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Watching
human behavior and trying to
understand the basis of personality can be traced at
least as far back as 460 B.C. It is interesting to
note that the discernment of four groupings is a
common theme
that connects many of the most predominant
personality theories. One of the most widely known
philosophers in history, Hippocrates, observed that
people in general seemed to have one of four humors,
or approaches to life: Phlegmatic, Choleric,
Melancholic, or Sanguine. In the 1920s, noted
psychologist Carl Jung offered his findings from
years of observation and research. He noted that
people displayed “functions” that also fell into one
of four areas: Feeling, Thinking, Sensation, or
Intuition.
Katherine
Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Myers, studied the
research of Jung, and in the 1950s expanded his work
to include sixteen personality types. They developed
the famous
Myers/Briggs Type Indicator, which is
used extensively in business, education, and
counseling for personal as well as professional
growth.
David Keirsey, based on his continued research in
the field of psychology, returned to classifying
personality and temperament into four types:
Apollonian, Promethean, Epimethean, and Dionysian.
In 1967, David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates published
Please Understand Me,
which has become another cornerstone in personality
typing.
An
educator named
Don Lowry studied under Keirsey and
immediately saw the potential for temperament theory
to be applied in schools, business, and for everyday
individuals to gain a deeper understanding of
themselves. His genius was to assign each
temperament an easy to remember color (Blue, Green,
Gold, and Orange), simplified much of the
complicated psychological language, and introduced
the concept of a persons Color Spectrum – that we
each have all of the temperaments within us, yet
each person has a unique color order including how
intensely each color “shines”.
Don called
this system “True Colors”, and it quickly became
popular as it
is easy to learn, remember, and immediately
applicable. International personality expert Mary
Miscisin quickly realized that the concepts of True
Colors could be expanded and further developed, so
she approached Don. Mary and Don quickly became
friends and Don asked her to write the foundational book “Showing Our
True Colors.” The rest, as they say, is history! The
book is now being published in six
languages and bringing the magic of True Colors
worldwide. Mary has gone on to develop numerous
games, activities, and advanced applications of
Color Styles while teaching the world the value of knowing
each others “Color Lingo”
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