Page 54 - DMGT519_Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Conflict Management and Negotiation Skills

Notes 1. our flow of energy
2. how we take in information
3. how we prefer to make decisions

4. the basic day-to-day lifestyle that we prefer
Within each of these categories, we “prefer” to be either:

1. Extraverted or Introverted
2. Sensing or Intuitive
3. Thinking or Feeling

4. Judging or Perceiving
We all naturally use one mode of operation within each category more easily and more frequently
than we use the other mode of operation. So, we are said to “prefer” one function over the other.
The combination of our four “preferences” defines our personality type. Although everybody
functions across the entire spectrum of the preferences, each individual has a natural preference
which leans in one direction or the other within the four categories.
Our Flow of Energy defines how we receive the essential part of our stimulation. Do we receive
it from within ourselves (Introverted) or from external sources (Extraverted)? Is our dominant
function focused externally or internally?

The topic of how we Take in Information deals with our preferred method of taking in and
absorbing information. Do we trust our five senses (Sensing) to take in information, or do we
rely on our instincts (intuitive)?
The third type of preference, how we prefer to Make Decisions, refers to whether we are prone
to decide things based on logic and objective consideration (Thinking), or based on our personal,
subjective value systems (Feeling).

These first three preferences were the basis of Jung’s theory of Personalty Types. Isabel Briggs
Myers developed the theory of the fourth preference, which is concerned with how we deal with
the external world on a Day-to-day Basis. Are we organized and purposeful, and more
comfortable with scheduled, structured environments (Judging), or are we flexible and diverse,
and more comfortable with open, casual environments (Perceiving)? From a theoretical
perspective, we know that if our highest Extraverted function is a Decision Making function, we
prefer Judging. If our highest Extraverted function is an Information Gathering function, we
prefer Perceiving.

3.4 Personality Types Today

The theory of Personality Types, as it stand today, contends that:

 An individual is either primarily Extraverted or Introverted
 An individual is either primarily Sensing or iNtuitive
 An individual is either primarily Thinking or Feeling

 An individual is either primarily Judging or Perceiving
The possible combinations of the basic preferences form 16 different Personality Types. This
does not mean that all (or even most) individuals will fall strictly into one category or another.

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