# Keirsey's Temperaments vs. Socionics



## paradox_conqueror (Jun 19, 2021)

I have been trying to equate David Keirsey's temperaments from "Please Understand Me" with the socionics IMs. Here is what I came up with:

*1. Keirsey NT Rationals = Socionics Gamma, especially Gamma NTs.*

- The NTs display an element of competitiveness, seriousness, rationality and competence that I think fits NTs but more likely Gamma NTs. ENTJ descriptions read like 'Napoleon' - i.e., ESFp.


*2. Keirsey NF Idealists = Socionics Delta NFs*

- It seems hard to fit the NFs into any other slot in socionics. They clearly value intuition and feeling. They do not seem Beta at all. Therefore, Delta NF seems to be the best fit.


*3. Keirsey SP Artisans = Socionics Betas*

- I think the STP types like Clint Eastwood (ISTP) fit best with Beta ST, while XSFPs fit nicely into the Beta NF category.


*4. Keirsey SJ Guardians = Socionics Delta STs*

- An emphasis on things like attention-to-detail, business, and accounting work, matches well with Delta STs. Emphasis on traditions and things from the past fits nicely with Fi Super-Id.


Anything else?


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## Functianalyst (Jul 23, 2009)

Like any psychological type system, trying to correlate different systems is generally futile and frankly dilutes one system to fit another. This is exactly what occurs with Keirsey's temperament theory because personalities are fluid and cannot be fit perfectly into a category when using generalities. In fact Keirsey's theory is unsuccessful in attempting to correlate his theory with MBT as well since in her book 'Gifts Differing", Isabella Myers used ST, NT, SF and NF temperaments, whereas PUM II uses SP, NT, SJ and NF.

One should be able to see a notable misalignment in Keirsey's failed justification by attempting to explain his SP category. He attempts to correlate ESP types with ISP types by explaining they all use Se. That makes absolutely no sense since Se is the auxiliary function for ISP types. His theory is inconsistent in comparing his findings to the other categories where he uses perceiving and judging functions for the NF and NT categories, and just simply lumps all SJs together by saying they use sensing along with a judging function, giving no consideration that T/F are different. 

With that said, Dr. Linda V. Berens and Dario Nardi at least made an attempt to correlate the temperament system by referring to core values. You may want to review their work, where they compare/contrast Keirsey. You can find the *SJGuardian type here*, the *SP-Improviser*, the *NT-Theorist* and the *NF-Catalyst*. Yet as you are finding out even using Socionics, trying to place four completely different types into one category is itself difficult. At best one may be able to compare by looking at core values of varied types that correlate.


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## DOGSOUP (Jan 29, 2016)

paradox_conqueror said:


> *1. Keirsey NT Rationals = Socionics Gamma, especially Gamma NTs.*
> 
> - The NTs display an element of competitiveness, seriousness, rationality and competence that I think fits NTs but more likely Gamma NTs. ENTJ descriptions read like 'Napoleon' - i.e., ESFp.
> 
> ...


Agree.


> *3. Keirsey SP Artisans = Socionics Betas*
> 
> - I think the STP types like Clint Eastwood (ISTP) fit best with Beta ST, while XSFPs fit nicely into the Beta NF category.


I actually think SEI and SLI would fit into this category pretty nicely, no? SLI is more likely to be hands-on than LSI I'd think. And they happen to be ISp types.



> *4. Keirsey SJ Guardians = Socionics Delta STs*
> 
> - An emphasis on things like attention-to-detail, business, and accounting work, matches well with Delta STs. Emphasis on traditions and things from the past fits nicely with Fi Super-Id.


For this, possibly ESI and LSI too. ISj types lol.


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