# Do you inherit your ennea-type from your parents?



## charlie.elliot (Jan 22, 2014)

I'm Type 5 (INFJ), my dad is Type 5 (INTP) and my mom is Type 9 (INFP). My sister is also Type 5 (INFJ) I think. My brother also have 5-ish qualities, which is extremely weird for him since he's ESTP. He dominant type is probably 8, but maybe his second type is 5 (he can disappear for months at a time, contacting nobody...). It seems like there is some inheritance going on... what do you guys think? What other factors from early childhood have affected your ennea-type? Siblings, environment, etc


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## Taika (Jan 15, 2014)

For sure, Enneagram type is not inherited directly. And your sample is extremely small to provide reliable conclusions anyway.

However, certain personality related qualities such as temperament traits are known to be at least partly inherited. These are biological tendencies forming the core for the developing personality.

Temperament traits include qualities such as activity level, adaptation ability, physiological sensitivity and whether you are more likely to approach or withdrawn when facing something new.

Considering qualities like those, it is easy to see connections to personality theories including Enneagram. 

I think it is obvious that at least we inherit potentials. Of course environmental factors are also significant determining personality but even then natural tendencies affect how.


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## Paradigm (Feb 16, 2010)

I don't think type is always inherited, no. Patterns can be in some families, but not in others. With tritypes, there's usually going to be some pattern or other, anyway.

Dad: 8w9-7w6-2w3, so/sp, ESTP
Mom: 6w7-9w1-2w1, sp/so, IxFx (ISFP?)
Sister: 7w6-1w2-3w4, soc, ESFP
Me: 6w7-1w9-4w5, sp/sx, INTJ



Taika said:


> Temperament traits include qualities such as activity level, adaptation ability, physiological sensitivity and whether you are more likely to approach or withdrawn when facing something new.


Have you seen this? http://enneasite.com/articles/the-temperaments/
I, personally, really like the idea of temperaments in this context. But I admit to enjoying needless complexity at times :tongue:


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

mom: 2w1>6w7>1w2 or 8w7 Sp/So
dad: 9w1>5w?>2w1 Sp/So
me: 7w6>1w9>4w3 Sx/Sp

conclusion: I doubt it :tongue:


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## Taika (Jan 15, 2014)

Swordsman of Mana said:


> mom: 2w1>6w7>1w2 or 8w7 Sp/So
> dad: 9w1>5w?>2w1 Sp/So
> me: 7w6>1w9>4w3 Sx/Sp
> 
> conclusion: I doubt it :tongue:


Well, you all belong to the positive triad and it is known that the general mood, more positive or more negative, is one of the biological temperament traits and thus at least partly inherited so there might be some association assuming you are accurately typed.


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

Taika said:


> Well, you all belong to the positive triad and it is known that the general mood, more positive or more negative, is one of the biological temperament traits and thus at least partly inherited so there might be some association assuming you are accurately typed.


ironically, none of us (including my brother, whom I believe is a 9w8) are particularly "positive". when I was younger, there was lots of arguing. now it's more under the surface anger/frustration. we probably look more like a reactive family :tongue:


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## Flatlander (Feb 25, 2012)

What you get from genetics is underlying tendencies, some more and some less strongly expressed. The more strongly expressed ones manifest as facets of your personality that are unlikely to change - look into twin studies where they were raised in different places but still turned out largely the same in many ways to see examples of this. The more weakly expressed ones are more open to change through environmental influence.

Now take into account that genetics and genetic expression are complicated and not all inheritance is directly within your mother and father's expressed traits - some phenomena skip generations.

So if an essential part of enneatype is found within the genetic code, then the relative likeness of people to their parents will differ between individual cases. I sit at a medium level, myself, where my expressed personality and intellect through cognition/enneagram (INTJ 5w4 528 sx/sp or sp/sx) is less like my mother's (I finally saw her core at 3 and type her now at ISxJ 3w2 316 sp/so) and more like my father's (INTP 5wp6 592 sx/so).


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## Quernus (Dec 8, 2011)

Pfft, I'm the only Four anywhere in my living family, except POSSIBLY my younger cousin (but he's too young to know for sure, and I also suspect Six or Nine). Also my late great-grandma was almost definitely a Four.

But there sure are a lot of Sixes and Twos in my family so maybe I'm more of an exception. I wonder if certain types are more likely to breed the same types, than other types are.


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## Figure (Jun 22, 2011)

I don't believe anyone directly inherits their full enneagram type from their parents, but the common addendum to that is that the frame in which your type develops is certainly influenced by surroundings. 

My mom is a 2w1, and my Dad is a 6w7, both Self Preservation. There was significant focus on financial independence and wellbeing in my childhood, and those have become part of my drive now, even though I'm not an Sp subtype. Even my Oneness is very much shaped by having grown up in a family where there was a lot of latent irritation all ways, behind the back criticism and accusation of others, and (most importantly) self-restraint from expressing many of these sentiments in an open way. I was dealing with adult issues at age 5 because I was used as a venting partner as early as that age, and had to learn to judge how to tell others (adults) to handle painful situations because of my environment. It would have been a lot different had my parents expected utter neatness, or another 1-ish kind of cue-in then. They didn't, so I never saw that as being important either, but they did expect me to clearly articulate what to do in a situation, so that's the frame of my type.

So essentially no inherited type, but definitely personalization of type through your parents and childhood environment.


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## Entropic (Jun 15, 2012)

Figure said:


> I don't believe anyone directly inherits their full enneagram type from their parents, but the common addendum to that is that the frame in which your type develops is certainly influenced by surroundings.
> 
> My mom is a 2w1, and my Dad is a 6w7, both Self Preservation. There was significant focus on financial independence and wellbeing in my childhood, and those have become part of my drive now, even though I'm not an Sp subtype. Even my Oneness is very much shaped by having grown up in a family where there was a lot of latent irritation all ways, behind the back criticism and accusation of others, and (most importantly) self-restraint from expressing many of these sentiments in an open way. I was dealing with adult issues at age 5 because I was used as a venting partner as early as that age, and had to learn how to judge how to handle painful situations because of my environment. It would have been a lot different had my parents expected utter neatness, or another 1-ish kind of cue-in then. They didn't, so I never saw that as being important either. Rational decision making - utterly different story, its the frame of my type.
> 
> So essentially no inherited type, but definitely personalization of type through your parents and childhood environment.


I second this. My type is definitely shaped as a result of my environment, caused by existential trauma I experienced from a very early age. I think if type must be inherited as a part of genetics, then it is more as a latent property with the possibility of developing one way or another rather than as a pure form of tabula rasa, at which point the environment still cannot be ignored, as it must thus serve as the trigger as to why this development pattern over another development pattern.


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## Arya (Oct 17, 2012)

spectralsparrow said:


> Pfft, I'm the only Four anywhere in my living family, except POSSIBLY my younger cousin (but he's too young to know for sure, and I also suspect Six or Nine). Also my late great-grandma was almost definitely a Four.
> 
> But there sure are a lot of Sixes and Twos in my family so maybe I'm more of an exception. I wonder if certain types are more likely to breed the same types, than other types are.


sixes and twos are just really common types period.


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## d e c a d e n t (Apr 21, 2013)

Arya said:


> sixes and twos are just really common types period.


Hmm, I'm not sure I know many twos actually.


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## Arya (Oct 17, 2012)

Nonsense said:


> Hmm, I'm not sure I know many twos actually.


well I don't think they are as common as sixes for sure. All of the ones I can think are women, whereas I can think of both male and female sixes I know.


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## enneathusiast (Dec 15, 2012)

> Do you inherit you ennea-type from your parents?


I think you develop a certain sensitivity to your parent's ennea-types, but how may kids wanted to be like their parents? I know I didn't.

You may even introject a little of your parent's ennea-types as well. There are times when my parent's voice will pop into my head in regard to a situation. Condon calls these your parental types - according to him it's another influence similar to the wing types and connecting types indicated by the lines.


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## Vanguard (Dec 22, 2009)

Nope.


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## SunClef (May 7, 2013)

In my family we are all Introverted, but I'm the only Feeler.


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## The Scorched Earth (May 17, 2010)

I'm the only 4 in my family. It's the only explanation for why I feel such a gulf between my relatives.


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## Dragheart Luard (May 13, 2013)

The only common points that I've noticed at the moment with my mother's type is that we are superego types and probably so second, I'm 1w9 sx/so and she's probably a 6w7 sp/so, but I have no clue about her gut and heart fixes, so maybe there can be more things in common, while I don't even bother to take my father into account as I barely know him.


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## Paradigm (Feb 16, 2010)

The Scorched Earth said:


> I'm the only 4 in my family. It's the only explanation for why I feel such a gulf between my relatives.


With due respect, 4s don't hold the monopoly on having a "gulf" between people or being super different :tongue: Saying it's the _only_ explanation is a bit overkill.


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## TwistedMuses (May 20, 2013)

The name of thread makes me wanna crawl into a corner and cry...


I am the only one person who's a 3w4/4w3 in a way. I am way more assertive and goal oriented than most of men or women in both my dad's and mum's sides,. Most of them seem like 2 or 6 at best.


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