Personality, Intelligence, and Learning Style

“The only journey is the one within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

            I have long been a fan of personality inventories and typology. Maybe it’s because I’m a people-person and fascinated by how incredibly different we all are. Or perhaps it’s due to my own natural personality inclinations. I don’t know when exactly I first discovered personality assessments, but I’m guessing it was sometime after my undergraduate years. Probably it was when I returned to college to earn my teaching certificate and took an educational psychology class. Whenever it was, since then I’ve been hooked, so I thought I would share a few of the personality, learning style, and intelligence inventories that I like.

            Probably one of the most well-known personality inventories is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. Devised by Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs-Myers in 1962, the assessment is based on the psychological theories created by Carl Jung. Since then, it has been tested and validated worldwide and has grown to become one of the most widely used personality inventories in schools, workplaces, and therapist offices. In short, the assessment identifies where in a dichotomous spectrum one’s personality lies in four areas: Introverted-Extraverted, Intuitive- Sensing, Feeling-Thinking, and Perceiving-Judging. I won’t go into detail here, but if you’re interested in learning more, visit the website of the Myers & Briggs Foundation at http://www.myersbriggs.org/. There are also lots of free, informal assessments based on the MBTI available online. While not scientifically validated, something like that would be a good way to introduce you to the concept, and later when you can take the official assessment, you can compare results. I’ve taken the official assessment at least twice, and many informal assessments, and I always show the same results: Extraverted (meaning I get my energy by being with other people), Intuitive (meaning I gather information more on a gut level than with my five senses), Feeling (which describes the way I process the information I gather), and Perceiving (think “go with the flow,” and “open-ended;” those words describe a Perceiver). The most balanced people are those who score about midway in each dichotomy, but there’s nothing wrong with being strongly one way or the other. For example, I have some Introverted and Judging tendencies, but I am almost off the charts when it comes to being Intuitive and Feeling.

            Another typology I like is the one developed by John L. Holland, who researched the fit between a person’s personality type and her career choice (to sum up, people who choose careers that are a good fit with their personality types are the happiest with their work…Duh!). I would never recommend a Wikipedia article to a student doing research for a paper, but for general information, it’s a good go-to website, so check out the article on Holland Types there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_codes. Most assessments based on Holland types will show the respondent’s top two or three dominant types. My top two are Artistic (the Creators) and Social (the Helpers). I’m expressing both in this blog post, using my artistic side to write, and my social side to teach readers about something I believe is useful and interesting. Teaching is a good profession for me because it engages both my Artistic and Social traits. My tertiary type is Investigative, which means I enjoy finding out things.

            In 1983 American psychologist Howard Gardner proposed that human beings actually have a spectrum of intelligences in different areas, and that everyone is intelligent in at least one area. While many psychologists have criticized Gardner’s work for various reasons, many educators have embraced it because it values variety in human thinking and reasoning. In my opinion, perhaps “intelligences” is not the best term to use, but rather “talents.” This gibes with my own spiritual beliefs that each person has at least one natural gift, or talent, which can be identified and developed. According to one assessment, my strongest intelligences are musical, social, and linguistic. Seems to parallel what I have previously described about myself in light of MBTI and Holland types, eh? Oh, and in recent years, some Gardner enthusiasts have suggested that existential, or spiritual, intelligence be added to the spectrum. I agree with them that there are some folks who are just naturally predisposed to pondering the big questions of life and connecting with the more ethereal realities of our universe. Don’t be alarmed, though; Gardner posited that all people have some degree of each intelligence. For example, my lowest intelligence is logic/mathematical. That doesn’t mean I can’t do math; it just means it’s harder and less relevant for me than it is for someone who is naturally predisposed toward it. So don’t accuse me of claiming that some people will be lost for all eternity because they haven’t been gifted with existential intelligence. It just might require more work for them to process and experience the concepts of God and Holy Spirit or whatever other cosmological philosophy they ascribe to. If you’re interested in knowing your own intelligence types, visit www.literacyworks.org and take their free online assessment on multiple intelligences, which is based on Gardner’s work.

            Finally, for anyone interested in learning (as we all should be, no matter what stage of life we’re in), it’s helpful to know about one’s learning style preferences. One common learning style model used in education is VARK, which stands for Visual, Aural, Reading/writing, and Kinesthetic. There are various free online assessments available to help you find out your own VARK preferences. Here’s one: http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire. I myself learn best with reading/writing and visual cues. For example, if you’re giving me directions, what works best for me is a turn-by-turn list (reading/writing) and a simple map (visual). Most US education environments emphasize learning through aural and reading/writing means, but educators and trainers are learning how to engage various learning styles when they facilitate learning opportunities for their students. As an educator, I’m challenged by helping kinesthetic learners engage the content of lessons. It’s not too difficult in a small class or workshop, but in a room full of seventy-five people or more, it can be a challenge. One trick is to offer to let learners hold something that they can manipulate quietly while they learn, e.g. a ball of modeling clay or a squishy toy. Even doodling is a way kinesthetic learners can “move” while they learn.

            To understand ourselves better is to understand others better, and understanding others connects us and helps us build bridges instead of barriers. Knowing oneself isn’t all that hard, but it does require work, and that work, I believe, is worth the time and energy put into it. I like how Jennifer Aniston puts it: “Once you figure out who you are and what you love about yourself, I think it all kinda falls into place.”