Personality and behavior assessments aren’t just popular with personal development junkies. Assessments like Myers Briggs, DISC, and StrengthsFinder have also gained prominence in the workplace.
They are often used as tools to aid in hiring and in training communication and sales skills.
These assessments can be effective tools to aid our understanding of ourselves and others — when used correctly. The problem is that the approach to these assessments has been oversimplified.
As I wrote previously, most people take these assessments to figure out what “type” they are. But that misses the point: these assessments categorize personality traits into archetypes, and you have all archetypes within you.
Read: What Everyone Gets Wrong About Personality Assessments
The archetypes within you that are most dominant are the result of conditioning, socialization, nervous system state, environmental factors, and more.
Here are a three psychological frameworks and concepts that support the thesis that personality is fluid, contextual, and that we contain multiple “selves” or archetypes.
3 Supporting Frameworks for Understanding Personality as Fluid and Contextual
1. Internal Family Systems (IFS)
Core Concept:
IFS, developed by Richard Schwartz, argues that the mind is naturally multiple—it is composed of numerous, semi-independent “parts.” These parts are not pathologies, but rather sub-personalities that have different feelings, needs, and viewpoints.
How IFS Influences Views of “Personality”
The IFS view is that we are not one “type” but rather a collection of parts. For example:
- Exiles: our vulnerable, hidden parts, also known as shadow
- Managers: protective, day-to-day controlling parts
- Firefighters: reactive, crisis-response parts
- A Core Self: the true, calm, compassionate leader
Which part dominates at any moment is dependent on the environmental triggers we experience.
The work of IFS is to understand the roles of these different parts, and what circumstances triggers them to appear.
2. Role Theory (Sociology/Social Psychology)
Core Concept
Role Theory is a concept from Sociology and Social Psychology that posits that our behavior is guided by the social roles we occupy.
Each role is a set of rights, duties, expectations, norms, and behaviors that a person has to face and fulfill.
How Role Theory Influences Views of “Personality”
The crux of Role Theory is that context dictates behavior. In your life, you play many roles, and you likely move among different social settings.
Your behavior while leading a board meeting will be vastly different from your behavior while hanging out with your friends at the gym, and different from how you act around your kids, even though you’re the same person.
You likely even use different dialect of language in each setting.
The environment (context) and the expected role associated with it determine which set of behaviors (or what you call the “archetypal behavior”) you exhibit.
3. State-Dependent Learning and Memory (Neuroscience)
Core Concept:
The concept of State-Dependent Learning and Memory suggests that what you learn, remember, and how you behave is easier to recall and exhibit when you are in the same physical or psychological state (e.g., emotional state, level of alertness) as when the information was encoded or the behavior was learned.
How State-Dependent Learning Influences Views of “Personality”
This theory supports the view that our behaviors are strongly influenced by our nervous system state.
For example, a person who acts as a highly disciplined “Conscientious” type while calm and regulated may become highly impulsive and disorganized when stressed or dysregulated.
A person who is normally decisive and prone to healthy risk-taking may become paralyzed and risk-avoidant when under extreme duress.
The change in nervous system state causes a change in behavior.
The “type” or trait isn’t fixed; it is state-dependent. The change in context, whether internal or external, changes the expression of the trait.
Why This Matters
Personality and behavior assessments can give us a good indication of our default, or habitual, patterns. But if we’re going to use them as a tool to improve self-understanding, communication, and other skills, in the workplace or outside of it, we need to move beyond looking at “types” as static aspects of a person.
People can and do change — not just “over time,” but across different contexts.
Understanding how you show up in different context and when you are more prone to different types of behavior can help you set the conditions you need to show up at your best in every situation — whether it’s an interaction with your kids, a social gathering, or an important sales call.
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