Statistical Disclaimer

This disclaimer is intended to accompany each of the posts about the Temperament Theory patterns, and includes the various copyright notices required.

Temperament Theory is a scientific model constructed at a statistical level: the model is based upon observations made across a wide population of case studies, and collects the common elements in these observations to form its four patterns.

When dealing with statistical science, it is important to remember that reasoning in the general does not allow us to make firm statements about the specific. For instance, most university students drink alcohol, but knowing that this is a statistically valid observation does not allow me to know whether an individual university student drinks alcohol – they might be teetotal for religious or for health reasons, or they might not like alcohol. 

When using Temperament Theory to assess one’s own personality, or the personality of someone you know, the model is no longer being used in a directly scientific context. Instead, it is being used as part of a subjective process of discovery. A parallel can be made with psychiatry in the sense of using scientific models to guide a process of discovery, except in the latter case a greater emphasis is being made on the attempt at objectivity. One seldom has an objective perspective on one’s own life.

Perhaps the most useful way to think about the terms of Temperament Theory is simply as an addition of four adjectives to the language you use when talking about behaviour. ‘Rational’, ‘Idealist’, ‘Artisan’ and ‘Guardian’ are adjectives describing patterns of emotional response. In much the same way that you can apply a subjective adjective such as ‘blue’ to a colour you see, you can apply a subjective adjective such as ‘Rational’ to a person’s behaviour. 

Copyright Notices

The following copyright notices apply to all Temperament articles on this blog:

All quotes marked [K] are taken from Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey (Prometheus Nemesis Book Company 1998, ISBN 1-885705-02-6).

All quotes marked [B] are taken from Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to Temperament 2.0 by Linda V. Berens (Telos Publications 2000, ISBN 0-9664624-4-0).

All references to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test or MBTI should be understood as references to trademarks of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust, owned by Consulting Psychologists Press.

In all cases, the use of copyrighted material or trademarked terms in this post does not represent a challenge to the intellectual property rights of the respective owners.