What's Your Personality STYLE?

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I'm not talking about the MBTI, which most real psychologists reject, but rather personality styles, which are non-disordered versions of the personality disorders (or said better, personality disorders are more extreme and dysfunctional variants of personality styles). Usually, people have one dominant personality style and sometimes one or two supporting styles. Anyway here are the personality styles with brief descriptions:

• Suspicious: They innately distrust the intentions of others and see respect as something that must be earned. They prefer to come off as cool and objective and vocal in defense of their rights. They enjoy conspiracy theories.
• Eccentric: They tend to be into New Age stuff, astrology, and alternative religion. They tend to feel a mystical spiritual presence in their life. They may feel they can commune with spirits or aliens or report visions. Their dress and manner tends to be unusual.
• Detached: They are thoroughly emotionally and socially detached. They have little use for friendships or sexual relations and are not motivated by society's rewards. They are often scientists or underachievers. Many have an active imagination.
• Rebellious: They have contempt for rules and authority and prefer to act on their momentary impulses. They tend to have "street smarts" and are good at handling and influencing people. They take care of their own needs first.
• Fickle: They tend to experience the extremes of emotion in all its flavors. Their relationships are very important to them. Their decision making is strongly influenced by how they feel at the moment. They tend to be a bit conflicted.
• Social: These people tend to be hypersocial and extraverted. They are highly emotionally demonstrative and very open about themselves. They like making others feel good and value attention and approval.
• Self-aggrandizing: They are highly self-confident and often play up their talents, achievements, and abilities. They crave fame and the esteem of others and try to outcompete others to prove they deserve it. They are not very concerned with other people's needs, especially if they feel they are beneath them.
• Sulking: They are staunchly independent minded but, at the same time, superficially compliant. They enjoy complaining and will withhold themselves for no other reason than to ensure they don't put out more than they get back. They have an irritable temperament and so are prone to be annoyed and upset with something or other much of the time.
• Domineering: These people are not afraid to be openly contentious or even aggressive. They can be opinionated and dogmatic. They must always be in the dominant position and cannot bear to be made to be seen as weak or supplicant. They will push themselves physically or mentally to prove their mettle to themselves.
• Cheerful: They are highly energetic and optimistic if impulsive. They require little sleep.
• Shy: They tend to be anxious and given to worry. They are very apprehensive about whether others will like them and are easily embarrassed. They are very sensitive and have an appreciation for harmonious music and soft, soothing art.
• Self-belittling: They tend to downplay their abilities and talents and so see themselves as in need of another to take care of them. They tend to be highly loyal.
• Perfectionistic: These people believe that, if something is to be done, it ought to be done right. They are unswerving in their view of morality and hold others to account of it. They preoccupy themselves with details and lists.
• Sad: They tend to have a low self-esteem and are frequently melancholy and pessimistic about their opportunities. They tend to need a lot of sleep.
• Martyr: They tend to give much of themselves without being asked but then use this to instill guilt in others later.

(Derived from Millon's personality taxonomy)

I think the one that most describes my personality is "self-belittling".

Then please vote.

I'm a mixture of things. I could probably be best described as shy/perfectionistic.

Many of these words are negative and point more to coping mechanisms than a person's true personality

But for me it would be:

- Social
- Detached
- Self-Belittling
- Cheerful

I've voted, rebellious.

Detached
Cheerful
Shy
Perfectionistic

Predominantly Detached, except I need sexual relationships.
Also Eccentric to a large extent.

The detached personality style is almost mutually exclusive with the social and cheerful personality styles. (The detached style is by definition socially detached and emotionally neutral.)

No, it isnt. You can still have a cheerful temperament and be detached from things. And it is possible to want people around you but lack theory of mind and have lower empathy so that you dont understand them but yet still want to be with them. It is also possible to want friends, yet not care what they think and not want to conform to what they are doing.This is the strange world of The Edge Of The Spectrum.

When I choose the Detached option I am talking about lack of empathy and a sort of daydreamyness. I am not detached in a schizoid-like way though, I am very emotional and need a certain amount of social contact.

Last edited by zen_mistress on 26 May 2008, 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Fickle
Shy
Self-Belittling
Sad

Just because it's based on personality disorders doesn't make it scientific. I have little bits of traits described here and there but none of the categories jump out at me as being me in some way. I've bolded the parts that seem to apply particularly to my life (or to my life large chunks of the time anyway, given that nothing's an absolute).

# Suspicious: They innately distrust the intentions of others and see respect as something that must be earned. They prefer to come off as cool and objective and vocal in defense of their rights. They enjoy conspiracy theories.
# Eccentric: They tend to be into New Age stuff, astrology, and alternative religion. They tend to feel a mystical spiritual presence in their life. They may feel they can commune with spirits or aliens or report visions. Their dress and manner tends to be unusual.
# Detached: They are thoroughly emotionally and socially detached. They have little use for friendships or sexual relations and are not motivated by society's rewards. They are often scientists or underachievers. Many have an active imagination.
# Rebellious: They have contempt for rules and authority and prefer to act on their momentary impulses. They tend to have "street smarts" and are good at handling and influencing people. They take care of their own needs first.
# Fickle: They tend to experience the extremes of emotion in all its flavors. Their relationships are very important to them. Their decision making is strongly influenced by how they feel at the moment. They tend to be a bit conflicted.
# Social: These people tend to be hypersocial and extraverted. They are highly emotionally demonstrative and very open about themselves. They like making others feel good and value attention and approval.
# Self-aggrandizing: They are highly self-confident and often play up their talents, achievements, and abilities. They crave fame and the esteem of others and try to outcompete others to prove they deserve it. They are not very concerned with other people's needs, especially if they feel they are beneath them.
# Sulking: They are staunchly independent minded but, at the same time, superficially compliant. They enjoy complaining and will withhold themselves for no other reason than to ensure they don't put out more than they get back. They have an irritable temperament and so are prone to be annoyed and upset with something or other much of the time.
# Domineering: These people are not afraid to be openly contentious or even aggressive. They can be opinionated and dogmatic. They must always be in the dominant position and cannot bear to be made to be seen as weak or supplicant. They will push themselves physically or mentally to prove their mettle to themselves.
# Cheerful: They are highly energetic and optimistic if impulsive. They require little sleep.
# Shy: They tend to be anxious and given to worry. They are very apprehensive about whether others will like them and are easily embarrassed. They are very sensitive and have an appreciation for harmonious music and soft, soothing art.
# Self-belittling: They tend to downplay their abilities and talents and so see themselves as in need of another to take care of them. They tend to be highly loyal.
# Perfectionistic: These people believe that, if something is to be done, it ought to be done right. They are unswerving in their view of morality and hold others to account of it. They preoccupy themselves with details and lists.
# Sad: They tend to have a low self-esteem and are frequently melancholy and pessimistic about their opportunities. They tend to need a lot of sleep.
# Martyr: They tend to give much of themselves without being asked but then use this to instill guilt in others later.

I really doubt this is any more scientific than the MBTI.

I will do the same thing...

Suspicious: They innately distrust the intentions of others and see respect as something that must be earned. They prefer to come off as cool and objective and vocal in defense of their rights. They enjoy conspiracy theories.

Eccentric: They tend to be into New Age stuff, astrology, and alternative religion. They tend to feel a mystical spiritual presence in their life. They may feel they can commune with spirits or aliens or report visions. Their dress and manner tends to be unusual.

Detached: They are thoroughly emotionally and socially detached. They have little use for friendships or sexual relations and are not motivated by society's rewards. They are often scientists or underachievers. Many have an active imagination.

Rebellious: They have contempt for rules and authority and prefer to act on their momentary impulses. They tend to have "street smarts" and are good at handling and influencing people. They take care of their own needs first.

Fickle: They tend to experience the extremes of emotion in all its flavors. Their relationships are very important to them. Their decision making is strongly influenced by how they feel at the moment. They tend to be a bit conflicted.

Social: These people tend to be hypersocial and extraverted. They are highly emotionally demonstrative and very open about themselves. They like making others feel good and value attention and approval.

Self-aggrandizing: They are highly self-confident and often play up their talents, achievements, and abilities. They crave fame and the esteem of others and try to outcompete others to prove they deserve it. They are not very concerned with other people's needs, especially if they feel they are beneath them.

Sulking: They are staunchly independent minded but, at the same time, superficially compliant. They enjoy complaining and will withhold themselves for no other reason than to ensure they don't put out more than they get back. They have an irritable temperament and so are prone to be annoyed and upset with something or other much of the time.

Domineering: These people are not afraid to be openly contentious or even aggressive. They can be opinionated and dogmatic. They must always be in the dominant position and cannot bear to be made to be seen as weak or supplicant. They will push themselves physically or mentally to prove their mettle to themselves.

Cheerful: They are highly energetic and optimistic if impulsive. They require little sleep.

Shy: They tend to be anxious and given to worry. They are very apprehensive about whether others will like them and are easily embarrassed. They are very sensitive and have an appreciation for harmonious music and soft, soothing art.

Self-belittling: They tend to downplay their abilities and talents and so see themselves as in need of another to take care of them. They tend to be highly loyal.

Perfectionistic: These people believe that, if something is to be done, it ought to be done right. They are unswerving in their view of morality and hold others to account of it. They preoccupy themselves with details and lists.

Sad: They tend to have a low self-esteem and are frequently melancholy and pessimistic about their opportunities. They tend to need a lot of sleep.

Martyr: They tend to give much of themselves without being asked but then use this to instill guilt in others later.


Interesting: I just realised that I fit the "fickle" one more than anything.

Then perhaps I failed to explain the detached personality style (along with the social and cheerful personality styles) clearly enough. The detached personality style blends into schizoid personality disorder at the extreme, and it is primarily an issue of temperament. The schizoid is temperamentally nearly incapable of experiencing much pleasure (called anhedonia) or much emotion, either positive or negative, (called flat affect). Being socially detached because of trauma or theory-of-mind deficits is another matter.

The social personality style blends into histrionic personality disorder and reflects a drive to perform socially. These people are generally pleasers, but they can also be demanding and erratic (given their outgoing, impulsive nature). They tend to have shallow, exaggerated emotions and a materialistic mindset.

The cheerful personality style relates to what is called hyperthymic temperament and is essentially a continuous hypomanic mood episode. It is thought to have some relationship to the bipolar mood spectrum disorders.

The only one that is a constant for me is "detached".

I would also say that "rebellious", "sulking", "cheerful","shy","perfectionistic", and "sad" can all be applied to me at certain times.

I have features of: detached, shy, self-belittling and (dare I say it,) sulking. BUT I do not enjoy complaining, and I'm not easily embarrassed.