Personality Types: Super Guide to Understanding Yourself and Others

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Updated on: Educator Review By: Michelle Connolly

There are many personality types that psychology is interested in studying, and each personality type has outstanding characteristics that give it a general nature of its own. These types of personalities can be positive or negative.

Numerous research has been done on the subject of personality, but no final conclusions have been reached regarding the nature of personality. This is because the human personality is a complex phenomenon to the extent that it can be defined in different ways. Personality has been defined in different ways by psychologists who have been busy studying personality and the variables that affect its development.

Personality is defined as all the inherited and acquired physical and psychological characteristics, including the traditions and customs and the set of values and emotions that control a person’s behaviour. They are all known to be interactive and appear in a certain way through human interaction in different areas of life.

Personality Types in Psychology

There are different types of personality in psychology, which differ in their characteristics from each other, and these personalities are:

Introverted personality: The person in this personality type is isolated by his will from those around him. Where he lives in his own world, does not establish relationships with others, and does not adapt to his surrounding reality, and psychologists say that the introverted person may succeed in several areas, especially areas that need calm, emptiness of mind, and isolation.

Extroverted personality: The person in this personality type is a kind-hearted personality, cheerful, and well-behaved. People love these kinds of people. They are confident and trust others, and they make decisions quickly. They are disorganized and don’t keep appointments.

Positive personality: The person in this personality type has a positive view of things, is calm and cheerful, intelligent and enthusiastic, makes decisions rationally, negotiates brilliantly and listens to others.

Compulsive personality: The person in this personality type is unable to express his feelings, and if they express their feelings, they are very conservative and rigid, so others understand him as arrogant and conceited. Therefore, they have few friends, as they love commitment, hate chaos, love work and strive for it, but they face a problem in making decisions.

They are frank people, who are not good at embellishing phrases and courtesy, don’t give trust to anyone easily, and don’t withdraw it quickly either. Psychologists say that this person is anxious and tense and may suffer from some diseases, such as migraine, irritable bowel, and stomach pain.

Psychopathic personality: The person in this personality type is subject to his desires and greed, and he may be tolerant of the face from the outside, but he lacks feelings and sensations internally; He does not concede or sacrifice for the sake of anyone, he is characterized by some vice characteristics, such as lying, theft, violence, and lack of honesty in his work, and he is also impulsive and reckless.

Psychologists say that this person is a devil in the appearance of a human being and is the living embodiment of all vice meanings.

Persecution personality: The person in this personality type constantly feels persecution and grievance. Therefore, they are suspicious, expect harm from them, harbour hatred and uneasiness, and can turn into aggressive people. Criticizing others in a hurtful way, not taking into account their feelings, and not accepting criticism or advice from anyone, few friends, bad suspicion, and a lot of jealousy.

Therefore, their relationship with their spouse is bad, dialogue and discussion are difficult, and they lack the spirit of fun and laughter. They don’t approach people or woo them, as they are self-centred and lack a sense of beauty and creative art. Psychologists say that this is the personality of extremists, fanatics, divorced men and women, and must be dealt with calmly and cautiously because he does not hesitate to harm those who oppose him.

Hysterical personality: this personality type is highly selfish, stingy, loves to seize everything, gets angry for trivial reasons, and has a sharp and volatile mood; and psychologists say: the hysterical personality differs from hysteria.

Narcissistic personality: a person who admires herself very much, arrogant, arrogant, exploitative and opportunistic, very elegant and superficial, her friendships are rare, and they can be exposed to depression if they fail.

This personality type causes many problems in various aspects of life, such as emotional relationships, work, school, and even financial aspects. A narcissistic person often feels miserable and disappointed if they do not get the appreciation and attention he thinks he deserves. So they may find that his relationships are unsatisfactory and do not bring them the happiness they want.

It is a personality type centred around self-love and characterized by an exaggerated interest in the body’s appearance, as well as excessive attention to special needs, even if they are at the expense of others. Human nature is often characterized by selfishness and boasting. Still, the narcissist personality has this thing exaggerated to a large extent. Let’s get to know Its most important characteristics and types and how to deal with them.

Semi-schizoid personality: a personality type that is close to schizophrenia, but its symptoms are less severe than schizophrenia, and the owner of this personality is characterized as a strange person, optimistic and pessimistic about strange things, always feeling that others are watching him, mysterious and mistrustful, and his relations with others are narrow, afraid of confrontation that exposes him for criticism and accounting.

Borderline personality: the person in this personality type is sharp-tempered, highly emotional, volatile in anger and mood, and their emotions are very powerful. They hate loneliness; they are always doubtful and confused about the principles and values that they believe in. Psychologists say that this personality is the typical patient, and the normal is sick, so they are the kind of a person who stands on the line between disease and health.

Avoidant personality: it is the personality type that escapes from confronting people and mingling with them and avoids establishing social relations. This personality is afraid of non-acceptance, rejection of people, insult and defamation, and yet the owner of this personality wishes to mingle with others and engage with them, but he imposes isolation on themselves because they turn away from people by their own will.

Dependent personality: this personality type is of a person who relies on others for everything, is unable to make decisions, is afraid of taking responsibility, is not confident in themselves, and lacks initiative and experience. It is a personality that is closely related to individuals of dependent character, as the owner of this personality searches for anyone to perform their duties.

So, if they lose a friend, they search for another to rely on them, just as they can’t make life decisions without consulting that gives them reassurance because they don’t feel comfortable if alone.

Aggressive personality: they are failed person in life, hate success, love to disrupt others and impede their work, are rebellious and does not abide by laws and instructions.

Defeatist personality: the defeated person is the one who enjoys humiliation and brings it to themselves, does not trust himself and his abilities, and puts pressure on others to test their patience and tolerance for it.

Obsessive personality: This person cares about small details at the expense of quality and looks for formal idealism that conflicts with the completion of work. In this personality, the person has a cleaning obsession, order, and small details are super essential in an exaggerated way for people of this quality. This personality type is not an obsessive-compulsive disorder but an obsessive personality because the obsessive-compulsive disease is a condition that worsens every period and is treated with medication.

Nervous personality: It is the personality type that gets excited, so its energy is always high, non-vital and useless, and the person with the nervous personality expels negative energy, just as the nervous person is characterized by their instability and suffering in their emotional life.

Sceptical personality: It is one of the personality types whose owner is distrustful of the people around them, even if they are the closest people, as they are permanently suspicious people without a convincing reason and base their decisions on weak or imaginary evidence. They suffer in relations with others, so they take most of the phrases seriously and read baseless threats in them, and this pushes them to respond harshly and act more aggressively, especially to those who attack, seeking revenge.

Depressive personality: a person who is permanently pessimistic and sad, but sadness does not affect the performance of her daily work.

Sophistic personality: its owner is a person who talks a lot, talks without reaching a result, suffers from loneliness and some social problems, and is prone to depression.

Balanced personality: t is one of the personality types that gives characteristics to an individual who has this personality as a balanced and accepted person by themselves and others.

Suspicious personality: It is one of the personality types that is characterized by exaggeration in mistrust, extreme caution of others, being affected by their criticisms, excessive argumentation and rivalry, love of control and leadership, and focus on the faults and mistakes of others.

Naive personality: among the personality types whose owner is characterized by blind trust in people, inattention to what is going on around them, submissiveness and subordination to others, acceptance of others’ criticism even if it is wrong, and exaggeration in frankness even in private matters.

Cruel personality: a person who is rude in dealing, harsh in heart and cruel, lacks tenderness and mercy, is aggressive, punishes severely, and forces others to submit to her, as they love vengeance and revenge.

Compassionate personality: it is one of the personality types that is a kind-hearted personality, merciful to others, tolerant and gentle, and avoids rivalry and controversy.

Submissive personality: its owner is characterized by acquiescing to others, going along with them and approving their desires, weakness in expressing a personal opinion, suppressing inner feelings, inability to show them, concern for the feelings of others, and fear of eye contact.

Affectionate personality: It is characterized by the ability to understand the problems of others, especially emotional ones. The affectionate person always avoids hurting the feelings of the people around them and tries their best to make others happy to ease their sorrows and sadness. Individuals of this personality are not weak but rather thoughtful and compassionate.

Nonfiction personality: It is the most objective and systematic among personality types, so it is considered a personality with great wisdom. The characteristic of a nonfictional coldness helps to overcome the causes of failure in their life, so they have persistent personalities.

Passionate personality: The combination of emotionality and vitality creates a passionate personality that is interested in achieving desires and success on the social level. The passionate personality type resembles the most famous historical figures with a significant influence. They love power and leadership, and their strong will may sometimes be interpreted as cruelty.

Personality Traits in Psychology

Despite the different concepts of personality, it can be assumed that some traits can be common to personality, and they are as follows:

Symbiotic: that is, the elements of personality formation are consistent in the form of an integrated and coordinated system; personality is measured by the consistency and harmony of its components.

Dynamism: the character is of an interactive nature between the different elements because of the biological formation that gives it a degree of interaction and continuous growth.

Adaptation: Environmental factors play a very important role in personality formation, as personality components can’t be separated from their external environment. So, adaptation to its surroundings and environment is essential.

Differentiation: Each personality has an independent character that distinguishes it so that each individual has his own personality and character.

Relative stability: Some general characteristics require a degree of stability and continuity in a way that helps in preserving the distinctive character of the personality and does not contradict the character of dynamism, such as intelligence, acquired skills, and experiences.

Factors Affecting Personality Formation

To understand and correct personality traits and how to deal with them, you must know the most critical factors affecting the formation of personality, and the most important of these factors are:

Genetics: Heredity endows the individual with some characteristics that affect the formation of his personality, such as generosity, humour, seriousness, and others.

Morality: Medical studies revealed that the brain contains many vital centres that manage mental and psychological processes, such as perception, behaviour, thinking, and feelings, which affect personality formation.

Environment: It is one of the factors that have a significant impact appears on the individual, whether through different behaviours or ideas, and its source is from their home, surroundings, or community.

Mood: It is an essential element in personality formation and affects the human psyche in a way that appears clearly in behaviour.

Intelligence: It is the merit of quick understanding, the ability to learn fast, adapt to the environment, and benefit from all previous experiences. Individuals vary and differ in their levels of intelligence depending on applying a set of accurate tests.

Body: Good health and a strong body are a great source of confidence, and a poor and fragile body is a crucial source of weakness, just as in the integrity of the mind, as their body also contributes to keeping them in balance.

Family and upbringing: The family has a great influence on the psychological development of the child in the first stage of his life, and from it, he acquires his experiences, abilities, skills, and behaviour, which affects his psychological development positively or negatively.

The stability of the family is essential in forming the child’s personality. The more the family has stability, their self-confidence increases, and they become more secure and reassuring, just as the parents’ method of upbringing is of great importance in shaping the individual personality.

Cultural and social influences: such as information, customs and traditions, and values, share significant importance in shaping the personality of a child.

What is a personality type test?

Personality style tests have been used to better understand personality traits in a variety of settings, including the workplace. It can also be useful in mental health specialists’ diagnosis, one’s own growth, or cultivating wholesome relationships with others over time. Countless personality tests are spread out and are easily accessible online.

Personality Tests History

Hippocrates suggested that people had a “personality” made up of four different temperaments around 460 BCE. It is yellow gallbladder, black gallbladder, blood and phlegm, considering that whatever fluid is most dominant in a person determines his “sense of humour” and thus his different personality.

We now observe and comprehend personality patterns in social contexts very differently than we did before the psychodynamic approach came into being in the late nineteenth century. Sigmund Freud, who developed the dynamic approach, postulated that our personalities were more nuanced than had previously been thought. Our behaviour and personality are driven by our inborn impulses and needs.

In a similar line, Carl Jung proposed that there are just four human personal preferences that have an impact on personality: perceiving, intuition, thinking, and feeling.

In particular, in the workplace, personality style tests and evaluations have gained popularity in the 20th century. Hence, obtaining a deeper understanding of one’s nature has aided individuals in developing their emotional intelligence and discovering their ideal vocation. Moreover, it increases output and strengthens relationships.

The Woolworth Personality Data Sheet, developed by the US Army to identify recruits who might be traumatised, was the original contemporary personality test. Personality evaluations, examinations, and theories of human personality have increased dramatically since 1900. The “ink spot” test created by psychotherapist Hermann Rorschach was well-known at the time as a personality assessment tool. The Rorschach test is still occasionally applied in psychology today.

How can a personality type test help you?

Personality tests aren’t designed to give you a complete picture of every nuance about yourself, but they can give you a better picture of your strengths and weaknesses. Even if you don’t agree with everything in the test, it still tells you about yourself. It can give you more understanding of the things you do and why.

It can also show you the unique abilities you’ve taken for granted your whole life and help you decide what types of careers are right for you and what makes you unique to potential employers. Even if you are not requested to take a personality test for an interview, the results of your tests can enable you to give a better answer to a common interview question. It can help you understand why some people get along but not others.

A personality test could reveal the traits and personalities that you naturally dislike and get along with. While this information may not immediately solve the problem, it can give you the tools you need to start working with differences better. Also, start some productive conversations with the person who is the problem.

How do I know personality types?

Psychologists have devised many personality types tests, the most notable among them are the following:

Maser-Briggs test

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is also known as the MBTI, and companies often use the Myers-Briggs Type Index during the hiring process in order to learn about personality types. Its questions identify where the applicant falls into four main groups.

These groups represent extraversion versus introversion, judgment versus perception, intuition versus sensation, and thinking versus feeling. The index consists of 93 questions, the results of which place the test takers into one of 16 personality types.

Calibre Profile

The Caliper Profile measures how an applicant or employee’s personality traits relate to their role at work. When taking this test, you will answer questions in different formats, the most common of which is the tester presenting a set of statements and asking you to choose which one matches your opinions.

Other question formats include true or false, multiple choice, and degree of agreement scale. This assessment looks at a candidate’s potential negative and positive attributes to provide a broader picture of how they will perform in a role.

Professional personality questionnaire

The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire, also known as the OPQ32, provides insight into how an individual’s personality traits and behaviour affect work performance. It includes 104 questions that measure 32 key characteristics, which are categorized into three main areas that influence an individual’s behaviour at work.

They include emotions, thinking style and feelings, and relationships with people. Each question includes multiple statements, and the recipient chooses the most and least descriptive phrases. The results come in the form of a report tailored to each recipient, which describes their strengths and weaknesses in detail with the aim of identifying personality types. Plus, a graphic summary can be used to compare applicants against each other.

Eysenck test

The neuroticism versus stability and extraversion vs introversion dichotomies are the two key dimensions used by the Eysenck Personality Traits Inventory to assess a person’s personality.

Three primary scores that are used to define personality types are included in the results; these are “E” (extroverted level), “N” (neuroticism level), and “Lying,” which gauges the validity of the assessment by looking for higher scores. Although there is a condensed version with only 57 yes-or-no questions, the full evaluation has 100 questions.

Davis and Holland scale

The Davis and Holland scale relies on two scales to analyze personality types; The first is the “dominance scale”, which measures how strongly a person is motivated to influence the thinking and actions of others. The second is the “sociability scale”, which measures a person’s tendency to express frankly and have open feelings with others.

People can be classified based on whether they score low or high on these two scales. Personal trainers can benefit from having their own personality styles assessed.

What are personality types?

Personality types are divided into four types, and they include:

Type A personality

People with type A personalities prefer to be in command and have control over their surroundings and lives. Their owners are people who don’t pay much attention to detail and choose to delegate the details to others. They are usually goal-oriented.

Type (A) personality is characterized by accepting change, taking responsibility, being fast-paced, and loving pioneering work. They also have a direct management style, work well, are independent, and passionate, and have good managerial and negotiation skills. In addition to that, they seek full liberty, dominance, and ambition. The weaknesses include stubbornness, impatience, the severity of decline, cruelty, quick anger, insensitivity, bad mood, intolerance and tyranny.

Here are some of the things that motivate Type A personality types, including money, opportunity, freedom and independence, a favourable risk-reward ratio, challenges, urgency and leadership success. Entrepreneurial business is preferred as president, CEO, general contractor, sales representative or sales manager, business owner, politician, police officer, and military.

People with type A personalities seek independence and freedom and will go to any lengths to avoid getting stuck in a rut. They will also be quite upset if they believe someone is attempting to take advantage of or impede them. Type A personalities may struggle to understand a coworker’s wants and sentiments, but it doesn’t mean they don’t care. Instead, they may not even notice since they are so intent on attaining the goals.

Type B personality

People with type B personalities are very extroverted, spirited, and quick-witted. They appreciate being in the spotlight and enjoy being among others. The majority of people instantly like them since they are good at forming relationships. They attempt to get along with everyone, hoping that everyone will like them too, because they want to govern by consensus. The most crucial thing you can do for them is to praise them, recognise their achievements, express your admiration for them, and even applaud the group as a whole.

This personality is distinguished by its love of enthusiasm, fun, persuasion, easily liked by most people and stimulation. Weaknesses include: trying to do too much at one time, being impatient at times, and being unrealistic. This type also has trouble being on her own, is arrogant, bored easily, self-absorbed, prone to generalizations, and impulsive.

Some of the triggers for this personality include public recognition, awards, certifications, photo ops with celebrities, success, and being the centre of attention. This personality loves working in public relations, salesperson, entertainment, interviewing staff, professional host (ESS), politician, manager, party planner and customer service.

People of type B enjoy bragging about themselves. A Type B’s true motivation is to be loved, despite the fact that some may view this as selfishness. The biggest fear of a Type B personality is being humiliated in public because that can make a lot of people disapprove of it, and thinking about it would be destructive. They also do not want to appear unattractive or unsuccessful either, so their owners will make sure that their appearance is impeccable, and they will always give the impression that they are very successful in whatever they do, whether they are or not.

Dreamers, by nature, frequently transform their fantasies into beneficial ideas. Type B personalities tend to be gregarious and rely on their wit and sense of humour to win over others. They are not very good at hiding feelings, either, so if this personality is disappointed, you can probably read it in her general demeanour and demeanour.

Type C personality

Meticulous Type C personalities enjoy engaging in controllable, stable activities. They value truthfulness, reason, and logic. Those who can’t manage to control their emotions will irritate her since Type C personalities believe that emotion makes objectivity challenging or even impossible. In addition, they dislike being around boisterous individuals since they value logic, truth, and correctness. They tend to look for facts. Thus, other people’s emotions might not be their top priority.

Type C personality is creative, trustworthy, imaginative, plays by the rules, organized, intelligent, analytical, thoughtful, critical, observant, kind and dignified. Weaknesses include being anxious about progress, seeming antisocial and critical, liking to do things her way and sometimes seeing the glass as half empty.

Some of the stimuli include opportunities, independence, analysis, challenges, and problem-solving. They can fill positions such as forecaster, troubleshooter, critic, investigator, engineer, technical assistant, research scientist, inventor, data analyst, auditor, pilot, programmer, artist, or musician.

Controlling behaviours are typical among Type C personality types, both towards themselves and others. They don’t like things to get out of hand and may not be very expressive at times. This personality is results-driven and sticks to following procedures and protocols to get the job done.

Type D personality

Individuals with personality type D go more slowly and leisurely through life and at work. They desire stability and longevity in their employment and find immense satisfaction in performing the same activity repeatedly every day. They can become quite excellent at what they do via repetition. Also, if the rules change too frequently, they won’t appreciate it because they prefer stability and sticking with what they know works.

Even if the way things are now could be unpleasant, Type D personalities worry that things might worsen. D personality types crave other people’s respect, true appreciation, and approval.

If they feel appreciated and get lots of affirmation, the Type D personality will happily work to please the individuals they work for. They require that sense of safety. A Type, A personality’s excessive risk-taking and lack of regard for longevity and safety are frequently seen by Type D personalities as crazy.

Being around a chaotic or disorganised atmosphere irritates type D personalities because they are typically very organised. They are typically very loving, thoughtful, and empathetic and excel at acting as supportive figures for others. They are patient, attentive, and keep trying while others give up. They will be a stabilising force in any group or team because they particularly enjoy working together.

This personality is characterized by being loyal, kind, stable, fair, fair, calm, friendly, and trustworthy, and rarely changes the mood. The weaknesses include that this personality does not speak, is used easily by others, is resistant to change, avoids confrontation, is less assertive, hurts feelings and is shy.

Some of the motivators include stability, routine and a calm work atmosphere. This character can hold positions such as financial services manager, human resource manager, bureaucratic social worker, family physician, nurse, mechanic, teacher, counsellor, personal assistant, secretary, minister, librarian supervisor, and customer service representative.

How to determine a particular personality type according to tests?

A person is said to have a type X personality when two or more personality types are equally powerful within them. For instance, if A and B are the two most dominant personality types, they could be labelled as AX and BX.

The extremely unusual case in which all four personality types can be identified is known as a Type X personality, where X denotes an intersection of two or more kinds. It is not unusual to see an X between the four personality types, not necessarily including the primary or the strongest among personality types. Regarding the primary personality, the person in question may, nevertheless, have the propensity to behave one way in one scenario and another in another.

One may come off as a personality chameleon when the four types are closely equal in power. This is beneficial for a wide range of professions, especially those that demand a lot of interpersonal connections, like working with salespeople. Depending on who they are around, people with Type X personalities frequently change the “colours” of their personalities as needed.

Taking a personality type test not only helps you in your relationships with your colleagues at work or with your close environment but also enables you to understand your needs and desires as well as reveal the secrets of your personality that you try hard to understand in every situation that happens to you. It is important to note that each test ranks personalities on different scales.

To sum up, each person possesses a unique personality that distinguishes them from others, originating with them as an instinct or acquired from the surroundings. Therefore, some people make mistakes when judging others by their appearance or lifestyle, which is insufficient to evaluate people.

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