How to Study Personality Types
From MBTI to Sasang constitution and color psychology
There are so many personality tests that it is easy to lose track of how they differ. Look first at what a test is actually doing, then take the major typologies one at a time, and you can choose the one that suits you. If you already know your own type, read with it in hand — and pay particular attention to where another system describes you differently.
Stage 1 · Understand typologies
Begin with what personality tests can and cannot measure. Then take the most widely used one, MBTI, at both levels: the sixteen types and the cognitive functions beneath them.
- 1. Enjoying Personality Tests — From MBTI to Blood Type — Why personality tests like MBTI, blood type, the Sasang constitutions, and color psychology are so fun — and how to enjoy them wisely.
- 2. The 16 MBTI Types, Fully Explained — Four Axes and the Combinations of Personality — What the four indicators E/I, S/N, T/F, and J/P measure, and how to understand the 16 types by grouping them into four temperament clusters.
- 3. MBTI Cognitive Functions — The Workings of the Mind Behind the Four Letters — Why does the same four-letter type feel different from person to person? A step deeper into MBTI, into the eight cognitive functions and how their ordering shapes a personality.
Stage 2 · Add other perspectives
Compare different lenses — including the fact that blood-type personality has no scientific basis — alongside Sasang constitution and color psychology. Several perspectives make your self-understanding fuller.
- 4. Blood Type Personality — Temperament by A, B, O, and AB — The origins of the blood type personality theory beloved in East Asia, the signature temperaments of the four blood types, and the right attitude for enjoying it in fun.
- 5. Sasang Constitutions — Body and Personality Through Four Constitutions — The characteristics of the four constitutions Lee Je-ma's Sasang medicine defined — Taeyang, Taeeum, Soyang, and Soeum — and the basics of their health and food guidance.
- 6. Color Psychology — Seeing Yourself Through the Colors You Love — The principle of the emotions people feel from color, and the dispositions revealed by warm colors, calm colors, and achromatic colors, laid out from the perspective of color psychology.
Stage 3 · Compare two people
Once you know the types, you can hold two of them side by side. Start with something familiar such as blood type compatibility, then move to the wider picture that takes in Saju, zodiac animals and names.
- 7. Blood Type Compatibility — The Affinities of A, B, O, and AB — A is careful, B is free, O is warm-hearted, AB is rational. Here we lay out the playful fun of reading people's grain and affinity by blood type.
- 8. How to Read Compatibility — From Saju to Zodiac Signs and MBTI — A one-glance guide to the many ways of reading the bond between two people — the principles and differences of Saju, Chinese-zodiac, star-sign, name, blood-type, and MBTI compatibility.
By the end of this path you can see what each system of types measures — and what it does not. A test result is one language for describing yourself, and people are wider than any table of categories. The more frames you lay over one another, the clearer it becomes that no single one holds all of you. Use a result as a starting point for understanding yourself, but not for fitting other people into the frame.
When you can change the order
If you already know your type, you can skip the first piece in stage one and start with the article on the sixteen types. The compatibility pieces in stage three read perfectly well on their own, but knowing the types first means you notice which axis differs rather than only the score. The cognitive functions feel difficult on a first encounter, so going round once and coming back to them later is entirely sensible. Stopping at any stage still leaves you with something usable.
What people usually get wrong
The biggest misunderstanding is that a type settles who somebody is. Two people of the same type raised differently, and doing different work now, turn out to be entirely different people, and anyone sitting near the middle of an axis can come out with a different letter depending on the day. It is also worth knowing that the blood type theory of personality has no confirmed scientific basis. This path covers it because it is widely believed, not because it is true.
What this path does not cover
The procedure and interpretation of the official instrument are not covered. What is introduced here is a simple way of looking at yourself, and it is a different matter from the psychological instruments and diagnoses used in clinical work. Nothing here is written for hiring or performance review. Screening people by type has caused real problems in the past. A type is a thread for understanding somebody, not a measure of who qualifies.