''Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types'' (first published in 1978 as ''Please Understand Me: An Essay on Temperament Styles'') is a

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

book written by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates which focuses on the classification and categorization of

personality Personality is the characteristic sets of behaviors, cognitions, and emotional patterns that are formed from biological and environmental factors, and which change over time. While there is no generally agreed-upon definition of personality, m ...

types. The book contains a self-assessed personality questionnaire, known as the

Keirsey Temperament Sorter The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves and others. It was first introduced in the book '' Please Understand Me''. It is one of the most widely used pers ...

, which links human behavioral patterns to four temperament types and sixteen character types. Once the reader's personality type has been ascertained, there are detailed profiles which describe the characteristics of that type. Based upon the notion that people's values differ fundamentally from one another, Keirsey drew upon the views of several psychologists or psychiatrists:

Ernst Kretschmer Ernst Kretschmer (8 October 18888 February 1964) was a German psychiatrist who researched the human constitution and established a typology. Life Kretschmer was born in Wüstenrot near Heilbronn. He attended Cannstatt Gymnasium, one of the o ...

, Erich Adickes,

Alfred Adler Alfred Adler ( , ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, family constellation and birth orde ...

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, phi ...

, and

Isabel Myers Isabel Briggs Myers (born Isabel Briggs; October 18, 1897 – May 5, 1980) was an American writer and co-creator with her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, of a personality inventory known as the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and based on ...

who are all mentioned as predecessors in the psychology of temperament or personality. Of these methods, preference is given to the Myers–Briggs test when determining personality type.

Sixteen personality types

Keirsey and Bates offer a personality inventory to help readers identify their type. They are taken from the Myers–Briggs Personality Inventory. The sets of indicated preferences create sixteen types: * E or I (Extraversion vs. Introversion) * N or S (INtuition vs. Sensation) * T or F (Thinking vs. Feeling) * J or P (Judging vs. Perceiving) An appendix offers a concise profile description for each of the sixteen types.

Four temperament types

Then Keirsey simplifies these sixteen types into four groups, whose archetypes he equates with the classical four temperaments: SP (Artisan), SJ (Guardian), NT (Rational), and NF (Idealist). *SP (ISTP, ISFP, ESTP, ESFP): Called the Dionysian or Artisan temperament *SJ (ISTJ, ISFJ, ESTJ, ESFJ): Called the Epimethean or

Guardian temperament The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves and others. It was first introduced in the book '' Please Understand Me''. It is one of the most widely used pers ...

*NT (INTJ, ENTP, INTP, ENTJ): Called the Promethean or

Rational temperament The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves and others. It was first introduced in the book ''Please Understand Me''. It is one of the most widely used perso ...

*NF (INFJ, ENFP, INFP, ENFJ): Called the Apollonian or

Idealist temperament The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves and others. It was first introduced in the book ''Please Understand Me''. It is one of the most widely used perso ...

Keirsey organizes the groups asymmetrically, asserting Thinking vs. Feeling as the most salient distinction among intuitives, but Judging vs. Perceiving as the most salient distinction among Sensers. His methodology emphasizes the four temperaments, as he defines them, to generalize about different aptitudes and needs. ''Please Understand Me II'' (1998) is a sequel, whose methodology generalizes more so according to these four categories.

References

Bibliography * 1978 non-fiction books Books about introversion {{psych-book-stub