Two-factor models of personality

Choleric type (Strong excitatory): strong, unbalanced, easily aroused (excitable);

The two-factor model of personality is a widely used

psychological factor analysis measurement of personality,
behavior and temperament. It most often consists of a
matrix measuring the factor of introversion and extroversion with some form of people versus task orientation.

Sanguine type (Lively): strong, balanced, mobile;

Phlegmatic type (Calm imperturbable): strong, balanced, sluggish.
This theory would also be extended to humans.

Beginnings

Alfred Adler (18791937) measured activity (connected with energy) against social interest, yielding
The Roman physician Galen mapped the four tempera- the four styles of life":[3]
ments (sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic)
to a matrix of hot/cold and dry/wet, taken from the four
Ruling or Dominant type: high activity, low social
classical elements.[1] Two of these temperaments, saninterest
guine and choleric, shared a common trait: quickness
Getting or Leaning type: low activity, high social
of response (corresponding to heat), while the melaninterest
cholic and phlegmatic shared the opposite, a longer response (coldness). The melancholic and choleric, how Avoiding type: low activity, low social interest
ever, shared a sustained response (dryness), and the san Socially Useful type: high activity, high social interguine and phlegmatic shared a short-lived response (wetest
ness). This meant that the choleric and melancholic
both would tend to hang on to emotions like anger, and
thus appear more serious and critical than the fun-loving These he compared to the choleric, phlegmatic, melan[4]
sanguine, and the peaceful phlegmatic. However, the cholic and sanguine respectively.
choleric would be characterized by quick expressions of Erich Fromm's (19001980) factors were acquiring and
anger (like the sanguine, with the dierence being that assimilating things (assimilation), and reacting to peothe sanguine cools o); while the melancholic would ple (socialization). These two factors form four types of
build up anger slowly, silently, before exploding. Also, character, which he calls Receptive, Exploitative, Hoardthe melancholic and sanguine would be sort of oppo- ing and Marketing.
sites, as the choleric and phlegmatic, since they have opAlso deserving mention is a single scale invented in the
posite traits.[2]
1940s by Karen Horney (18851952). This one dimenThese are the basis of the two factors that would dene sion measured movement towards, against and away
temperament in the modern theory.
from people. This would result in the coping strategies,
in which these three neurotic patterns would be paired
with a fourth, healthy one called movement with people. These would describe behaviors associated with
2 Development
both extroversion and reacting to people, in which people
attempt to avoid getting hurt, by either distancing themIn the last few centuries, various psychologists would be- selves from others or maintaining self-suciency and ingin expressing the four temperaments in terms of pairs dependence on one hand; or approaching others, attemptof behaviors that were held in common by two tempera- ing to control or exploit them, and otherwise gain power
ments each.
and recognition; or give in to them to gain acceptance
Ivan Pavlov (18491936), from his work with dogs, came and approval, on the other.
up with the factors of passivity (active or passive) and
extremeness (extreme response or moderate response).
2.1
His view of the temperaments in dogs was:

Factors integrated into modern instruments

The Melancholic type (Weak inhibitory): catego- As the twentieth century progressed, numerous other inrized as weak dogs;
struments were devised measuring not only temperament,
1

but also various individual aspects of personality and behavior, and several began using forms of extroversion and
the developing category of people versus task focus as the
factors.
In 1928, William Moulton Marston identied four primary emotions, each with an initial feeling tone of either
pleasantness or unpleasantness. This led to his viewing
peoples behavior along two axes, with their attention being either passive or active, depending on the individuals perception of his or her environment as either favorable or antagonistic. By placing the axes at right
angles, four quadrants form with each describing a behavioral pattern:

DEVELOPMENT

introduced in 1964. This matrix graded, from 0-9, the

factors of Concern for Production (X-axis) and Concern for People (Y-axis), allowing a moderate range of
scores, which yielded ve leadership styles":
Impoverished (low X, Y)
Produce or Perish (high X low Y)
Country Club (low X high Y)
Team (high X and Y)
Middle of the Road (moderate X, Y)

The Thomas Kilmann Conict Mode Instrument (TKI)

used a version of this with Assertiveness and Cooper Dominance, which produces activity in an antagoativeness as the two factors, also leading to a fth mode:
nistic environment; with a feeling of unpleasantness
until stimulus is acted upon
Competing, (assertive, uncooperative)
Compliance, which produces passivity in an antagonistic environment; with a feeling of unpleasantness
until stimulus is reconciled

Avoiding (unassertive, uncooperative)

Inducement, which produces activity in a favorable

environment; with a feeling of pleasantness increasing as interaction increases

Collaborating (assertive, cooperative)

Accommodating (unassertive, cooperative)

Compromising (intermediate assertiveness and cooperativeness).

Submission, which produces passivity in a favorable

FIRO-B would call the two dimensions Expressed Behavenvironment; with a feeling of pleasantness increasior and Wanted Behavior, and use three separate matrices
ing as yielding increases
for the respective areas of Inclusion (social skills) Control (leadership and responsibility-taking) and Aection
This would be further developed in the 1970s by John G. (deep personal relationships). In 1977, locator charts
Geier[5] into the DiSC assessment System, which grades were produced for each area by Dr. Leo Ryan, providindividual scales of Dominance, Inuence, Steadi- ing a map of the various scores, following the Manageness, and Conscientiousness. By now, it would be clas- rial Grid model, with unocial names assigned to diersied in terms of the two factors; consisting of pairs of ent score ranges. They were generally grouped into ve
Extroverted or Assertive aspects (D, I), Introverted or main types for each area, in the vein of the Managerial
Passive aspects (S, C), Task-oriented or Controlled Grid and TKI, except that moderate scores (generally 4,
aspects (D, C) and social or Open aspects (I, S).
5) in only one dimension (with the other dimension beThe California Psychological Inventory's CPI 260 Instru- ing high or low) were given separate names, creating nine
ment also has similar scales, of Initiates action, Con- basic groups for each area (low e/w, low e/high w, low
dent in social situations versus Focuses on inner life, e/moderate w, etc.). In the control area, there is a tenth
Values own privacy"; and Rule-favoring, Likes stability, group created by a further division of the low e/high w
Agrees with others versus Rule-questioning, Has per- range.
sonal value system, Often disagrees with others and the This would form the basis of the Five Temperaments thefour lifestyles": Leader, Supporter, Innovator, and Vi- ory by Dr. Richard G. and Phyllis Arno, in which the ansualizer.
cient temperaments were mapped to the FIRO-B scales

2.2

Two-Factors expanded to measure

more than four types

Galen also had intermediate scales for "balance" between

the hot/cold and wet/dry poles, yielding a total of nine
temperaments. Four were the original humors, and ve
were balanced in one or both scales.[6][7][8]
Another addition to the two factor models was the creation of a 10 by 10 square grid developed by Robert R.
Blake and Jane Mouton in their Managerial Grid Model

(in all three areas), with Phlegmatic becoming the moderate e/w instead of low e/high w, which was now taken to
constitute a fth temperament called Supine, which has
many of the introverted and relationship oriented traits
of the other types dened as such, above. (The Wanted
behavior scale is generally renamed Responsive behavior). The moderate scores mixed with high or low are
designated Phlegmatic blends and divided with 4 being a blend of Phlegmatic with the lower adjacent temperament, and 5 being a blend with the higher adjacent
temperament. This results in 13 separate ranges in each
area.

Other Factor pairs

proportion between gay and sad. The Schizoids consist

of the Hyperesthetic (sensitive) and Anesthetic (Cold)
Other factors devised along the way measured other as- characters, and the Cycloids consist of the Depressive (or
pects of personality, mostly cognitive aspects. This would melancholic) and Hypomanic characters.
form a second strain of temperament theory, one which David W. Keirsey would make the connection of the two
enjoys the most popularity today.
groups with Myers Sensors and iNtuitors, providing the
[10]
He would reImmanuel Kant (17241804) dened his typology by a two factors for his four temperaments.
name
Sensing
to
Observant
or
Concrete,
and Intuitduality of the beautiful and sublime, and concluded it was
ing
to
Introspection
or
Abstract,
and
pair
it
with Copossible to represent the four temperaments with a square
operative
versus
Pragmatic
(or
Utilitarian)
which
of opposition using the presence or absence of the two
would
be
the
Conscientiousness
scale;
to
form:
attributes. He determined that the phlegmatic type has no
interest in either the beautiful or the sublime, so there was
an absence of both (sb). The melancholic had a feeling for
both (SB), and the sanguine had a predominating feeling
for the beautiful (sB), while the choleric, he determined
after comparing with the melancholic, lacked a sense of
beauty and had only a sense of the sublime (Sb).[9]
Hans Eysenck (19161997) was one of the rst psychologists to analyze personality dierences using a psychostatistical method (factor analysis), and his research led
him to believe that temperament is biologically based.
In his book Dimensions of Personality (1947) he paired
Extraversion (E), which was the tendency to enjoy positive events, especially social ones, with Neuroticism (N),
which was the tendency to experience negative emotions.
By pairing the two dimensions, Eysenck noted how the
results were similar to the four ancient temperaments.

SP Artisan (Concrete, Pragmatic)

SJ Guardian (Concrete, Cooperative)
NT Rational (Abstract, Pragmatic)
NF Idealist (Abstract, Cooperative)
Keirsey also divided his temperaments by RoleInformative"/"Role Directive to form eight intelligence
types"; and nally by E/I, to yield the 16 types of the
MBTI. It was when his former student, Berens, paired the
latter two factors separately that she yielded here Interaction Styles, discussed above. Keirsey also divided the
intelligence types by I/E into roles of interaction.[11]

The Enneagram of Personality would map its nine types

to a matrix, whose scales are Surface Direction and
Deep Direction. These are similar to Extroversion and
High N, Low E = Melancholy (also called Melanpeople/task-orientation, but instead of the types being
cholic)
plotted on a scale of 0-9, Horneys original three grades of
towards, away, and against were retained, and now
Low N, High E = Sanguine
used in both dimensions (graded respectively, as "+", 0
Low N, Low E = Phlegmatic
and "-"). This changes the criteria, as the moderate (0)
grade is considered away, but this does not necessarily
He later added a third dimension, psychoticism, resulting correspond to the moderate extroversion or agreeableness
in his P-E-N three factor model of personality. This scores of the other instruments.
has been correlated with two separate factors developed
by the Big Five personality traits (Five Factor Model),
called "agreeableness" and "conscientiousness"; the for- 4 Table of theories and instrumer being similar to the people/task orientation scale
ments using extroversion and
elaborated above. Neuroticism in Eysencks case acted
like the people/task-orientation scale (except for being inpeople-task-orientation
verted as to which temperaments were high or low),
but was later separated as a distinct factor in the Big Five.
High N, High E = Choleric

Carl Jung, in the early 20th century, introduced the four 5

factors that would become a part of the later MBTI,
and these included extroversion/introversion, sensing and 5.1
intuition, and thinking/feeling, which would be correlated to Agreeableness, with Judging-Perceiving roughly
5.2
as Conscientiousness.
Ernst Kretschmer (18881964) divided personality into
two constitutional groups": Schizothymic, which contain a Psychaesthetic proportion between sensitive and
cold poles, and Cyclothymic which contain a Diathetic

Systems using other factors

Factors of perception
Enneagram

6 See also
California Psychological Inventory

References

[1] Boeree, George. Early Medicine and Physiology. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
[2] Chiappelli, Francesco; Prolo, Paolo; Cajulis, Olivia S.
Evidence-based Research in Complementary and Alternative Medicine I: History. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2 (4): 453458.
doi:10.1093/ecam/neh106. PMC 1297495. PMID
16322801.
[3] Alfred Adler. Eastern Illinois University. Archived
from the original on April 30, 2006.
[4] Boeree, George. Alfred Adler. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
[5] Specic Action Corporations Most Frequently Asked
Questions on DiSC Proles. Specic Action Corporation. Archived from the original on January 6, 2007.
[6] Kagan, Jerome (1998), Galens Prophecy: Temperament
In Human Nature, New York: Basic Books, ISBN 0-46508405-2
[7] Inherent Temperament. Greek Medicine.net. Retrieved
May 8, 2013.
[8] Partridge, T (2003). Temperament: Developmental and
ecological dimensions. In: Miller, J. R.; Lerner, R. M.;
Schiamberg, L. B. (eds.). Human Ecology: An Encyclopedia of Children, Families, Communities, and Environments. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio. pp. 678-682.
[9] Psychological Types. The Proceedings of the Friesian
School, Fourth Series. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
[10] Arraj, James (1990). Chapter 10: Type and Psychopathology. Tracking the Elusive Human, Vol. 2.
ISBN 0-914073-36-2.
[11] Keirsey, David (2008). Brains and Careers: The Story of
Personology. Intj Books. ISBN 9781885705211.
[12] Lutz, Peter L. (2002). The Rise of Experimental Biology: An Illustrated History. Humana Press. p. 60. ISBN
0896038351. OCLC 47894348.
[13] LaHaye, Tim (2012). Uses of Temperament in the
Workplace. Why You Act the Way You Do. Tyndale
House Publishers, Inc. ISBN 9781414375755.
[14] Not recognized as separate temperament from Sanguine. (Cited in Arno Temperament Theory manual p.
165.; NCCA, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994).
[15] Conict-Management Style (PDF). The Leadership
Center At Washington State University. Retrieved May
8, 2013.
[16] Thomas, Kenneth W.; Kilman, Ralph H. (March 19,
2001). Thomas-Kilmann Conict Mode Instrument:
Prole and Interpretive Report (PDF). Consulting Psychologists Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on
December 4, 2003.

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