The community based on the iPersonic personality test.
Religion and Personality Types
Some weeks ago I started a discussion named "Does your country have a cultural type?" It was about a theory that different cultures could be assigned to different personality types. Sometime later Patrice started the discussion "What will happen after death?" This has been the most popular discussion so far with more than 100 replies.
This latter discussion was also interesting because it showed that Thinkers and Idealists do obviously have different views of the world. You may call it "different beliefs". So I thought to myself: is there a relation between personality types and personal beliefs?
Well, of course: our cultural background influences heavily on what we select as a personal belief or a religion. In a catholic country such as Spain you will find all personality types among the population. But is there a certain tendency for individuals to move in a specific direction?
Interestingly enough Brent Massey, the author of the cultural types book has also been thinking about that matter. He states the following tendencies (I "translated" his persopnality types into iPersonic:
Hum, I don't think it's that easy ;-)
As you might know, our iPersonic circle is divided into "practical" types (Doers, Realists are in the north of the circle) and theoretical types (Idealists and Thinkers on the south). I find it hard to make a statement of the personal beliefs of the practical personality types. I would assume that since Doers and Realists are strongly connected in their "practical world" they would tend to inherit the beliefs of their corresponding society.
It seems to be different with Thinkers and Idealists. Both of them challenge the world they live in. Both seem to search for the key to understand what surrounds them. But their approaches seem to be different.
Thinkers want to rationally understand the entirety of life. There seems to be no space where something metaphysical could fit in this view. I would say that Thinkers tend to be atheists or agnostics.
Idealists want to "feel" what's it all about. They use intuition to understand the world. I think that this can best be described by the feeling of "Everything is One" during meditation. So I would say that Idealists tend to (pantheistic) Monism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. And, well, to many things esoteric. ;-)
Is there a possible connection between the Thinker approach and the way Idealists "belief"? Hmm, I am an Analytical Thinker with a good dash of Dreamy Idealism and I would say: it's Zen.
And you?
This latter discussion was also interesting because it showed that Thinkers and Idealists do obviously have different views of the world. You may call it "different beliefs". So I thought to myself: is there a relation between personality types and personal beliefs?
Well, of course: our cultural background influences heavily on what we select as a personal belief or a religion. In a catholic country such as Spain you will find all personality types among the population. But is there a certain tendency for individuals to move in a specific direction?
Interestingly enough Brent Massey, the author of the cultural types book has also been thinking about that matter. He states the following tendencies (I "translated" his persopnality types into iPersonic:
- Catholic, Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist personality types are: Dreamy Idealists, Spontaneous Idealists, Sensible Doers and Laid-back Doers
- Protestant, Confiucianist, Mahayana Buddhist and Thaoist personality types are: all Realist types
- Hindu personality types are: Dreamy Idealist and Spontaneous Idealist
- Islamic personality types are: Laid-back Doer, Energetic Doer, Spontaneous Idealist and Innovative Thinker
Hum, I don't think it's that easy ;-)
As you might know, our iPersonic circle is divided into "practical" types (Doers, Realists are in the north of the circle) and theoretical types (Idealists and Thinkers on the south). I find it hard to make a statement of the personal beliefs of the practical personality types. I would assume that since Doers and Realists are strongly connected in their "practical world" they would tend to inherit the beliefs of their corresponding society.
It seems to be different with Thinkers and Idealists. Both of them challenge the world they live in. Both seem to search for the key to understand what surrounds them. But their approaches seem to be different.
Thinkers want to rationally understand the entirety of life. There seems to be no space where something metaphysical could fit in this view. I would say that Thinkers tend to be atheists or agnostics.
Idealists want to "feel" what's it all about. They use intuition to understand the world. I think that this can best be described by the feeling of "Everything is One" during meditation. So I would say that Idealists tend to (pantheistic) Monism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism. And, well, to many things esoteric. ;-)
Is there a possible connection between the Thinker approach and the way Idealists "belief"? Hmm, I am an Analytical Thinker with a good dash of Dreamy Idealism and I would say: it's Zen.
And you?
Tags: buddhism, catholic, hindu, islam, protestant, religion
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Yova on -
I don't see Individualistic Doers in that list, so it applies to me as long as I'm an atheist ID ;)
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Permalink Reply by mia on -
i am DI/AT, but i prefer Taoist more than Zen.
i always have problem to believe in "Gods""Master"or "enlightment", and dont u think atheists give us modern society much more freedom and more open mind?
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Permalink Reply by Marcel Heyne on -
Well, as you know Zen is more like a philosophy than a religion. Well, you cannot explain it in words. I have also always be looking to find a way that fit's me in a way that it doesn't carry the load of metaphysics. Maybe I would be a Taoist if I was born in China like you ...
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Permalink Reply by Vilia on -
@Marcel
"Thinkers want to rationally understand the entirety of life. There seems to be no space where something metaphysical could fit in this view. I would say that Thinkers tend to be atheists or agnostics."
Agree. :P
Btw, what's the different between zen and taoism? Sorry, not really familiar with these two..
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Permalink Reply by Gem Brenlaewyn on -
Interestingly, I'm an analytical thinker and a 'believer,' a Reformed Christian. I hold firmly to the belief system I do because of this very fact, I'm an analytical thinker. Over the years, time and energy have been invested in analyzing the whats and whys of various competing non-religious and religious doctrines/philosophies. My belief system is the direct result of this analytical investment.
I'm enjoying this thread, even though my contribution isn't very timely.
Thank you Marcel.
Gem
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Permalink Reply by Atanua on -
Interesting thoughts^^
Im mostly a DI, and a bit of AT, but still an agnostic. The only other category I'd fit in is maybe naturalistic pantheism, but that's more a point of view than a religion.
Maybe we could start a poll for every type, so we could see which religions/ philosophy are most common amongst each type?
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Permalink Reply by margie on -
Hmmm.. I'm a laid-back doer (with a hint of individualistic doer and groundbreaking thinker), and I could say that I'm not religious at all, but rather spiritual.
I am definitely agnostic, yes, but I have high interest in taoism/buddhism/zen philosophy.
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Permalink Reply by kova on -
Hmm, ID and DR with Protestant, Confiucianist, Mahayana Buddhist and Thaoist. I don't know if I can buy that. Maybe my mixing with ED has made me agnostic. I would think the realists would be more associated with agnosticism and atheisticism than anything else. Could be that the realists analyze and find peace in several different types of religions.
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Permalink Reply by noerisa on -
I came from muslim religion,but i found i more spiritual than religious.As an EI type i think i match with budhism. Good toughts Marcel !
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Permalink Reply by Linkyo on -
I'm diagnosed as Dreamy Idealist, and I'm a Christian. I think, your thought is interesting, although I don't buy it that a certain religion has a certain personality as its major follower....
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Permalink Reply by Hap on -
I notice that Judaism is missing...
Reform Judaism goes by "Study the religion, and if it makes sense, keep it, and if it doesn't, don't." This seems like it could work for a Thinker. As in, as a Thinker, I'm not a very religions person; I find the rituals pointless but do find some sense in some of the teachings of the religion and do consider myself a Reform Jew.
With Judaism, I'd say as a religion it's very intuitive (Idealist and Thinker) but as a culture it's very practical-based, probably Realist. Before science and religion were separated as it is in modern society, Thinkers probably ran abound, trying to figure everything out. Culturally, knowledge came through organized religion, so that was the best source to find books and things. Once science and the Church had separated, most of the Thinkers likely ended up on the side of 'science'.
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Permalink Reply by Felicitas Heyne on -
Makes a lot of sense to me when I think of all the knowledge that was stored in monasteries for many, many centuries! Must have been a treasure trove for all Thinkers of those ages.
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