Personality Learning Styles
People are
different in fundamental ways. But why
do different people think, feel, desire, and act so differently? Why is it
that, confronted with the same situation, one person will laugh, another cry,
and a third get angry? Our past
experiences strongly influence how we act today. But many psychologists believe that certain
basic behavior patterns are inborn. These inborn patterns, or psychological
types, influence the way we approach life and therefore govern our reactions to
various learning situations.
Four basic psychological types were
identified as far back as 450 B.C., but modern psychologists have divided each
of these into four more "subtypes" to create 16 different types of
people. Each type shares similar psychological
themes and values with other types--thus people of very different types can end
up in the same careers or lifestyles.
One
important fact must be stressed, however, and that is that no one personality type
is better or worse than any other. Each type
occurs at a different frequency in the general population; some types are
therefore more common. Each
psychological type has its own learning style, and knowing your style can not
only help you learn faster, but can also help you to clarify your interests and
motivating values.
Each
of the personality theories has a different approach to learning and is
consequently motivated by different factors.
Two popular personality learning style theories which
psychologists have developed models for are: