Temperament Using Keirsey-Berens Terminology- An Introduction

About a couple of thousand years ago Hippocrates saw that people behaved in roughly four basic patterns that are known as temperaments. In more modern times David Keirsey began investigating temperaments again. He called the four temperaments: Artisan (SP), Guardian (SJ), Idealist (NF), and Rational (NT). (The letters represent the preferences based on the work of Jung and Myers: S-Sensing, N—iNtuiting, T-Thinking, F-Feeling, J-Judging and P-Perceiving.) One of his students, Linda Berens, developed a program called the Self-Discovery Process® to help people determine their own temperaments. She has an accompanying booklet called: Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to Temperament.

When reading descriptions of the temperaments, it is important to realize that these are very general descriptions. Not everyone will fit the descriptions all the time. In fact we have elements of all four temperaments within us that we can and do use. However, one temperament tends to be dominant just as we tend to have one hand that is dominant. It doesn’t mean that is the only hand we use. It just means that all things being equal our dominant hand is likely the one we will use first. So it is with temperaments. Our dominant temperament is the one we mainly use, but there are times when we use the other three as well. In a given day we are likely to be able to identify times when we have used all four temperaments. In fact part of our uniqueness comes from how the four temperaments combine in our personalities.
Our temperament determines our behaviour, and our behaviour is the instrument for getting us what we have to have. It is a hunger that must be fed daily. Artisans hunger for the freedom to obey their inner impulses. Guardians hunger for status, knowing where they belong in the grand scheme of life. Rationals hunger for knowledge, for with knowledge comes power over their world. Idealists hunger for meaning and understanding of what life is all about.

When determining your temperament you are given descriptions of the four temperaments and you choose the one you feel is most like you. Another way to determine your temperament is to go through these temperament descriptions using a highlighter and mark all the sentences that describe your behaviour generally. You will also find that at certain times in your life you seem to be in a specific temperament phase. You may find you want to just take off and let go of your responsibilities and be an Artisan for a while. At other times you may want to settle down and take care of business and be in your Guardian phase.Sometimes your curiosity gets the better of you and you go into a Rational phase. You can spend enormous amounts of time researching a topic and finding out all you can about it. There will be times when the potential of people seems so important. You want to help them be all that they can be and this triggers you into your Idealist phase.

Temperament is separate from intellectual ability. Each temperament will have the full range of intelligences from the developmentally handicapped to the genius. Overall, no one temperament is more intelligent than any other.

We are much too complex to fit neatly into four pigeon holes. But having some general concepts help us understand ourselves and others better. It is useful to know what your dominant temperament is. You can better understand your strengths and biases. For example, knowing that you like everything to be very orderly, can help you be a little more tolerant of those who are messy. You may realize that their temperament is not too concerned about always having things arranged neatly all the time. Now you have a choice. Instead of seeing them as having a major character flaw that needs some serious modification, you can either be more charitable towards them and accept them as they are, or you can remind them that you would prefer if they picked up after themselves. Sometimes they may be quite agreeable to do just that if it makes you happy. The important thing is to appreciate the differences in each other.

You have permission to copy this handout as long as you acknowledge the author. You can pull it into a word processing program and reformat it if you prefer.

To help you determine your temperament go to the Temperament Colour Rating Quiz.

Jack Falt is a trained facilitator in the use of Personality Dimensions®, True Colors®, MBTI® and Self-Discovery Process®. He leads an ongoing Appreciating Differences group that studies personality types including the Enneagram and Emotional Intelligence in the Ottawa area. You may reach him at (613) 256-3276 or by e-mail at jfalt#trytel.com. (To use the e-mail address, replace the # with an @ symbol. This will help reduce the amount of spam mail received.) He has further information on his web site at http://www.appreciatingdifferences.ca /.

Return to Home Page

List of Articles by Jack Falt