Foundation in Temperament Theory

Temperament is a configuration of observable personality traits, such as habits of communication, patterns of action, and sets of characteristic attitudes, values, and talents. It also encompasses personal needs, the kinds of contributions that individuals make in the workplace, and the roles they play in society.

To understand the soundness of temperament (personality) theory, as used in CORE Recon, it is important to look at the evolution of supportive studies based on observable behavior and thinking patterns and the stability of those patterns across ages, genders, and cultures. We will focus on this background as it pertains to CORE Recon.

The concept of temperament relates to well-defined personality traits first described by Hippocrates in 400 B.C.

In 1921, Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who founded analytic psychology, published his book Psychological Types, which proposed a concept of psychological types based on introversion versus extraversion, thinking versus feeling as rational functions, sensation versus intuition as irrational functions, and the coexistence of dominant and auxiliary functions. He believed that while we are driven by the same instincts, we are fundamentally different. These differences are caused by specific preferences for how we perceive and perform life’s basic tasks. These preferences, according to Jung, explain our attraction and aversion to certain people, situations, tasks, and experiences. He believed that people could be grouped according to their preferences.

Building on Jung’s work, Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Meyers focused their efforts on turning the theory of psychological types to practical use. They believed that if people understood each other better, they could work together better. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed during World War II in the belief that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sort of war-time jobs that would be the "most comfortable and effective" for them. Since its initial development, the MBTI has found continuing, widespread use in industry, government, education, and the military.

The MBTI is widely used to help people assess personality by observing certain factors: interaction style, manner of obtaining and dealing with information, the basis for decision-making, and their approach to life. It is typically administered through 93 forced-choice questions. “Forced choice” means that a person, if possible, should choose only one of two possible answers to each question. The choices are a mixture of word pairs and short statements. Choices are not literal opposites but are chosen to reflect opposite preferences on the same dichotomy.

More recently, Professor David Keirsey, a clinical psychologist known for his ground-breaking research and writings on temperament types, published his work on temperament in his book Please Understand Me in 1978 and Please Understand Me II in 1998. Keirsey's theory blended the sixteen Myers-Briggs types with Ernst Kretschmer's model of four "temperament types", which Keirsey traced back to the classical Greek philosophers. He identified four basic temperaments as the Artisan, the Guardian, the Idealist, and the Rational. Keirsey's four temperaments can be further subdivided, often referred to as "Character Types" or "Personality Types." There are four types of Artisans, four types of Guardians, four types of Rationals, and four types of Idealists, which total 16 types. Keirsey developed the Keirsey Assessment to identify your specific Character Type.

There is substantial overlap in all of these works, each building upon the prior. Over time, the affirmation of millions of users of these systems has solidified the four temperament types as a useful, meaningful, replicable methodology for understanding personality.

CORE Recon was developed to use the accuracy and reliability of temperament types while being delivered through a more modern toolset that would make it realistic to apply the information in real-world situations. CORE Recon developed an easy-to-complete word bank style assessment to identify the relative weight of each of the four temperaments. It was designed to capture the unique blend of the four personality types to give a full representation of the individual’s personality makeup. Although the assessment is very accurate, we acknowledge that different aspects of an individual may assume different dimensions depending on circumstances and experiences.