Four basic kinds of people

I read the Hindu section of Huston Smith's The World's Religions.  I had the impression that the Hindu religion was fairly savvy and in accord with the ways of the world, despite knowing very little about it.

One of the features that Smith discusses is the Hindu idea that that there are four sorts of people, those who focus on service, on love, on thought  or on experience.  He states that Jung based his "Psychological Types" on the Hindu approach.  That is of strong interest to me since Lynn and I and several of our friends spent lots of time and effort in the classes we taught and with our families using a modification of Jung's work trying to understand those we work with, teach and are related to.  We used the work by Keirsey, by the daughter-mother team of Myers and Briggs and the most recent work done under the title True Colors. 

Because we have had quite a lot of experience using, explaining, defending and criticizing the work at the three links, hearing Smith's explanation of the Hindu background of Jung's work got my attention.  In finding the link locations just now, I read this from the Wikipedia

That wording seems good to me since we may try to attach all sorts of concurrent characteristics to being right-handed or left-handed but most of the time, the tendency just seems to exist.  I have heard references to Jung's book "Psychological Types" many times and in reading background material from the linked works.  There are often references to the "four humors", evidently originally a Greek medical/psychological theory of personality, body types and the mechanisms of the body and mind.  But other than Smith and his exploration of Hindu theory, I never heard of a connection to the ancient Indians before.  It doesn't surprise me too much since "Influences" by my friend Prof. A.L. Herman makes clear the very strong similarity between what emerged as Christian ideas and earlier parts of Greek and Indian religious notions.

The classification system Lynn, some of our friends and family and I have worked with uses four parts too, but they are a little different from what the reported Hindu categories.  We use

1. Focus on rules and obligations - roughly 50% of the population
   
2. Focus on feelings and emotional sensitivity - roughly 25% of the population
   
3. Focus on physical body action and immediacy - roughly 15% of the population
   
4. Preoccupation with thinking, theory and logic - roughly 10% of the population
   

We tried to get those training to be teachers to be aware of these categories in getting to know their students.  One student summarized these proclivities with four responses that students might make to the question: "Is the glass half full or half empty?"

By an education student learning about personality:

Is the glass half full or half empty?

 (responsible, rules) - Is this going to be on the test?  We weren't told this was going to be on the test!

 (feelings, social awareness) - That is a lovely glass!  Did your mother give it to you?

(physical action) Are we going to piss around with glasses all day?  I have a softball game to go to.

(thinker) - That is an interesting question.  We should pour the contents into another glass and carefully mark the meniscus to show how much there was.  Then, we will pour the water into a holding pitcher.  Then we will fill the marked glass to the mark and pour the contents into the original glass.  Finally, we will add the original water to the glass and see it if fits, overflows or what.