The term "personality" is commonly used. For instance,
“She has a wonderful personality.”
“He’s a real personality.”
“It’s just her personality.”
“We seem to have a personality conflict.”
“He has personality plus.”
“She has her mother’s personality.”
“He has no personality.”
...but what does it actually mean?
There are many complex definitions for personality type, but the simplest is this: Personality concerns characteristics inside people that explain why they do what they do.
In other words, personality is our own unique and individual set of characteristics, traits, and preferences, defined by our innate sense of self and influenced by our environment. It determines how and why we think, feel, and behave the way we do, and also what motivates the choices and decisions we make. It's our "psychology."
Personality is a hypothetical construct that we use in an attempt to understand human behavior.
The term "personality" derives from the Latin word "persona," which means "mask." The study of personality may be thought of as the study of "masks" that people wear. These are the personas that people project and display, but also includes the inner parts of psychological experience which we collectively call our "self."
Every person is in certain respects—
- Like all other people
- Like some other people
- Like no other people
In short, the development of one's personality means fidelity to the laws of one's own being…
You could contemplate your navel for eternity but you may never figure out who you are. Carl Jung studied personality in great depth, and pioneered several theories about it, many of which we use in our curriculum. Jung implied that personality was a calling. He said, "True personality is always a vocation… an irrational factor that destines one to emancipate themselves from the herd and its well–worn paths." He also said, "Personality can never develop unless the individual chooses his/her own way, consciously and with moral deliberation."
Thus, learning about personality type can empower you to follow your own innate calling. Sure, you can do that without a compass, but it's easier when you have a compass! That's where we come in. We'd provide you with helpful tools and teach you to use them effectively.
There's a common mindset that if we work on ourselves we can eventually overcome all our shortcomings and become perfect. Then we can be all things to all people. This is the mantra of many so-called self-help gurus who write about people as though we're all alike underneath.
Fortunately, that idea is becoming more arcane, especially in the coaching profession. As coaches, we believe it's more useful to emphasize our natural strengths and compensate for our weaknesses in order to become better at who we already are.
At Type Insights, we combine leading edge personality type methodologies with coaching models. We do not use assessments by themselves, but as an adjunct to the Self-Discovery Process®. We avoid the use of stereotypes and do not talk in jargon or acronyms ("alphabet soup").
It seems appropriate to grant the final word on this topic to Jung:
Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal condition of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom for self-determination.
- Carl Gustav Jung, 1934
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