This is a new notion for me but it seems a good lens for viewing myself and others. Several of my colleagues have made good use of the True Colors version of human personality. The True Colors approach is a modification of the Myers-Briggs classification of personality. Myers and Briggs were a mother-daughter team who built on Carl Jung's work, dividing people into
- extroverts and introverts
- sensors (who attend mostly to their sense of sight, hearing, etc.) and thinkers (who attend mostly to their thoughts and may be "absent-minded")
- thinkers (concentrate on thoughts) and feelers (concentrate on emotions)
- judgers (make decisions quickly and finally) and perceivers (make decisions slowly and only after much research, weighing and comparison of choices)
True Colors simplifies an admittedly complex subject still more with four main types of personality
- Gold - interested in their duty and obligations and those of others, too
- Blue - interested in emotions, feelings, moods
- Orange - interested in physical action
- Green - interested in ideas
Some experience and some data suggest that the Golds constitute 50% of the population. Since they are people who naturally gravitate to duty and its fulfillment, the best little boys who are men would seem to fit in with such a group.
Duty is not a word I have heard much during my life but I imagine plenty of people would say that not hearing about duty often is a sign of a poor upbringing and education. I get the idea that many English-speaking people during the era of Queen Victoria used duty as a major compass for getting through life. Our moral duty, doing the right thing, living up to our responsibilities in marriage, parenting, family life and civic life is still fundamental and probably enters into all of our thinking often.
