Over the course of my academic life, these areas have particularly grabbed my interest and led to further study on my own. They opened my mind and affected my day to day life in profound ways, and I am a better person because of it.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator I first learned about the MBTI in college. I liked it so much that I created an independent study to investigate it further. Of all the facets of psychology, I like personality theory most, and the MBTI makes more sense to me than any personality breakdown out there.
It is based on four scales: Extravert/Introvert, Sensor/Intuitive, Thinker/Feeler, and Judger/Perceiver. These four scales measure from where you draw your energy, how you take in information, how you make decisions, and how you organize your environment. From these four pairings, you can create sixteen different types as outlined in the adjoining image. I test as a strong ENFJ.
If you're interested in more information, I recommend the Please Understand Me books by David Keirsey.
Enneagram I am fascinated with the concept of personality and just what makes us all different from or similar to each other. You can put a group of people in exactly the same situation, and they will all interpret, react to, experience, and communicate it differently simply based on their individual personalities.
I learned about the Enneagram after resisting the concept for some time. It paints a slightly more generalized and broad picture of people than the MBTI, but I still find it relevant and applicable. It describes nine types of people from perfectionists to workaholics to melodramatics and everything in between. I am a 2, the Helper.
You can get more information [here].
Existentialism After hearing a presentation about Existentialism in high school, I began researching it on my own before taking a specialized college course. I learned about Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Kant, and Hegel in addition to my own personal study of Jean-Paul Sartre. I have since considered myself a budding existentialist, and it's fascinating to read books upon books about people who view the world the same way I do. The sense that you control your own life, that your successes are your successes and your failures are your failures, has always been important to me. I still have a long way to go, but it feels good to at least be on the right track.
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