Human Behavior: People Are People

Personality traits are preferences, much the same as being right or left handed.

Names that authors give to the four personality archetypes vary and are often archaic. These articles will use plain language words: Direct, Interactive, Steady, and Calculating. Likewise, the phrase "personality types" suggests you are stuck with your preference. Here we'll discuss "behaviors," because these can be adjusted.

A right handed person has a perfectly good left hand, which is every bit as capable as the right. He simply prefers the right, and his natural tendency is to use the right. However, he can train his left. For instance, during summer vacations I used to like to play basketball. I am right handed. I was weak on the foul line. To improve, I practiced shooting foul shots with my left hand. Doing so also improved my performance with my right hand.

Similarly, the more you learn about personality types, the better you understand yourself. You learn how to play to your strengths and compensate for your weaknesses; becoming a well rounded person.

Also, the strength of the preference varies among individuals. Some people are mostly right handed, but will bat left handed. Some people are ambidextrous. It's helpful to think of a person's preference on a scale from one to ten.

In fact there are two scales from one to ten which intersect at five. The vertical scale measures a person's pace with one being "completely" slow paced (reserved, soft spoken, introverted) and ten being completely fast paced (outgoing, loud, "takes action"). The horizontal scale measures priority with one being completely task oriented and ten being completely people oriented. Regard the illustration.

DISC Model of Human Behavior

In fact most people exhibit some behaviors from every archetype. Their first preference is usually the most obvious and is what you notice when you first meet them. As you get to know them, you'll observe their second and perhaps third preferences. It's most common to discuss the first two.

Now is a good time to note that preferences may change under stress or in certain circumstances. A normally laid-back, steady person may become loud and aggressive at the poker table. An interactive social butterfly may become shy and soft spoken when intimidated by someone he perceives as having authority over him.

The Direct wants to achieve, the Interactive to experience, the Steady to observe, and the Calculating to analyze. In upcoming articles we'll examine each archetype in depth so we can understand why people do the things they do. Then we'll discuss how to adjust our reactions so we can relate better to others, avoid getting irritated by their differences, make friends easily, and improve our relationships. People like people who are like themselves.