In the article Fictional Character Development and Personality the Myers Briggs Personality Tool was described as one way for developing characters traits and habits. This article is the first which outlines four of the sixteen profiles and gives some idea of how they may manifest themselves in terms of personality.
Characters – Leaders
This profile has the preferences for Extroversion, Intuition, Thinking and Judging resulting in the ENTJ profile. If the character has similar personality preferences they will be frank and decisive leaders, particularly action based. The like to develop systems which will solve problems and are very logical. They prefer to take a task based approach to achieving their goals and may appear impersonal and detached at times. Characters in this profile may be intolerant of others who don’t act like they do. They like to ‘take charge’ and very rarely take no for an answer. They are not afraid to speak up and are often good at public speaking.
Characters – Mentors
The ENFJ profile describes a character who prefers to make decisions using the Feeling approach. They make choices with great care and with high regard for other peoples feelings. They therefore have a great concern for what others think or want . Mentors are very sociable, popular characters who are sympathetic to others needs. They like helping others and are best when involved with other people. However they can find criticism and conflict difficult to handle and may try to avoid it. They can be quite organised and like to get things done but are tolerant of others,
Characters – Providers
This profile has preferences for Extroversion, Sensing, Feeling and Judging approaches. Characters with a ESFJ profile are warm hearted and popular with others. They are very conscientious and cooperative. They like harmony and are quite skilled at creating it. These characters are always doing something good for someone else. They have a very strong sense of duty and loyalty and pay a lot of attention to the needs of others.
Characters – Supervisors
These characters will prefer to use the Thinking approach to making choices. Their ESTJ profile means that they are very practical and realistic. They approach things in a very matter-of fact manner and do not relate to abstract ideas or theorising. They are good at organising and running activities and are good at paying attention to routine details. Characters with this profile like to get on with the job in hand and are not afraid of rolling their sleeves up.
These four profiles describe some of the ways in which characters with similar personalities might behave. Using the Myers Briggs indicator is just one way to add depth to characters. Other tools include the use of zodiac signs which will be covered in a later article.
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