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No Type Bashing, Please

No Type Bashing, Please

By Donna Dunning

They’re all ducks, but not the same duck, and one of them might be an odd duck.

Every once in a while, when reading comments about relationships and interactions, I find people complaining about certain personality types. It seems like any preference can be a problem for someone. Extraverts are too loud, Introverts don’t share enough, Sensors aren’t imaginative, Intuitives aren’t practical, Feelers are too sensitive, Thinkers are cold, Judgers are uptight, and Perceivers are scattered. The list goes on and on.

I understand it is sometimes difficult and frustrating to communicate with people who have different type preferences. However, I believe it is very important to separate personality type preferences from irritating behaviors. Having worked with personality type for 25 years, I can assure you that there are healthy, well-developed, high-functioning people of each and every type. These people share their gifts and deal with their challenges. I have interacted with people having preferences for each of the sixteen types and they are all a delight to know. Each personality type brings a useful, unique blend of preferences that enrich the world.

Behaviors

So, why does personality type bashing occur? We all know people who are abrasive and unpleasant to deal with. I think many people have erroneously attached unpleasant, rude, or dysfunctional behaviors to specific personality types. People can be too loud, overly withdrawn, unimaginative, impractical, overly sensitive, cold, uptight, or scattered. These characteristics are not directly linked to personality type preferences; rather they are undesirable behaviors.

Sometimes, you may find that people irritate you when they approach a situation in a way that is foreign to your natural preferences. When people demonstrate preferences different from our own, it is easy to label and complain. However, linking negative behaviors to a specific letter in the type code, and developing a dislike for any specific personality preference, can only magnify existing problems and create more issues.

As with any personal interaction, if a behavior is irritating or abrasive, it can be helpful to state your displeasure with open, honest, direct feedback. If people (of any personality type) are open to learning and growing, they will listen and consider your views. There are some people who are not open to learning and growing who will not be interested in changing their behaviors. This is not a type difference; rather it is a developmental problem that might occur for any personality type.

Appreciation

You can use personality type as a useful tool for understanding alternative perspectives and approaches. This will likely only happen effectively if you can develop an appreciation of alternative ways of looking at the world. Until you appreciate all of the eight preferences, you are unlikely to accommodate and work effectively with all types.

Think about your opinions and biases. Are there people who have certain personality type preferences that you find hard to accept or deal with? Perhaps you need to work on accepting and appreciating the gifts these individuals offer.

If you know a person who demonstrates lots of dysfunctional or objectionable behaviors, separate them from their personality type preferences. I highly recommend that you find healthy, well-functioning people with those personality preferences and use them as your model of that personality type. Once you have examples of sixteen different types of healthy, well-functioning people you will be on your way to using personality type theory in the way that Isabel Myers intended when she titled her book Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type.

Resources

Want to learn more about personality type and how to use it to understand yourself and others?

Introduction to Type and Communication describes in detail how personality preferences influence communications.

If you live in the USA, Introduction to Type and Communication is now available on Kindle.

Introduction to Type and Learning can help you find your motivation for learning and help you learn more effectively.

If you live in the USA, Introduction to Type and Learning is also available on Kindle.

Looking for a practical resource to help you plan your ideal career? Check out my book, What’s Your Type of Career?: Find Your Perfect Career By Using Your Personality Type

Want to use your personality type to excel at your career? Check out 10 Career Essentials: Excel at Your Career by Using Your Personality Type

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 at 9:28 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “No Type Bashing, Please”

  1. Amy says:

    I think those are some good points…both in dealing with other people, but also, for people who have trouble figuring out their own preferences due to getting caught up in some of these negative attributions. I’m not sure if you know of any sites or books that list them, but I’d be really interested in seeing a list of “type exemplars” from literature, tv and the movies…sometimes those can be helpful in separating type characteristics from irrelevant stereotypes.

  2. Donna Dunning says:

    Hi Amy,

    I’m glad you enjoyed the post and thanks for your kind words. Good question about the exemplars. It would be nice to have a list of well developed people of each type as a reference. There are a number of sites that profess to “type” famous people and celebrities. I hesitate to use these because I do think these lists can create stereotypes. Often in literature and visual media strengths and flaws are exaggerated to add drama or humor. I also wonder how people are selected to be on these lists. I doubt the celebrities mentioned took the indicator and fictitious characters aren’t real to begin with. So, in these cases, we are looking at a polished persona, not a real person. I think the best way to develop exemplars (I love that word) is to find out the types of people you know and admire.

  3. Jack Speer says:

    I think your point, Donna, is absolutely critical. If we can’t appreciate the strengths of all the other types and preferences, personality type turns out being an exercise in understanding why I love myself and wish everyone were like me! On the other hand, every personality type has huge strengths and significant baggage. I appreciate your point out how we use type to justify prejudice, but I have to say I love bashing types–especially my own! I’m an ENTJ, for goodness sake. There are only 1.8% of us in the population, and that could very well be too many. 🙂 We’re great leaders in times of crisis, but at other times people would just like to see us go away. There’s nothing wrong with point out the obvious. When we understand advantages and baggage in type, we can laugh about it and then see how we can help each other in our strengths and weaknesses–but I know all of you already know that. Here’s to all of us!

  4. Donna Dunning says:

    Good points Jack. I agree that is essential to not take ourselves too seriously and to laugh at human foibles. When this comes from a place of humility and lightness it is a great thing. My concern is that others may misinterpret humor. I believe there is a T kind of humor, which can be somewhat sarcastic, sharp, and cynical. When taken in the right perspective, it is very funny. However, the danger is that it can also be seen as cutting or demeaning. How tricky individual differences can be. I use cartoons in my training and have tried to carefully draw a line between creating a fun atmosphere without denigrating anyone. However, there were a couple of times when people were offended by a cartoon. It is certainly complex to include, appreciate, and accommodate all types.

  5. Robert G. Chester says:

    Hi Donna,
    I just searched on “typebashing” and your website popped up. I wonder if you saw my article, “Asperger’s Syndrome and Psychological Type” in the Journal of Psychological Type, Issue 12, Dec 06. Seems to me that the current emphasis on Asperger’s is about the worst case of typebashing I’ve ever seen – and at the hands of the professionals, no less. What do you think?

    Robert Chester, INTJ

  6. Donna says:

    Hi Robert, I don’t recall reading your article, so can’t comment about it. However, I certainly agree that at times professions engage in type bashing. In my experience, some professionals are more familiar with trait theories and do not accurately delineate between trait and type models.

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