Interaction Styles - Development

Development

David Keirsey, who had mapped the four temperaments of his Keirsey Temperament Sorter to the MBTI system, ended up minimizing the role of both Thinking/Feeling (T/F) and J/P (Judging/Perceiving). Starting with S/N ("Sensing" and "Intuition", which he renames "Observation" and "Introspection" or “Concrete” and “Abstract”, under the category of "Communication"), he divides this by the new scale of "Cooperative" or “Utilitarian” (also called "Pragmatic") under the category of "Action"; which yields his "four temperaments" (SP-Artisan, SJ-Guardian, NF-Idealist, and NT-Rational). Next, this is divided by "Role-Directive" and "Role-Informative", into eight “roles” or “intelligence types” (STP-Operator, SFP-Entertainer, STJ-Administrator, SFJ-Conservator, NFJ-Mentor, NFP-Advocate, NTJ-Coordinator, and NTP-Engineer). Finally, these are divided by E/I (Extraversion/Introversion also called "Expressive/Reserved"), yielding the sixteen "types" of the MBTI.

Linda V. Berens, another doctor of Psychology and a former student of Keirsey, would also use a similar system, pairing the Interaction Styles (which were implicit in Keirsey's system) with both the temperaments and the cognitive processes. Just as Keirsey combined S/N and his “Cooperative-Utilitarian” into "temperaments", Berens would pair “Directing” and “Informing” (as she calls them) directly with E/I (which she calls “Initiating - Responding”) creating the four "Interaction Styles" in addition to the four "temperaments". This then matched the several other Two-factor models of personality, beginning with the original four temperaments which had been observed in terms of fast or slow response, and short or long delay.