How Many Types of Personality Are There?
This is a very common question. Carl Jung believed that we are all unique, so there are over 7 billion types if you look at it that way.
We First Need To Consider What we mean by “Personality Type”?
In 1921 Jung published his masterpiece “Psychological Types” and many of our profiling systems today are directly based on Jung’s findings or owe something to them.
The psychological classification of different types of personality
Jung clearly stated that we are all unique, which appears at odds with the concept of “typing”. Many are surprised that Jung never used labels to describe different personality types. This always surprises people because every system (apart from PeopleMaps) uses labels.
Labels are very much at odds with Jung’s belief that we are all unique. So when working with profiling you must always keep in mind that we are all unique.
Report Resolution
Report resolution is the balance between respecting that everyone is unique and simplifying personality sufficiently to make sense of it. Each PeopleMaps report is made up of multiple personality topics. What can vary is the resolution of a topic. Even in a single report, there will be some topics that are low resolution and some that are high resolution.
The PeopleMaps Map has high granularity which means that the differentiation between individuals is most apparent. Two individuals may be located in the North East of the PeopleMaps Map, yet for some things, they could behave quite differently, even though there will be many things in which their behaviour is quite similar. 
You should note that there are dozens and dozens of possibilities within the PeopleMaps system. As far as we are aware, PeopleMaps can operate at a higher resolution than any other established, professional, profiling system.
However, not all topics need to be in high resolution. For example, If we look at how someone feels about cold calling, there may be less need to see this in high resolution, as we may only care to identify people who can cope with cold calling and people who will avoid it.
It is not always helpful to have every topic in high resolution. Remember the purpose of personality profiling is to help us understand self and others. Sometimes too much data can be an obstacle to understanding as it becomes unwieldy to work with. Too little data can of course, also be a problem.
So Is It Pointless To Ask What Personality Types Are There?
No, of course not. We can we still talk about personality types. Personality profiling is used to simplify the complex sufficiently, to let us makes sense of human behaviour.
Reports are designed to help you discover preferred behaviour and preferred environments. PeopleMaps manages to do this without using labels. It is still possible to write about an individual’s personality without putting them in a rigid box.
How Did Jung Approach The Types Of Personality?
Jung was all about TYPE rather than TRAITS. PeopleMaps uses the six energies to help us determine an individual’s personal psychology. Jung’s opinion was that an individual’s level of introversion did not affect their overall preference.
Jung opinion was that where personality traits can alter daily, as they are affected by our environment, personality type will change little, even over a lifetime.
PeopleMaps works with TYPE, not TRAITs.
Are We Born With Our Own Type of Personality?
Anecdotal research certainly indicates that we are born with our personality type. Some mothers even argue that they are aware of their twin babies having different personalities in utero.
There is also strong evidence that we owe little or nothing to our parents for our personality type, as children often have very different personalities from both parents.
Research continues on this fascinating area.
Is it Possible To Change The Types Of Personality We Are?
The approach to personality should be a two-stage process;
- Spend time trying to determine who you really are. An understanding of self is key.
- Accept who you are and learn to master it.
This is a very different approach to the one we most commonly encounter, which is routed in “change”. PeopleMaps is more about understanding, acceptance and management, rather than denial and change. We do not believe you should try and change your personality type as this could be harmful and unproductive.
The 2nd Law of Personality States;
“Personality is perfect. Personality is neither good nor bad. Personality just is.
There is no one personality type better than another.”
Humans are adaptable and can adjust to cope with just about anything. However large adjustments, for long periods of time, can be stressful.
How Do You Calculate Your Personality Type?
The PeopleMaps questionnaire has been refined over 17 years and designed by one of the UK’s leading Jungian psychologists. The questionnaire and associated algorithm will calculate an individual’s personality type.
Myers Briggs Personality Types
MBTI is an old system that has been around since the 1950’s. Like PeopleMaps it is also based on Jung’s research.
PeopleMaps varies from MBTI as follows;
- PeopleMaps refuses to use labels. We go to great lengths to respect that individuals are unique.
- The PeopleMaps questionnaire was designed for the Internet from day 1 and was never a paper-based system. This is why it can achieve such high levels of accuracy and high resolution, with so few questions. Paper-based questionnaires have to be a lot longer to gather the same amount of data.
