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Roddy
New Member
Panama
48 Posts |
 Posted - 08/15/2006 : 05:54:57
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Anyone ever seen this page? http://www.enneagraminstitute.com ?
According to Enneagram Theory, there are nine different types of personalities out there. Some are ruled by emotions, others by logic, a few by ambition, etc, etc. Enneagram Theory attempts to find an order in these personalities. For example, a test I took indicates that I am a 4 in the Enneagram, meaning I am an individualist personality. A few tests indicate I have a 5 wing, meaning I have traces of personality 5, which is the Investigative Personality (supposedly Agent Mulder's personality, from the X-Files).
This page describes my 4 (Individualist) personality to the last detail, and it's eerie. I felt like the page was tapping into my brain. The thing, there're books about the Enneagram, and how to use it for spiritual healing, and even being closer to God. This could be another scientology church in the making. It may work up to a point, but it may all be an illusion.
The only scientific explanation I can find for this lies in the fact that personality genes may be responsible for how we behave, and Enneagram Theory may have delved into some of the personalities our gene give us.
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 06:50:00 [Permalink]
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Hmmm. Interesting, though some of the questions remind me of the MBTI in that some questions link traits that don't seem to be to be natural pairs. At one point, the sample asks if I "have been appreciated for my 'quiet strength and exceptional generosity.'" But what it people like me for my quiet strength despite the fact that I'm not all that generous?
In the sample, I came up with a tie between 3 and 5 (7 each) with 4 and 9 right behind (6 each). Pretty broad, though perhaps others got less vague answers. |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 06:53:53 [Permalink]
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The site seemed sort of obvious to me.
I would hope that the test would fit you to a tee.
It looks like if you answer a question with "I am fun loving and spontaneous" and you will find that your personality type is fun loving and spontaneous.
The test did not seem very impressive.... |
If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 10:12:19 [Permalink]
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| It doesn't seem too far removed from fortune telling and astrology. They break down personality types into subcategories to refine the details but people can be much more subtle and complicated than this. The astrology-like part is in these details where they focus in and get more rigid. Their system appears to then lead to predictions that are more like commands, i.e. "you are" this or that under this or that circumstance. |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 17:02:19 [Permalink]
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Heh, what they said.
Apparently, I'm a type 5 - investigator. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Roddy
New Member
Panama
48 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 17:34:13 [Permalink]
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I was born on July 16th, so I am a Cancer. The book Zodiac Signs by Linda Goodman describes Cancers, and many of the things she said are accurate, but others are not. Soon I realized the things she said about Scorpios, Sagitarians, Capricornians could also apply to me. She said things like Cancers love their mothers. Cancers want to get married. Cancers like art. Cancers like admiration. Of course that will apply to me. In fact they'll apply to anyone.
I know some girl who is a Saggitarius. And Sagitarians are supposed to be tough people with strong egos, and this girl couldn't be more insecure and more introverted because nature doens't make them any worse. Astrology is nonsense. The only scientific explanation for it would be that some personality genes are more prevalent in certains months, and that'd be pulling scientific mumbo jumbo out of a hat to make astrology a fact.
As for Enneagram Theory, I think it originates from pure psychology. Some people are twisting personality theories and turning them into religious philosophy, just like L Ron Hubbard stole ideas from psychoanalysis and used them to create Scientology.
The test I took made it clear I am a four, nothing else. But some people take the test and come out being half 4, half 7. I noticed that there isn't much difference between a 4 and a 7. Your personality will always fit one of the 9 personalities in Enneagram Theory. And if it doesn't, well, you can always be a 4 with a 5 wing, or a 4 with a 3 wing, or a 7 with an 8 wing, and so on. Or you could be a negative personality, or a positive, enlightened personality.
There's no room for failure because there's always an excuse. |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 18:47:04 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Roddy
I was born on July 16th, so I am a Cancer. The book Zodiac Signs by Linda Goodman describes Cancers, and many of the things she said are accurate, but others are not. Soon I realized the things she said about Scorpios, Sagitarians, Capricornians could also apply to me. She said things like Cancers love their mothers. Cancers want to get married. Cancers like art. Cancers like admiration. Of course that will apply to me. In fact they'll apply to anyone.
I know some girl who is a Saggitarius. And Sagitarians are supposed to be tough people with strong egos, and this girl couldn't be more insecure and more introverted because nature doens't make them any worse. Astrology is nonsense. The only scientific explanation for it would be that some personality genes are more prevalent in certains months, and that'd be pulling scientific mumbo jumbo out of a hat to make astrology a fact.
As for Enneagram Theory, I think it originates from pure psychology. Some people are twisting personality theories and turning them into religious philosophy, just like L Ron Hubbard stole ideas from psychoanalysis and used them to create Scientology.
The test I took made it clear I am a four, nothing else. But some people take the test and come out being half 4, half 7. I noticed that there isn't much difference between a 4 and a 7. Your personality will always fit one of the 9 personalities in Enneagram Theory. And if it doesn't, well, you can always be a 4 with a 5 wing, or a 4 with a 3 wing, or a 7 with an 8 wing, and so on. Or you could be a negative personality, or a positive, enlightened personality.
There's no room for failure because there's always an excuse.
I'm a Virgo with a bad moon rising, which means I'm a nit-picky somma-a-biotch with an occasional bad attitude day. Gorgo may differ and say I have more than the occasional bad attitude day, but I may not see it. (That was a self effacing joke, Gorgo. Not a slam against you.)
Hubbard stole from whatever bat-shit crazy and metaphysical texts he could get his hands on for Scientology. When you started in about Engrams, or Enneagram theory, that's straight out of Scientology and early metaphysical texts.
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Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 19:56:53 [Permalink]
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| I'm type 2: The Helper, followed by type 5: The Investigator |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
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"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 20:28:48 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Roddy
...There's no room for failure because there's always an excuse.
That's what's wrong with it. It's not falsifiable; that is, it's always "safe" and therefore cannot make a prediction that would fall short, or be contradictory. All possible outcomes confirm a preexisting hypothesis of personality types, presented at the beginning. So the resulting data is anecdotal and only matches by coincidence. 
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tw101356
Skeptic Friend
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 20:44:39 [Permalink]
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I took the test and I found that none of the paragraphs were most like me. There was one paragraph for each question that was least like me, so I selected those two. I then got the following results:
One of these three types
is most probably your type
These types have a lower
probability of being your type 1, 4, 5, 6
These types have a low
probability of being your type 2, 3, 7, 8, 9
Type Null: The Skeptic.
The questioning, disbelieving, type. Nulls don't take things for granted and they don't accept things on faith. They upset the apple cart in order to point out that it has sofa legs instead of wheels. They believe politicians about as far as they can throw them. They typically have problems with the credulous. At their best: Masters of reading the fine print, they are good people to take along when negotiating a car purchase.
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- TW
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 08/15/2006 : 21:57:44 [Permalink]
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Roddy, how well does this match you?You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic. Now, go read this piece. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular
Canada
510 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2006 : 01:00:21 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
Roddy, how well does this match you?You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic. Now, go read this piece.
When I was in University there was a Psychology professor (a Dr Miekle if I remember correctly) at the University of Calgary who would give half of his class a sentence completion test and the other half a handwriting analysis test during the first lecture. At the next lecture he would hand each student the personality analysis that he generated from these tests, instructing the students not to look at anyone elses personality analysis.
He would ask the class how well his pesonality analysis applied and most students said they though it applied very well to them. He then invited them to compare their profiles with other students at which point the class discovered that all the profiles were identical. |
"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King
History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms
"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler
"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson |
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Roddy
New Member
Panama
48 Posts |
Posted - 08/16/2006 : 21:53:48 [Permalink]
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THAT'S ME, up to the last detail!
Have we ever met? :) |
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furshur
SFN Regular
USA
1536 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2006 : 07:41:55 [Permalink]
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Seems that astrologers never work up a chart for a client that says:
"You are an asshole, and will die alone, broke and unloved".
Just like cold readers never tell people that their dead relative wish you would not try contact them because they have always hated you...
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If I knew then what I know now then I would know more now than I know. |
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Cuneiformist
The Imperfectionist
USA
4955 Posts |
Posted - 08/17/2006 : 12:12:03 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by furshur
Seems that astrologers never work up a chart for a client that says:
"You are an asshole, and will die alone, broke and unloved".
Just like cold readers never tell people that their dead relative wish you would not try contact them because they have always hated you...
That's hilarious! Just once, I wish that guy-- the one who connects with the "other side" (I forget his name) would say that! |
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