PTypes - Personality Types
PTypes A Correspondence of Psychiatric, Keirsey, and Enneagram Typologies Sensitive Type

Idealist



Conscientious Personality Type

The Obsessive Compulsive Idealized Image


Conscientious Personality Type, Creative Commons Version



Idols

Compulsive attachment: achievement
Compulsive aversion: lack of achievement

more...

Idols of the Types



Strategy

Strategy: perfectionism

Goals tagged "ethical" on 43 Things


I now see Dr. Oldham's Conscientious Personality Style construct from a Christian perspective, whereby it represents an attempt to find our source of security in a strategy rather than a trust in God (Cooper); or, in Karen Horney's terms, it represents a search for glory.


Dr. John M. Oldham has defined the Conscientious personality style. The following eight characteristic traits and behaviors are listed in his The New Personality Self-Portrait.

  1. Hard work. The Conscientious person is dedicated to work, works very hard, and is capable of intense, single-minded effort.

  2. The right thing. To be Conscientious is to be a person of conscience. These are men and women of strong moral principles and values. Opinions and beliefs on any subject are rarely held lightly. Conscientious individuals want to do the right thing.

  3. The right way. Everything must be done "right," and the Conscientious person has a clear understanding of what that means, from the correct way to balance the checkbook, to the best strategy to achieve the boss's objectives, to how to fit every single dirty dish into the dishwasher.

  4. Perfectionism. The Conscientious person likes all tasks and projects to be complete to the final detail, without even minor flaws.

  5. Perseverance. They stick to their convictions and opinions. Opposition only serves to strengthen their dogged determination.

  6. Order and detail. Conscientious people like the appearance of orderliness and tidiness. They are good organizers, catalogers, and list makers. No detail is too small for Conscientious consideration.

  7. Prudence. Thrifty, careful, and cautious in all areas of their lives, Conscientious individuals do not give in to reckless abandon or wild excess.

  8. Accumulation. A "pack rat," the Conscientious person saves and collects things, reluctant to discard anything that has, formerly had, or someday may have value for him or her.



John M. Oldham and Lois B. Morris (1995). The New Personality Self-Portrait: Why You Think, Work, Love and Act the Way You Do. New York: Bantam.




Idealized Image

I did conceive of "character strengths and virtues" in a positive way as Martin Seligman does in his Positive Psychology, but I now see them as images of perfection that inflate the idealized self theorized by Karen Horney.



Character Strengths and Virtues (what the Obsessive-Compulsive type is proud of)


  1. Industry, diligence.
  2. Scrupulousness, conscientiousness, dutifulness, responsibility, idealism, highmindedness.
  3. Deliberateness, judiciousness, rationality, logicalness, sensibility.
  4. Having high standards; trying to be complete, perfect; radical, persistent, thorough, thoroughgoing.
  5. Perseverance, tenacity, steadiness, firmness.
  6. Orderliness, tidiness, cleanliness, meticulousness.
  7. Prudence, self-control, self-restraint, carefulness, cautiousness, discipline.
  8. Frugality, thriftiness, saving, conserving.


Most of these Character Strengths and Virtues were selected from a list of virtues compiled by Cawley, Martin, and Johnson in A Virtues Approach to Personality.



Top Strengths*


"Perspective [wisdom]: Being able to provide wise counsel to others; having ways of looking at the world that make sense to oneself and to other people"

"Persistence [perseverance, industriousness]: Finishing what one starts; persisting in a course of action in spite of obstacles; "getting it out the door"; taking pleasure in completing tasks"

"Integrity [authenticity, honesty]: Speaking the truth but more broadly presenting oneself in a genuine way and acting in a sincere way; being without pretense; taking responsibility for one's feelings and actions"

"Fairness: Treating all people the same according to notions of fairness and justice; not letting personal feelings bias decisions about others; giving everyone a fair chance"

"Citizenship [social responsibility, loyalty, teamwork]: working well as a member of a group or team; being loyal to the group; doing one's share"

"Prudence: Being careful about one's choices; not taking undue risks; not saying or doing things that might later be regretted

"Self-regulation [self-control]: regulating what one feels and does; being disciplined; controlling one's appetites and emotions"

"Spirituality [religiousness, faith, purpose]: Having coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe; knowing where one fits within the larger scheme; having beliefs about the meaning of life that shape conduct and provide comfort" (Peterson & Seligman, 29, 30).


* Selected from Christopher Peterson and Martin E. P. Seligman, (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford: Oxford UP.




Conscientiousness


1. Conscientious: "Governed by or accomplished according to conscience; scrupulous" (AHD)

"Conscience: 1. The faculty of recognizing the distinction between right and wrong in regard to one's own conduct. 2. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct" (AHD)

Synonyms: "scrupulous, honorable, honest, upright, just" (MW, 179)

"upright, honest, just, conscientious, scrupulous, honorable are comparable when they are applied to men or their acts and words and mean having or exhibiting a strict regard for what is morally right. Upright implies manifest rectitude and an uncompromising adherence to high moral principles ... Honest implies a recognition of and strict adherence to solid virtues (as truthfulness, candor, respect for others' possessions, sincerity, and fairness) ... It is more widely applicable than upright which often implies independence of spirit and self-mastery and which is therefore referable chiefly to thoughtful and highly disciplined men. Honest, on the other hand may be used in reference to the ignorant as well as the learned, and to the simple as well as the wise ... Just ... may stress conscious choice and regular practice of what is right or equitable ... Conscientious and scrupulous both imply an active moral sense which governs all one's actions. Conscientious stresses painstaking efforts to follow that guide at all costs, especially in one's observance of the moral law or in the performance of one's duty ... Scrupulous ... , on the other hand, implies either anxiety in obeying strictly the dictates of conscience or meticulous attention to the morality of the details of conduct as well as to the morality of one's ends ... Honorable ... implies the guidance of a high sense of honor or of a sense of what one should do in obedience not only to the dictates of conscience but to the demands made by social position or office, by the code of his profession, or by the esteem in which he is held ..." (849-50)

Analogous: "righteous, virtuous, ethical, moral, strict, rigid: particular, fastidious, finicky, nice: meticulous, punctilious, careful"

Antonyms: "unconscientious, unscrupulous"

Contrasted: "slack, lax, remiss, negligent, neglectful: careless, heedless, thoughtless" (179)


2. Conscientious: "Thorough and painstaking" (AHD)

Synonyms: "Careful, meticulous, scrupulous, punctilious, punctual"

"Careful, meticulous, scrupulous, [conscientious], punctilious, punctual are comparable in their basic sense of showing or revealing close attention to details or care in execution or performance. Careful implies great concern for the person or things in one's charge or for the way in which one's duties or tasks are performed. With regard to the former, the term implies solicitude or watchfulness ... and with regard to the latter, it usually implies painstaking efforts, thoroughness, cautiousness in avoiding errors, and a desire for perfection ... All of the other words mean exceedingly careful, but they vary in their implications of the motives which inspire such carefulness and, to a less extent, in regard to the objects of attention. Meticulous usually suggests timorousness lest one make the slightest error or fall short of a high standard; in addition, it implies extreme fussiness or fastidiousness in attention to details ... Scrupulous ... implies the promptings of conscience, not only of one's moral conscience but of one's sense of what is right and wrong (as in logic, or in aesthetics); it therefore also implies strict or painstaking adherence to what one knows to be true, correct, or exact ..." (MW, 126-27). "Conscientious and scrupulous agree in connoting a painstaking carefulness based on an ethical, logical, moral or other standard. [A conscientious researcher, through a highly developed regard for the truth, is careful to avoid error or omission; A scrupulous juror, out of a dedication to justice, is careful to weigh all the evidence and excludes all personal feelings.]" (H, 74). "Punctilious, on the other hand, implies knowledge of the fine points (as of law, etiquette, ceremony, or morality) and usually connotes excessive or obvious attention to the details or minutiae of these ... Punctual may occasionally come close to punctilious in its stress on attention to the fine points of a law or code, but in such use the term carries a much stronger implication than punctilious of emphasis on their observance and a weaker implication of concentration upon the minutiae ... More usually the term implies near perfection in one's adherence to appointed times for engagements or in following a schedule and then means punctiliously prompt ..."

Analogous: "cautious, circumspect, wary: provident, foresighted, prudent ... : accurate, precise, nice, exact ... : studied, deliberate"

Antonyms: "careless"

Contrasted: "heedless, thoughtless, inadvertent ... : neglectful, negligent, lax, slack, remiss" (MW, 127)


The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1981, c.1969). William Morris, Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Hayakawa, S. I. (1987, c1968). Choose the Right Word: A Modern Guide to Synonyms. New York: Perennial Library.

Merriam-Webster (1984). Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms: A Dictionary of Discriminated Synonyms with Antonyms and Analogous and Contrasted Words. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.



MY WEB 2.0 BETA conscientiousness

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Careers and Jobs for the Conscientious type

Google Answers: selecting the right career for me

Google Search: conscientious



This list represents careers and jobs people of the Conscientious type tend to enjoy doing.

entertainer
recruiter
artist
newscaster
writer/journalist
recreation director
librarian
facilitator
politician
psychologist
housing director
career counselor
sales trainer
travel agent
program designer
corporate/team trainer
child welfare worker
social worker (elderly
...services)
interpreter/translator
occupational therapist
executive: small business
alcohol/drug counselor
sales manager

Source: U.S. Department of Interior, Career Manager - ENFJ.



Noteworthy examples of the Conscientious personality type

Many people (and not just those of the Conscientious personality type) have Conscientious traits or behave in an Conscientious manner. But the traits and behaviors of the Conscientious personality type are not so inflexible and maladaptive or the cause of such significant subjective distress or functional impairment as to constitute

Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder.
The noteworthy examples of the Conscientious personality type are examples of a *type*, not of a disorder. It is my opinion that the ideal type which is described above is best characterized as Conscientious, and that the Conscientious personality type represents the pervasive and enduring pattern of the personalities of the people listed below better than any other type.

Famous persons on this list may serve as ego ideals, idealized images, and idols for individuals of the Conscientious type.

Noteworthy examples of the Conscientious personality type are: Index of noteworthy examples



Weblogs




  "Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy so far has been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir" - Friedrich Nietzsche.

I hypothesize that the personality theories of personality theorists best describe themselves and those of their own type.



Erich Fromm

From Hall and Lindzey's Theories of Personality:

The essential theme of all of Fromm's writings is that man feels lonely and isolated because he has become separated from nature and from other men. This condition of isolation is not found in any other species of animal; it is the distinctive human situation. The child, for example, gains freedom from the primary ties with his parents with the result that he feels isolated and helpless. The serf eventually secured his freedom only to find himself adrift in a predominantly alien world. As a serf, he belonged to someone and had an feeling of being related to the world and to other people, even though he was not free. In his book, Escape from freedom (1941), Fromm develops the thesis that as man has gained more freedom throughout the ages he has also felt more alone. Freedom then becomes a negative condition from which he tries to escape.

http://www.google.com/search?q=erich+fromm+escape+from+freedom&hl=en&start=0&sa=N

What is the answer to this dilemma? Man can either unite himself with other people in the spirit of love and shared work or he can find security by submitting to authority and conforming to society. In the one case, man uses his freedom to develop a better society; in the other, he acquires a new bondage. Escape from freedom was written under the shadow of the Nazi dictatorship and shows that this form of totalitarianism appealed to people because it offered them a new security. But as Fromm points out in subsequent books (1947, 1955, 1964) any form of society that man has fashioned, whether it be that of feudalism, capitalism, fascism, socialism, or communism, represents an attempt to resolve the basic contradiction of man. This contradiction consists of man being both a part of nature and separate from it, of being both an animal and a human being. As an animal he has certain physiological needs which must be satisfied. As a human being he possesses self-awareness, reason, and imagination. Experiences that are uniquely human are feelings of tenderness, love, and compassion; attitudes of interest, responsibility, identity, integrity, vulnerability, transcendence, and freedom; and values and norms (1968). The two aspects of man being both animal and human being constitute the basic conditions of man's existence. "The understanding of man's psyche must be based on the analysis of man's needs stemming from the conditions of his existence" (1955, p.25). (pp. 130-131)

Salvatore R. Maddi (1980, pg. 135) believes that Fromm is a "perfection theorist":

The similarities between Fromm's needs and Allport's propriate functions should not have escaped your attention. The need for transcendence is like propriate striving, the need for rootedness is like self-extension, the need for a personal identity is like self-identity and self-esteem, and the need for a frame of reference is like the rational coping out of which develops a philosophy of life. The similarities in content between the core characteristics in these two positions is one piece of evidence inclining me to the belief that Fromm's position is best considered a perfection rather than actualization theory. The human, according to Fromm, seems to be striving toward an ideal conceptualization of the perfect life, rather than merely expressing inherent capabilities in an unself-conscious fashion. To be sure, perfection is defined in terms of what it is in human nature to be. But for any given person this nature is not merely the sum total of particular strengths and weaknesses; the conceptualization of human nature is more universal than that. Fromm believes that it is within the person's power to achieve perfection, but the path is not simply that of expressing inherited strengths. The person must practice being a human in order to become good at it. This will frequently involve overcoming inherent weaknesses. This emphasis is clearly seen in Fromm's (1956) book, The Art of Loving, in which is described a set of exercises whereby one can practice loving, and with persistence, become capable in that regard. In contrast, actualization theorists are likely to believe that adequate loving and such obviously constructive things come quite naturally to the undefensive person. Fromm seems more a perfection theorist than anything else.
  • Erich Fromm: Shortcoming as a Therapist

    Fromm seems to have encouraged his patients to idealize him as a role model.

  • Erich Fromm - C. George Boeree.

    Hoarding is associated with the cold form of withdrawing family, and with destructiveness. I might add that there is a clear connection with perfectionism as well. Freud would call it the anal retentive type, Adler (to some extent) the avoiding type, and Horney (a little more clearly) the withdrawing type. In its pure form, it means you are stubborn, stingy, and unimaginative. If you are a milder version of hoarding, you might be steadfast, economical, and practical.
  • The Two Voices of Erich Fromm - Michael Maccoby.

    James described and contrasted three personality types. The "healthy minded" are those with a "harmonious" personality. They tend to be upbeat and adapted to society. James used the term "healthy" in a rather ironic way. The healthy minded avoid or repress unpleasant perceptions. They have little tolerance for the second type, the "morbid minded" who always see the downside of life. Acutely sensitive to painful realities, the morbid minded must struggle with depression and despair. A third type, which is closer to the morbid-minded, suffer from a "discordant" personality. They struggle with two selves, ideal and actual. Like Saint Augustine and other religious figures, they search restlessly for "the truth" until through self-analysis and religious discipline, they are reborn with "a new zest which adds itself like a gift to life, and takes the form either of lyrical enchantment or of appeal to earnestness and heroism." The result of being reborn is similar to Fromm's ideal.

    Fromm had this type of discordant personality; he told me that he continually struggled with irrational impulses. Like Augustine's wrestling with his sins and temptations, Fromm used analysis of both himself and his disciples to increase awareness of the split between ideal and actual selves, to experience regressive drives and to frustrate rather than repress them, while at the same time strengthening productive needs.



  • Literary encyclopedia: Erich Fromm
    The inherent messianic component of the Judaism he assimilated in his youth remained a cornerstone of his thought throughout his life, both in a spiritual sense (“the perfection of humanity”) and in its political application (“actual change in the real world, a new constitution for society”). This messianic faith shines out from his later writings on religion, myth and the social character.


  • www. E R I C H - F R O M M .de


Hall, Calvin S. and Gardner Lindzey. Theories of Personality, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1970.

Maddi, Salvatore R. Personality theories: a comparative analysis, 4th ed. Homewood IL: Dorsey, 1980.



George Bernard Shaw

  • About the Playwright: George Bernard Shaw

    With each play, Shaw began to place more emphasis on social commentary and less emphasis on story or plot. That's not to say that Shaw's plays were not good theatre; to the contrary, Shaw was a master of wordplay, paradox, and character, and audiences were entertained by his works even more than they were enlightened. But entertainment was not Shaw's intent. To him, the world was an imperfect place desperately in need of change, and theatre was his forum for presenting the evils he saw to the public. Whether the cause was ending poverty, reorganizing government, or removing sexual stigmas and limitations, Shaw sought to confront audiences with issues of social and political importance.
  • Type One: The Reformer

    "To this personality type, the advice of 'Desiderata' sounds foolish and dangerous: 'beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the the universe is unfolding as it should.' As far as average to unhealthy Ones can tell, the universe is emphatically not unfolding as it should. People are not trying hard enough to improve either the universe or themselves" (Riso, pg. 275).

    Riso, Don Richard (1987). Personality Types: Using the Enneagram for Self-Discovery. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

  • Professor Henry Higgins

    It is the contradiction in Higgins�s character which prevent us from regarding him as a despicable, heartless brute. We are also prepared to forgive him his faults because he is so witty and entertaining. Although the audience is encouraged to think seriously about his irresponsible behaviour, at the same time they will not judge him too harshly. The impression Higgins gives is that of a well-intentioned, but misguided genius, whose passion for his life�s work blinds him to everything else.
  • Professor Henry Higgins

    As a young man in London in the late 1870s, Shaw�s passion for reforming language grew with his passion for reforming society. He was quoted in the preface to Pygmalion remarking that; �It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him�.



Carl Rogers

  • Carl Rogers and informal education

    In short, Carl Rogers has provided educators with some fascinating and important questions with regard to their way of being with participants, and the processes they might employ. The danger in his work for informal educators lays in what has been a point of great attraction - his person-centredness. Informal education is not so much person-centred as dialogical. A focus on the other rather than on what lies between us could lead away from the relational into a rather selfish individualism. Indeed, this criticism could also be made of the general direction of his therapeutic endeavours.
  • An Analysis of Carl Rogers' Theory of Personality

    It is somewhat puzzling given his humanistic emphasis on individuality, that Rogers describes only two extremes of people. Maddi (1996) suggests these extreme characterizations of only two types may be due to this personality theory being secondary to a theory of therapy. It is appropriate for a theory of psychotherapy to concern itself with the two extremes of fullest functioning and maladjustment. However, when theorizing about all people, two types are insufficient.
  • Carl Rogers - C. George Boeree.




Conscientiousness

  • Conscientiousness (sometimes called Prudence) - hardworking, persevering, trusted, dependable, achieving, controlled, organized, planful, precise, responsible, conforming, constrained
    Vs.
    Impulsive, careless, disorderly, frivolous, forgetful (Source).




The Apprehensive Perfectionist

Making the Transition from Micromanager to Leader

Many successful executives could be described as intense, driven, or achievement oriented people. They are intent on achieving goals, sometimes even obsessed with achievement. We make the distinction in this article between the “healthy perfectionist” and the “apprehensive perfectionist.” For the apprehensive perfectionist executive, the source of their drive is not a desire to excel, but the fear of making mistakes, being seen as incompetent, or simply not performing up to their own or others’ expectations. While this fear of failure is motivating, it also has undesirable side effects that inhibit leadership behaviors and can hold executives back in their careers.



Upton Sinclair

  • Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair By Anthony Arthur
  • Muckraker - Wikipedia

  • Upton Sinclair | The Brass Check | Journalism
    One final word: In this book I have cast behind me the proprieties usually held sacred; I have spared no one, I have narrated shameful things. I have done this, not because I have any pleasure in scandal; I have not such pleasure, being by nature impersonal. I do not hate one living being. The people I have lashed in this book are to me not individuals, but social forces; I have exposed them, not because they lied about me, but because a new age of fraternity is trying to be born, and they, who ought to be assisting the birth, are strangling the child in the womb.



Ayn Rand



More Conscientious personality type





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