Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Thinkers and Feelers

This is Part 4 of my series on personality types (character traits, if you will) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Remember, I'm an EXFJ.

Today I'm talking about the T(hinking) and F(eeling). From mine, you can see that I'm a Feeler. And since I've always taken the paper copy of the Kiersey, I know how many of my answers are Ts and how many are Fs.

Um, I'm not just an Feeler, I'm a flaming Feeler.

So what does that even mean?

Source: PowerPoint
Thinking: These are the folks who make decisions based upon logic, going for impersonal findings. They tend to be objective when making decisions and evaluate their options based on laws, principles, and policies. Good at arguments, they try to influence people using logic rather than emotions. They experience emotion just as much as the Feelers do but are less likely to show their feelings.

Feeling: We tend to make our decisions based on subjective reasoning and choose in the context of how our decisions impact ourselves and others. We don't usually hide our emotions. Our evaluations are usually in terms of circumstances, values, and good or bad. We can be very persuasive and appeal to emotions.

If you want to convince someone to do something, it comes in handy if you know if this person is a Thinker or a Feeler. Make your case to a Thinker using emotions or subjective reasoning, what do you think will happen?

In the communications class where I first studied the Kiersey, we were required to make three speeches. The first one was extemporaneous. The second one was to persuade using logic, and the third was to persuade using emotion.

I did okay with the first one. And I got an A with the logic speech, but the Prof said I knocked her socks off with the third one. You gotta play to your strengths.

An interesting tidbit about Thinkers and Feelers is how they react to strife. A Thinker boss facing the need to fire an employee will "feel" just as bad as the Feeler boss does. However, the Thinker boss is much less likely to have a sleepless night the day before. The Feeler has a harder time letting that kind of thing go. General office or family conflict tends to bleed into other aspects of a Feeler's life, much more so than it does to a Thinker.

Once again, there are degrees to which we may be a Thinker or a Feeler (or any of the other character groups). Someone who scores closely between the two will be different from someone like me who tests very high on the Feeler side.

So what about the main characters in your current WIP? Do you think they're Thinkers or Feelers? How might that impact how they handle the mean evil things you keep doing to them?

19 comments:

  1. My main character is a thinker. Of course, so am I, so guess that made him easier to write.

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  2. So interesting Donna. I have one feeler main character and one more of a thinker.

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  3. I'm bookmarking these pages since I'm currently working on the characterization for one of my books. These posts are brilliant. Thanks, Donna!

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  4. I'm a "thinker" and so is my main character. Not sure I'd be able to write her as a "feeler" without really knowing how that, um, feels. I may have to explore that some more, though, with some other characters and see what happens.

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  5. Yeah I think away at my bay and always am up to argue too, in a good way haha

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  6. Interesting point and comments. I'm a 'distinctively expressed feeling personality' and so are my characters. I wonder if I could effectively write a 'thinker'.

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  7. I've seen this come up on quite a few blog posts today. I'm curious to see what I am. Headed to check it out...

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  8. Oh, wow. My MC is definitely a Feeler. A passionate, somewhat reckless Feeler! :)

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  9. I'm in your camp...the feelers. I think most writers are:) I love pairing extreme feelers and thinkers together as characters in my stories, it automatically generates tension:)

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  10. I'm pretty sure I'm a flaming feeler as well! I believe in logic, but sometimes gut reactions have to overrule that.

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  11. Every time I read these Kersey posts I understand how helpful this is for character development. I think my current MC is probably much more of a Feeler than a Thinker.

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  12. Since thinking isn't one of my best characteristics I would say that ALL my characters are feelers. That makes me realize I must put a thinker in there somewhere, just to test myself.
    I've just come to your series so I'm going back to check out Parts 1-3. It's fascinating.

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  13. I'm a thinker. This is why when it comes time to express my characters' emotions it's tough sometimes!

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  14. I'm glad you've broken this up into parts cause it puts my brain on overload. I love it though. This kind of stuff is so cool!

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  15. I forgot what I was, but I just took a quiz and scored as a thinker. I believe most of my MC's are feelers, though.

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  16. I think that's the whole issue with my MC. He tends to follow his head when he should listen more to his heart. Then when he should do the opposite, he doesn't. Chaos ensues.

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  17. Good question. I pulled her out of so much trouble because I think too much and feel her pain. Great post.

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  18. This is a very timely post. Glad I tuned in for this one. :)

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  19. Interesting and enlightening stuff, Donna. Personality wise, I'm a feeler, yet my characters tend to be mainly thinkers.

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