Putting people in little boxes

Tags: personality types, categories, phrenology, boxes, groups, classification, people

I am a sceptic about tests that attempt to classify people as an "Introverted intuitive Thinking Perceiving" personality or "Visual Learners"

I think that these are fun toys, but shouldn't be taken too seriously.

What's wrong with them? These tests pigeonhole unique individuals into a small number of categories. They do not acknowledge that any healthy person has a full range of senses and mental abilities with which they can engage the world. They convince people to pidgeonhole themselves and always act that way rather than stretching out and trying more of thier abilities.

I have yet to see solid evidence that these classifications mean anything, or that they are stable over time (rather than reflecting the person's current mood).

The ancestor of these approaches, the "Left brain vs. Right brain" idea which is basically codswallop.

I guess that people like simple explanations, and so fall for increasingly plausible iterations of phrenology.

The latest versions (personality types, learning styles) may have some relevance in describing the way that a person is acting at a given time, but it seems an awfully reductionist and limiting description of a whole person, with little proven validity.

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