How does personality type differ from temperament or True Colors?
Temperament was popularized by David Keirsey when he wrote the best-seller “Please Understand Me.” He states that “we must abandon Jung’s idea of ‘functions’.” By doing so, he distances himself from Jung’s approach and at its core, there is very little overlap between type and temperament. However, in the practical application, there is much overlap because Keirsey goes on to say, “But in giving up Jung”s ‘functions’ we must not abandon his behavior descriptions, for they have great predictive value.” This creates an interesting hybrid because Keirsey accepts four basic temperaments which just happen to relate to four groups of four personality factors. For example, one of the temperaments, the Epimethean, which is almost always known by the easier-to-remember “type” name of SJ, has no basis in type theory. In other words, you can’t use type theory to derive an SJ personality cluster, like you can, for example, as ST or SF cluster. The SJ cluster fits one of the four classic temperment
