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Since ancient times, humans have sought to explain behavior by categorizing personalities into distinct types.  In Ancient China, the system of astrology characterized people into twelve distinct animal types.  Today’s Western astrology uses twelve distinct signs as well. 

One of the oldest known personality typing methods is known as the Enneagram which categorizes personalities into 9 numbered types.  It is thought to have roots in the sacred geometry developed by the Pythagoreans 4,000 years ago, and moved through culture and time to the days of Plato, to esoteric Judaism in the Cabalistic traditions of the Tree of Life, and into modern days. 

In ancient Greece, the great physician Hippocrates believed as long ago as 400 BC that people could be typed in four distinct categories. These were named “Melancholic”, “Sanguine”,”Choleric”, and “Phlegmatic” after various bodily fluids that were thought to influence the personality. Each was also based on the four elements of fire, air, water and earth also. These types were called “humors”, and are now referred to as “Guardians “Artisans”, “Idealists” and “Rationalists”.  A brief definition of each is as follows:

·        Guardians: fact-oriented

·        Artisans:  action-oriented

·        Idealists: ideals-oriented

·        Rationalists: theory-oriented

Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung proposed a model that described eight different personality types based on whether people were introverted or extroverted, and on how they processed and applied information. His book, Psychological Types, was written in 1921 and detailed these categories:  A sensor is said to use his physical senses to acquire information whereas an intuitor gathers information based on the patterns stored in his or her mind internally.  A thinker makes decisions based on logic, and a feeler makes decisions based on emotion. 

·        Introverted Thinker

·        Introverted Feeler

·        Introverted Sensor

·        Introverted Intuitor

·        Extraverted Thinker

·        Extraverted Feeler

·        Extraverted Sensor

·        Extraverted Intuitor

The history of personality typing continues in 1926, when a psychologist at Harvard University; William Moulton Marston, developed the DISC system in his book; The Emotions of Normal People. This system came into prominence as part of the US Army’s recruitment process during the years preceding WWII, and then became a popular commercial tool.  It categorized human behavior response into four key areas: Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness, and Compliance. Every individual was thought to be a combination of these four categories, with one dominant style. 

The next prominent method to emerge still in popular use today is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.  This system, developed in 1958 by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs, is based on the earlier studies by Carl Jung.  The key difference between Jung’s method and the Briggs method is the concept of auxiliary or “back-up” functions – if a person is an extrovert, for example, their back-up function will be introversion and will appear when the individual is under stress. It describes 16 basic personality modes and allows two choices for orientation; E and I for extraversion and introversion, two choices for information uptake; S for sensing and N for intuition; two choices for judgment, T for thinking and F for feeling, and two choices for decision making, J for judgment and P for perception.  It is believed that other personality traits such as perfectionism and leadership derive from these basic functions, and that each of us can be described by a combination of these four letters. 

This method is highly popular today; over 4 million people take it annually. 

The history of personality typing ends in 1987 with the most recent prominent method, called the Keirsey Temperament Sorter as developed by psychologist David Keirsey.  This method combines the work of others into one coherent personality typing system; it integrates the four types of Hippocrates into the Myers-Briggs analysis system to identify one major type of four that individuals fit into.  A great site that includes a free questionnaire can be found at http://www.keirsey.com/ . 

Other typing methods have been developed since then, but have yet to reach the level of prominence that the above mentioned methods have achieved.