Enneagrams – I’ve Got Your Number

 

By far, the most confusing of all the personality tests is The Enneagram Test. ( *Try this link if the other link does not work.) Most likely, you have run across one or more of these at some point and read the description afterward and were probably just as confused after reading the description as you were before you took it. But now you know you’re a 1 or a 4 or a 5w4 or whatever. And you have no idea what all of that means, or how it relates to other psychology tests.

First of all, it kind of doesn’t.

Now that we have that messy little problem out of the way, let’s get on with things. The Enneagram was designed by the Roman Catholic Church as a way of learning which of the Seven Deadly Sins is your weakness.

Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo developed the concept in the 1960s, based on much older psycho-religious concepts from the 1800s. There are nine types, and each type can have two wings.

Despite the resemblance, this is not the star from Game of Thrones. It is the Enneagram Figure.

After taking the test, the test-taker should use the highest result and the highest result next to it as the type and wing. For example, if a test-taker scored highest on 5 and the second highest score was a 1 and the third highest score was a 4, the test-taker’s type would be a 5 wing 4. One does not have a wing that is not adjacent to the highest score. If one scores very high in a remote area, but has high scores in another cluster, one might use the second highest score for the type. For example, if the highest score is a 2, but the second highest score is an 8 and the third is a 7 and the fourth is a 9, the test-taker should probably use 8 wing 7 as score, rather than the 2 as that might be a fluke.

In Understanding the Enneagram: The Practical Guide to Personality Types, Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson explain the connection between the nine enneagram types and the Deadly Sins as well as the holier aspects (available at Amazon or other bookstores.).

The Enneagram Types

Although the Enneagram was developed by the Roman Catholic Church, some bishops harshly criticized it in 2000.

Once you know your Enneagram Type, there is a further subdivision into your Tritype. The Type categories are divided into the Head Center, the Heart Center, and the Gut Center. The highest score is taken from each of the three centers to form the Tritype.

Gut Center: 1, 8, or 9
Heart Center: 2, 3, or 4
Head Center: 5, 6, or 7

The combinations can be in any order, but come together as follows:

The list of Tritypes, organized by Gut Center numbers.

For example, if a test-taker made high scores on 3 wing 4, 8 wing 7, and 5 wing 4, she would have a Tritype of 385, The Solution Master.

Getting back to what I originally said about Enneagrams relating to MBTI types, they aren’t the same thing, but there is a correlation. That is, certain MBTI types tend to have a higher incidence of certain Enneagram Types. INFPs tend to have more 4 types. INFJs tend to type 5w4 quite often. ENTJs tend to score 8w7 or type 3 more often. However, there is no direct link between Enneagram Type and Myers-Briggs Type.

Enneagram Type cross-referenced with Myers Briggs Type.

It is recommended to retake the Enneagram test periodically as the results will change depending on your mood and the circumstances in your life.