Our preference for a given function is characteristic, and so we can be typed by this preference. With this, Jung invented the function types or psychological types (Schultz & Sydney 2001).
In 1907 Adickes said man was divided into four worldviews: dogmatic, agnostic, traditional, and innovative. In 1920, Kretschmer noted abnormal behavior temperament as hyperesthetic, anesthetic, melancholic, and hypomanic. Thus some people are born too sensitive, some too insensitive, some too serious, and some to excitable. Around 1920, Adler spoke of four mistaken goals people pursue when upset: recognition, power, service, and revenge. Also in 1920, Spranger told of four human values that set people apart: religious, theoretic, economic, and artistic. Twenty-five centuries earlier Hippocrates, in trying to account for behavior, spoke of four temperaments: choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, and sanguine (Schultz & Sydney 2001). Clearly, all characteristics correspond to each other.
In the 1950s, Isabel Myers with her mother Katheryn Briggs devised the Myers - Briggs Type Indicator, a method for identifying sixteen patterns of action. The test was used so widely it revived interest in the ancient theory of four temperaments because the sixteen Myers - Briggs types fell neatly into the four temperaments of Hippocrates, Adickes, Kretschmer, Spranger and Adler (Keirsey, Bates 1984).
Professor Keirsy, a clinical psychologist at California State University, adopted the psychological types of Carl Jung and the method of measuring personalities types of Isabel Myers. He then combined Jung's learning styles with the Myers/Briggs concept of personality types.
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III. Types Of Personalities.
As a teacher, knowing whether a student is a conceptual thinker (intuitive) or a concrete thinker (sensing) can mean the difference between success and failure in reaching that person. The value in using personality typing is that it aids in designing curriculum and teaching strategies to best compliment a student's learning style.