A BRIEF HISTORY OF BEHAVIOURAL PROFILING

Beginning with Ezekile (590BC), in the Old Testament, we can see one of the first recorded references to four personality types. (see the table below)

Empedocles (444 BC), the founder of the school of medicine in Sicily, thought that everything was made of four "roots" or elements. The four elements, earth, air, fire, and water can be combined in an infinite number of ways, similar to the way painters create many colours with only four pigments.

The Greek philosopher, Hippocrates (400 BC), said behaviour is not the result of external factors. It is something that takes place inside of you, naturally. It's the fluids that run through your body. According to Hippocrates, if you have cold fast fluid you will be a very direct, dominant and decisive leader (A Driver). If you have fast warm or hot fluid, so hot and so fast that it might bubble out of your mouth, you would be the kind of person who talks all the time (A Promoter). Or maybe you have fluid that is warm and slow. In this case you would be family oriented, stable and relational (A Supporter). Or maybe you have slow, cold fluid. It would make you a thinker, meticulous, a perfectionist who wants exact details (an Analyser). Hippocrates named these different personality styles choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholy.

Hippocrates' theory was expanded upon at the turn of the 20th century by a number of behavioural scientists. Carl Gustav Jung (1921), a Swiss psychologist, was one of the most influential modern behavioural theorists. In 1921 he published "Psychological Types" which described four psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Jung also classified these four types further by calling them either "introverted" or "extroverted."

The development of psychometric tests as we know them was primarily due to the work of American psychologists Dr. William Moulton Marston and Katherine Briggs. Marston was an expert in behavioural understanding. Interestingly, he was also the inventor of the polygraph (lie detector). In 1926 he published "The Emotions of Normal People" in which he outlined the current language. Until that time, this type of work was confined to criminally insane and mentally ill people. He grouped people along two axes: either active or passive tendencies dependent upon their either antagonistic or favourable view of the environment. From this, the four styles were formed: Dominance (D), Inducement (1), Steadiness (S), and Compliance (C), which today are known as DISC.

Katherine Briggs (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) began her studies on individual behavioural differences in 1915. Between 1923 and 1941 she and her daughter Isobel studied Carl Jung’s theories. In 1941 in order to meet a need derived from the advent of World War II, she matched skills, desires and career opportunities and developed a type indicator to describe characteristics as they relate to individual preferences.

Over the years various people have described our four styles in different ways. Some have described Drivers as being Aspirers, Promoters as being Inspirers, Supporters as Admirers and Analysers as Enquirers.

Some of you will know the Driver as the Choleric and the Promoter as the Sanguine and the Supporter as Phlegmatic and the Analyser as Melancholy. These terms originated with the Greek physician Galen 192-200AD and are widely know through Florence Littauer’s book “Personality Plus”.

Origin
Ezekiel 590BC	Lion  (bold)	Man (Humane)	Ox (Sturdy)	Eagle  (Far seeing)
Plato 340BC	Artistic	Intuitive	Sensible	Reasoning
Hippocrates 370	Cold  Fast Blood	Hot  Fast Blood	Warm Slow Blood	Cold  Slow Blood
Aristotle 325BC	Sensual	Ethical	Material	Logical
Irenaeuas 185	Spontaneous	Spiritual	Historical	Scholarly
Galen 190	Choleric	Sanguine	Phlegmatic	Melancholic
Paracelsus 1550	Changeable	Inspired	Industrious	Curious
Adickes 1905	Innovative	Doctrinaire	Traditional	Sceptical
Marston 1946	Dominance	Inducement	Steadiness	Compliance
Myers Briggs	Perceiving	Feeling	Judging	Thinking
Jung	Artisans	Idealists	Guardians	Rationales
Evans	Aspirers	Inspirers	Admirers	Enquirers
DISC	Dominance	Influence	Steadiness	Conscientiousness
Wilson	Driver	Expressive	Amiable	Analytical
Hartman - Colours	Red	Yellow	Blue	White
Myprofile	Drivers	Promoters	Supporters	Administrators
Mychild	Adventurers	Socialisers	Helpers	Thinkers
MyCareerMatch MyNetworkSuccess	Drivers	Promoters	Supporters	Analysers