Amara wrote:
>However, don't you think that there is a tendency for particular
>personality types to be attractive to particular kinds of work,
>or to have particular interests?
Yes, although the work might not be the exclusive interest or the most important interest, just the one a person can latch onto to survive or get someplace else. And, it might be a childhood dream or an imposed purpose that later in life a person realizes is not their true self and not be financially able to branch out of. Sometimes too, a person might take on work that will help him develop and exercise new traits.
My barometer says that “type” labeling can be misleading because people tend to mature at different rates. We grow out of one skin and become another skin. A person who is certain type may not have a broad base of life experience, thus remain in a click of what is “assumed” to be that type. Another person may have an assortment of experiences that directly affect his view of the world causing him to grow new interests and responses. While he may still be the original type, he may apply his newly developed awareness and skills outside that domain. I don’t think there is a given formula for people’s behavior and professions.
Droll use of personality types is illustrated by H.L. Mencken in his chrestomathy where he labels and characterizes a person by his professional type and makes it the person’s raison detre, and not in a becoming way. I think that his insights are a wee bit true, as much as a person might not want to admit it, but his scrutiny is also overbroad and lazy. This reflects what many people do when they think of a person and what he does in life and then jumps to conclusions about the person’s personality profile.
While these tests are certainly helpful in understanding people, they can be limiting. By and large, people tend to amaze us by an aspect of their character that we didn’t pick up on at first, or what we think was lying dormant. We are too complex of creatures to be categorized into types. (Maybe I’m totally wrong, but this is how I think.) I bet if each person told me what type he is, someone else could tell him why he is not in that group. Even the doppelganger can change form -:)
Natasha Vita-More
http://www.natasha.cc
http://www.extropic-art.com
http://www.transhuman.org
"I'd rather be inebriated on a classic life than a classic 1996 Merlot."
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