Type Talk Essay example -- essays research papers

Type TalkThe 16 Personality Types That Determine HowWe Live, Love, and croakby Otto Kroeger and Janet M. ThuesenDell Publishing, October, 1989Type Talk is a primer on personality preference typing centered on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI is a widely-used test that helps a person begin to understand why people perceive situations differently, communicate different from others, and opt for different activities.The books authors, Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen, maintain and wife, have long been in the forefront of adapting the MBTI for use in everyday life and coined the phrase Typewatching as a descriptor for their massage.Kroeger and Thuesen open the book with a chapter on name-calling. They use this phrase, not in the derogatory sense as is often the case, but to show that name-calling is used by everyone as a office of cataloging people based on their unique, identifying characteristics. If were to do this inevitable name-calling the authors believe it shou ld be done in an objective and constructive manner and when elevated to this higher(prenominal) level it becomes TypewatchingIn the early 1920s the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung developed a theory of personality types where he said behavioral differences were a result of preferences think to the basic functions our personalities perform throughout life (p. 8). Jungs theory was published in his book titled Personality Types in 1923.Meanwhile, earlier in the century, Katherine Briggs was researching gay behavior and through her observations had developed a way to describe it that due to different life styles, people approach life differently. When Briggs read Jungs work she found it to be very similar to her own work and set hers aside to focus on Jungs. Shortly thereafter, Briggs daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers became involved and the mother-daughter team sought to assimilate their work with that of Jung. In the 1940s Myers created an inventory based on her mothers observations and Jungs theory. The two women theorized that, with the offensive of the Second World War so near, if people were more aware of their psychological type they could be assigned to wartime roles that best fit their preferences.The MBTI was slow to gain acceptance by the psychological community. a couple of(prenominal) psychologists signed on to Jungs obscure theories and even Jung himself felt his theor... ...Another benefit from the style of this book is that it prompts us to laugh at ourselves as I did when I read the traits of a (P)erceiver who is easily distracted and can get lost between the front door and the car (p. 21).The foreword to the book comes from Dr. Charles Seashore, a skill member at Santa Barbaras Fielding Institute. In his foreword he presents what I feel is a major premise of this book where he says inconceivable conflicts, unreconcilable differences, and personality conflicts are amenable to new types of solutions when seen through the lens of Typewatching. Our hopeless dilemmas are turned to the light in such a way that vivid colors soon replace dull and draining grays. The differences that block us can be translated into differences that empower us. I find the views expressed in Type Talk offer a perfect complement to the humanistic perspective on personality where the humanists emphasize free will and the innate integrity of humankind. Typewatching seeks to move us beyond the simplistic good/bad, right/wrong approach to behavior by leading us toward an appreciation of the gifts and strengths of ourselves and others and a rejoicing of our differences.