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Which do personality type system you prefer?

Do You Prefer MBTI, Enneagram, Both or Other. Why?

17K views 65 replies 63 participants last post by  Cherry 
#1 ·
Pretty self-explanatory.

Parrot here, getting the polls section up and running again. It will allow us to learn more about our members and continue to grow as a community.
 
#2 ·
I find it harder to relate to enneagram types than I do the MBTI. I'm such a mix of things that it eventually becomes tiresome to research, so I just give up. I wish there were more in-depth information on different tri-types.

I also feel like I've learned more from the MBTI about myself, as well as others.
 
#3 ·
well i feel like both are important and enneagram explains the differences in people of same mbti type?
 
#8 ·
Fair, I meant MBTI in the vernacular sense.
 
#9 ·
Hmmm find both to be quite fascinating.
I think mbti deals more with what we know about ourselves and how we behave. I prefer directly studying Jung's ideas.
But enneagram is moreso the things we often hide like our inner fears...
They're both valuable in different ways because of that and I like how they balance eachother.
Enneagram makes me see stuff about myself that I previously felt but hadn't identified as being a part of myself.

I can't remember what else I was going to say... I'll be back again:kitteh:
 
#12 ·
I used to do that. I've found there is correlation, like ENTP 7 is most common for ENTP. But, all combos do exist, just some more likely than others
 
#14 ·
Enneagram is a pain to deal with because of the ever growing variables. You start with a core type, then you've got wings, instinctual variants, the triads, countertypes, the positive outlook vs competency vs reactive thing, tritypes, etc. There's actually a point where it can be justified to be a 5 and be socially extroverted... MBTI is simple to deal with, and doesn't come with active witch hunts concerning mistypes.

I guess both can be as equally useful, but the way the Enneagram is designed makes me want to bash my head in a wall. MBTI by default.
 
#15 ·
I voted both. I find MBTI much easier to understand, thanks to the breakdown of functions and whatnot. But enneagram is quite a bit more interesting, as it deals with base fears and defense mechanisms. And I quite enjoy seeing how one affects the other. To me anyway, it seems like enneagram gives each person's MBTI type a certain 'flavor', if that makes any sense.

As a side note, I also think the varient stackings (sp/sx/so) are fun to throw in the mix too. There's a lot more that goes into a person than just one type or another.
 
#20 ·
I like both. Enneagram is easier to understand, it deals with motivations and insecurities, which intuitively make sense to me, whereas I had to learn the cognitive functions one by one and how they present in real time.

Knowing how people think and value info is fascinating; understanding and zeroing in on their internal motivations is more obvious but amusing. Mind traps make me laugh.
 
#22 ·
I prefer Enneagram because it focuses more on emotional hang-ups and the things that people struggle with. MBTI can capture some of that by pointing out trends among groups of people that process information in the same way, but it's not the focus and it shows. I think MBTI and Socionics are pretty good at what they do, I just don't find them as enriching.
 
#23 ·
I don't see any personality theory fully describing the human experience. I am most involved with MBTI informed by Cognitive Functions and Keirsey Temperaments; but I see that Enneagram adds another dimension to personality theory not covered by MBTI but also not at odds with it (complementary). I dislike the nomenclature Jung provided and adopted by Myers & Briggs for the two major dichotomies: F/T and S/N. They are needlessly misleading terms.

I don't like the cutesy names that have been assigned to the 16 types. It seems more appropriate that they go simply by the 4 letters for type and 2 letters for Temperaments.

I don't know too much about Socionics. Its seeming pragmatic nature has made it less attractive to me to investigate it more than I currently have.

Big 5/OCEAN/SLOAN seems to be tapping the same elements that MBTI does on 4 of the 5 facets. It, therefore, adds something more in the Neurotic or Calm/Limbic axis. I also appreciate how it IS a sliding scale, that the polar facets are shown along a continuum rather than presented in binary fashion like MBTI facets are. I dislike this system for 2 reasons:
1) it is all based upon fitting within a bell curve of responses and is subjective as such; and,
2) it values certain responses and disparages others, such as social being seen as psychologically healthier than reserved (E > I); or inquisitive as healthier than non-curious (N > S).​
This theory also diverges from MBTI in 2 other major ways:
1) MBTI posits that a given mind forms a specific cognitive preference for interacting with the world that remains fairly constant regarding preference of use/approach over one's entire life whereas SLOAN suggests that personality type is mutable over time; and,
2) MBTI offers that each of the 16 types has its own set of weaknesses and strengths, that no type is better than another; but SLOAN is based upon certain personality types being less healthy than others.​
SLOAN is a device, therefore, to figure out where one is and how to be better whereas MBTI is simply a list of attributes that aren't ranked, valuing one type over another.

I don't know about DISC.

At PerC I spend most of my time hanging out in INFP Land these days with a few stops in the MBTI Forum and the NF Forum. Most of my visits to Enneagram involve using reference posts for descriptions (e.g., the Tritype Archetypes). I rarely read any threads there, and I don't recall ever posting there.

I would prefer a system that developed a sorting hat that would work for any person regardless of gender, age, cultural background, or language facility that would most fully describe personality.
 
#24 ·
Big Big Five fan here!
 
#25 · (Edited)
I've got, studied, reference Gifts Differing by Briggs-Myers, and once I got around to reading and referencing it, I could pick out my seemingly obvious type by reading the description; on reflection, it's simplistic, like astrology--leaving no room (nor did she intend to) for the impact of extreme poverty, violence, mental ill caregivers and other stresses. She admitted she left "the abnormals" to Jung.

I've got, studied, reference Riso & Hudson, and I prefer going straight to them rather than muddy my mental waters with online, dumbed down, second or third-hand HelloQuizzy kinds of tests.

Enneagram, as worked out and improved by Riso & Hudson provide an open-end system, and one intended to show us where we are, and where we can be, if we work on it, i.e. so we are, say, 'average' in terms of growth, OK, we can move up or down. And they write about what that means, looks like, could turn into, e.g. The Unibomber would be Level 9 (most out of touch with reality) for a 5w6--and it isn't hard to see him as INTJ, though enneagram and MBTI are not twin personality typing systems.

Riso started out saying that most people had only one wing; then after more reflection, research, personal and professional growth--and the input of Hudson, he broadened his view; he could perceive more as having two wings; and further, got into tri-typing, though it isn't requisite.

I wonder where he would have taken it if he'd lived longer as he put in 25 years or so before he died of cancer.

I like a lot about Socionics, too, especially as there are descriptions provided by different theorists, and I can read each one and see where I fall, or don't, according to one of them describing, say, INFj.

No one can fit into one model, although it's human nature to categorize and want either closure/fast, or possibilities galore. Sort of like "OK, that's it, I'm done, this is me" or "I can see parts of me here, there, everywhere but I'm not locking myself in a box."

So, MBTI and Enneagram and Socionics all have merit, have helped me sort through some obstructions, look at my actions more clearly.

Gotta say, though, that meditating before and after taking any of these tests alters the results. I'm not talking about "relaxation" kinds meditating, but mindfulness, i.e. Vipassana.

That's when how often our thoughts change comes up to remind me that I don't have a "Basic Personality"; or perhaps a better way of putting it is that I am not my Personality. It's a construct, so which one(s) do I like, prefer, cling to the most. (Rhetorical.)

Never heard of DISC; or if I have, not under that name. *Goes off to Google it; see if it has anything to reveal that the other systems haven't; and is it valid; does it resonate; will I do more than nod at some descriptions and move on...


ADDITION: I took the DISC via 123test dot com; I started a thread on it, actually, on PerC.

I came out INTP. :Smilies1:
 
#29 ·
I prefer Enneagram because it's easier to absorb. Being made up of discrete functions, the meaning of each Myers Briggs type is difficult for me to remember and the system seems fragmented.

If I know someone's Enneagram type, I can instantly get some idea of what sort of person she may be. When I know someone's Myers Briggs type, I have no holistic idea of what that person is like and have to consciously break her apart into dom and aux functions just to get a partial picture.
 
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