General Information

How People are Alike

How People are Different

Often, individuals feel that they are inferior to others, as in "I am just not as good as other people." They may describe themselves as inferior, "clueless", or simply as disinterested. The response to situations that leave them feeling this way can take the range from frustration and anger to simply disengaging from those situations. It can be very helpful to discover that they are not really all that unique.

No temptation has seized you

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV) "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." According to this verse, there are experiences that we all have in common. While this verse speaks specifically about temptation, clearly one of the issues is that we have enough things in common that we can make predictions on behavior. If that was not the case, we could not really understand one another. We rely on this more than we are consciously aware, for it is this consistency that allows us to build friendships and all other types of relationships. Every time we think to say to someone, "That's not like you", the meat behind the statement is that we can predict many opinions and actions on the basis of previously observed behavior.

MinistryStyles takes advantage of this by comparing many different characteristics and then building reports on the basis of how these characteristics are manifested. The resulting report is called a profile. This profile gives us a base line for describing what an individual is like. From that base line, it is truly amazing the amount of diversity that can be displayed, and almost all of it is reported to be an accurate description of almost all individuals, rendering a highly reliable report.

On the other hand there is a complexity of personality that makes us virtually unique. Consider just four characteristics in any individual's Primary Personality type, characteristics detailing the balance of power, creativity, the importance of relationships, and precision. Within these four characteristics, there are over 2,800 personality types indicated, and this is even after ruling out a number of combinations because they are invalid types.

Then, we look at the Personality Under Pressure, which has the same number of possibilities, and in just the combination of these two charts we already have almost 8 million possibilities.

This is just barely getting started. Adding the rest of the indicators in MiinistryStyles, the possible combination of personality types becomes staggering.

Does  this mean it is impossible to find a perfect match? Functionally, yes, but that doesn't mean the match is not out there. Even DNA testing, which has become a standard indicator in forensic law reports a recurrence rate of 1 in 100,000. That means that nationwide there could be 3,000 individuals that match any one person's DNA. It's amazing that a a frequency of 1 in 100,000 is considered unique.

Are the personality markers in MinistryStyles as diverse as DNA testing? Not at all. As of now we have no way to measure a frequency for personality types, but we certainly have enough possible alternatives that we can use the same (arbitrary) estimate because we haven't seen close matches at all.

From time to time, people ask if they take the test from a different mindset, or "role" that they fill, will the result be different? If they take it thinking of their personal life, will the results be much different if taken thinking of their work framework? Different again if thinking about family roles? What we have seen is the differences are subtle--there still will be no closer match to your profile than any other profile that you take. Answering the questions honestly will result in very similar reports, regardless of the role you are considering when you take the test. We encourage you to try it out for yourself though. There is no charge for additional profiles, since your organization pays for an unlimited usage for the people in your association.