Map · Tool
Personality models and profiling
Personality models describe the ways people consistently differ: how they gain energy, perceive, decide, and deal with others. Some sort people into types, others describe how strongly traits show up across several dimensions, and they rest on very different foundations. A profile is not a verdict on you, but an occasion to compare how you see yourself with how others see you, and to choose your patterns more consciously.
Introduction
“That’s just how I am”
Some people recharge in conversation, others in silence. Some want the plan first, others would rather keep their options open. Differences like these easily lead to misunderstandings as long as no one names them.
Personality models give them a language. They can help you understand yourself and others better. And they can turn into pigeonholes when “I have a preference for …” becomes “That’s just how I am.”
In depth
What personality models are good for
A good model makes visible what otherwise only shows up as friction. It offers a language for differences that doesn’t judge: introverted is not worse than extraverted, thorough is not better than spontaneous. It invites you to compare your self-image with how others see you, that is, with how others experience you. And it is an occasion for conversation: a profile is easier to talk about than “You’re always so …”.
A distinction from the Johari window is helpful here: the self-image (what I think about myself), the assumed image (what I believe others think about me), and the external image (what others actually think about me). Where the three diverge, it gets interesting.
Where they tip over
The same models become weak when they are used differently than intended: as an identity, as a verdict on a person, as a measure of maturity or skill, or as an excuse for your own behavior. Then a description becomes a justification, and the conversation becomes a label.
I have a preference for one thing, and I can develop the other.
Types or dimensions
Roughly speaking, there are two ways to describe personality:
Type models
They assign people to one of a few groups, such as one of nine types in the Enneagram. That is vivid and easy to remember. But anyone who sits just at a boundary ends up entirely on one side, and taking the test again can produce a different type.
Trait models
They describe how strongly someone scores on several dimensions, such as the five factors of the Big Five. That is less catchy, but it captures gradations. The Big Five are considered well researched in personality psychology.
Both describe what a person consistently brings along, not how far they have developed. Integral philosophy calls such styles types and places them alongside the levels of development: like hikers who take their own way of walking along on every path, no matter how high the path leads.
The models at a glance
The last column names what a model is based on. It is not a rating: how helpful a model is also depends on what you use it for.
| Model | What it describes | Kind | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Five | five basic factors with 30 facets | Dimensions | analysis of everyday language, trait research |
| HEXACO | the Big Five plus honesty-humility | Dimensions | extension of the Big Five |
| LINC Personality Profiler | Big Five, complemented by motives and competencies | Dimensions | Big Five and motivational psychology |
| CliftonStrengths | 34 talent themes, focus on the top five | Strengths | Gallup’s strengths approach |
| TCI | four temperaments and three character factors | Dimensions | biopsychological approach |
| Enneagram | nine types with directions of development | Types | traditional and spiritual roots |
Three models up close
- Big Five It grew out of the analysis of the words people use in their language to describe personality, and it describes five factors: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. In personality psychology it is considered well researched and often serves as a frame of reference. HEXACO extends it with a sixth factor, honesty-humility.
- LINC Personality Profiler An online questionnaire that builds on the Big Five and adds motives and competencies. If you like, you can compare your own profile with how others assess you, that is, your self-image with how others see you.
- Enneagram Nine types, such as the Perfectionist or the Helper, with neighboring “wings” and directions in which a type moves under stress or in growth. It comes from traditional and spiritual approaches, is not very standardized, and is viewed critically in academic psychology. Many people use it for a different reason: it asks not only how you are, but also where you can grow.
There are also models that understand personality as movement rather than a fixed state. The four energy patterns Driver, Organizer, Collaborator, and Visionary (related to the FEBI, the Focus Energy Balance Indicator) describe energies that show up in the body, in thinking, in feeling, and in behavior. Each pattern has its strength and its risk when it is lived too much or too little, and no one is only one of them.
An integral view
From the perspective of integral philosophy, personality models mainly describe types: consistent styles that stand horizontally alongside the stages of development. A type says nothing about how mature someone is. An introvert can be introverted at any stage; she just fills it out differently at each stage.
Most questionnaires look through a single window: the inner experience of an individual, captured through self-report. What others perceive, how culture and relationships shape us, and which circumstances encourage a behavior are left out. Where a model offers a comparison with how others assess you, as the LINC Personality Profiler does, a second perspective comes in.
| Model | Development in view? | More than your own view? |
|---|---|---|
| Big Five, HEXACO | no | no |
| LINC Personality Profiler | no | partly, through assessments by others |
| Enneagram | yes, directions of growth and stress | hardly |
Two things follow from this. Don’t confuse types and stages: a profile is not a measure of maturity, and maturity doesn’t turn one type into another. And keep states in mind: under pressure, tired, or excited, you answer differently. A profile is a snapshot of how you describe yourself, not a measurement of who you are.
Personality in the making
Personality models show a slice. A model from coaching practice describes how personality comes about as a cycle around one question: Who am I really?
- Disposition What you bring with you, your constitution.
- Upbringing How others have shaped you.
- Your own path How you shape yourself.
- Experience Things turn out differently than you think.
- Decisions You correct your course, and the cycle begins again.
A profile is most likely to capture the first steps. Experience and decisions change how you live with what you bring with you. Part of this is that development happens in relationships, and that is what makes it demanding: others show you how you are, sometimes more clearly than a questionnaire can. Three questions carry you through this cycle: How am I? How do I accept myself? How do I think of myself going forward?
This is also where the difference lies from a picture like the integragram: a personality profile describes your style; an integragram shows how far various capacities have developed. Together they give a more rounded picture than either one alone.
Common misunderstandings
- “The profile tells me who I am.” It shows what you report about yourself at a particular moment. What matters is what you recognize in it in conversation, and what you don’t.
- “My type explains my behavior.” A type describes a preference, not a necessity. You can also use and develop the other side.
- “Some types are better than others.” Every tendency has strengths and downsides. No profile says anything about a person’s maturity or worth.
- “Widely used means well researched.” Popularity says little about the state of research. The Enneagram, for example, is very well known and is viewed critically in academic psychology. That doesn’t make it useless, but it does mean reading it with care.
Where I draw the line: MBTI and DiSC
Caution
I don’t work with the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) or with DiSC (in German-speaking countries often offered as the DISG personality profile). Both are widely used, but in many respects they don’t hold up in personality research:
- MBTI: It sorts people into either-or categories, even though most people fall somewhere in between. Anyone who retakes the questionnaire often gets a different type. Whether the 16 types exist as clearly separate groups is questionable, and what the type says about actual behavior is considered weak.
- DiSC: The questions force you to choose between statements. This produces a picture of how your styles relate to one another, but no comparison with other people. The results are quite repeatable, but they predict little about your behavior in specific situations, and much of it is already covered by the Big Five.
Both describe preferences and styles, not development. If you have already come across such a profile, it can be an occasion for a conversation. As a statement about who you are, it doesn’t carry much weight.
Personality models are maps, not verdicts. They help you find your bearings and leave open where you go.
Key points
- A personality profile describes preferences and tendencies, not maturity, not abilities, and not a fixed identity.
- Type models are vivid; trait models capture gradations. The Big Five are considered well researched in personality psychology.
- The value of a profile lies in the conversation about it: What fits, what doesn’t, and what do I want to develop from it?