The 3D Theory of Personality

Viewing all of your inner dimensions

About the author of 3DPersonality.com

"Know yourself" is one of the fundamental guidelines of almost all the world religions and philosophies as a key to both spiritual growth and inner peace. What psychologists have found, however, is that achieving self-knowledge is difficult. We are a mix of conscious and unconscious forces, and features of our personalities that are obvious to our friends are ones we can overlook. That is why the development of personality profile systems has been so helpful. They create complete personality type descriptions that allow us to see the traits we recognize combined with those we weren't aware we might have. These systems help us to get to know ourselves.

3D Personality: The Micro Dimensions

The goal of this site is to help you navigate through the different personality profile definitions to discover your personality type under several systems. This is the 3D, three-dimensional description, as viewed through the lens of the different psychological profile schemes.

The three systems discussed – Enneagram, New Personality Self-Portrait, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – can be considered representative of the descriptive and explanatory traditions of personality psychology dealing with cognitive type theory. These theories describe how people behave (their traits) and what they consider important (their motivations). As shown in the figure to the left, the Systems, Traits and Motivations create a three-dimensional personality view.

It is intriguing to consider how a particular person at a given point in time would be characterized by each of the systems. That exercise is the best way to realize how each different scheme, while overlapping others, has its own framework and perspective. Each personality profile is like looking through a different window at the same garden; you can learn something new from each view.

3D Personality: The Macro Dimensions

Not all personality classification systems fit into the cognitive-type-theory scheme. Additional theories have been developed within psychology to discuss personalities, such as Role Theory and its Birth Order System. Other disciplines have also developed alternative personality profile systems, such as Astrology with its Zodiac and Chinese Horoscope, or the Physiological profiling of Ectomorphs/ Mesomorphs/ Endomorphs and Type A/ Type B personalities.

The figure on the right shows how these macro dimensions of multiple systems have expanded the way we look at personality. It represents the larger picture, with multiple dimensions growing out of various disciples of study and unfolding from different theories.

3D Personality: Additional Dimensions

Different researchers have developed the theme of dimensionality and personality in a number of different ways. For example, Robert Ornstein (1995) identified three alternative dimensions for classifying personalities:

1. Gain – shows how people like to set the level of stimulation in their environments, whether they seek fully textured, exciting and fast-paced lives or whether they pursue a quiet, relaxed, and regular existence.
2. Deliberation/Liberation – reflects how much planning and organization people like to put in place, whether there is an emphasis on order and judgment or instead a desire for flexibility and spur-of-the-moment freedom.
3. Approach/Withdrawal – indicates people's emotional stance towards life, whether they consider the world to be bright, happy, and relatively benign or dark, difficult, and predominately hostile.

Riso and Hudson (1999) for the Enneagram and Oldham and Morris (1995) for New Personality Self-Portrait developed the idea of dimensionality based on traits, motivations, and mental health. Each of their systems recognized the third dimension as being expressed by an individual's mental balance. They argue that the same set of traits can be expressed differently depending upon whether a person is mature, average mental health, or is mentally ill with problems such as depression, paranoia, or narcissism.

Another dimension is time. Research supports the claim that some traits are constant in a person over a lifetime, but other traits change depending on age, experiences, and circumstances. A person's personality is not necessarily fixed but evolves and can change. For example, the psychologist Harry S. Sullivan, who wrote The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry in 1953, developed his theory of personality development as a chronology of seven stages, moving from infancy through adulthood. George Kelly, who wrote The Psychology of Personal Constructs in 1955, also felt that personality developed over time, and he believed that people could experience personal growth or otherwise change their personalities throughout their lives.

Yet another dimension is explained through the observation that personality is affected by a person's associates. Change a person's acquaintances, and his or her personality can change. Josselson's 2007 book entitled Playing Pygmalion: How People Create One Another explains how interweaving interactions, roles, and projections with close personal alliances influence a person's personality. People get feedback, positive and negative, based on the expectations of partners, family members and co-workers, to which an individual will respond. Each person, in turn, responds to the feedback received based on his or her own expectations. Therefore, just as the cliché says, it is important to be careful about the company you keep.

References

Next: Personality Types & Systems

About the primary author of 3DPersonality.com: Dr. R. Jean Maddigan is a professional social scientist who has been interested in personality systems for over a decade. Read more on her background.