians
Guardians are beaver- or squirrel-like. They are dependable, detailed, factual, hard working, patient, routinized, thorough and deliberate. They prefer conversation around the concrete, not the abstract. They are good at remembering facts. They take pride in being reliable. Like the beaver, sometimes to their detriment, they take on too much responsibility as if stockpiling self-esteem against some future responsibility. Guardians are stoic about the present, fatalistic about the past and pessimistic about the future. They are preoccupied with morality, and may be in occupations that center around gathering, storing, recording, measuring and distributing equipment and supplies.

Idealists
Idealists are like dolphins because they are one of the most cooperative of all animals. They operate on intuitive thought and divine moral principles. They are creative, enthusiastic, humane, imaginative, insightful, religious, subjective, sympathetic and bluntly honest yet diplomatic. They are altruistic about the present, mystical about the past and credulous about the future. They are interested in the humanities, preoccupied with building morale and may pursue vocations that place them in personnel. Idealists make good teachers, counselors, motivators, mediators and advocates.

Rationals
Rationals are like the owl, excelled in their keenness of sight, swiftness and timing. They are logical and contemplative, capable of burying themselves in a complex problem and remaining detached until it is solved. They are abstract, analytical, competent, curious, inventive and systematic. They are pragmatic about the present, relativistic about the past and skeptical about the future. Their education is often in the sciences, they are preoccupied with technology and their vocation may have to do with systems (e.g., machines, equipment, biology).

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