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The Integrated Approach to Assessing and Applying Attitudes,
Behaviors and Personalities
A Brief Overview of the Integrated Approach to Spiritual Gifts
More About this at www.CharismaticGifts.com
Feast of Shofars
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EloHymns
The Aaron Papers |
(08/17/04)
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Premise:
Most approaches to gauging personality or personal motivation lend themselves to faulty results due to their
(1) one-dimensional inventory strategy
(2) lack of experimentation with traditional models
(3) denigrating the spiritual condition underlying one’s personhood.
The results often are inaccurate because the surveys only receive information based on one’s self-perception. We have two terms for the outcome of one-dimensional assessments: mask – an intentional or habitual projection of a made-up self based on how the person would like himself to be, and self-deception – an unconscious or subconscious false perception of her attitudes and behaviors.
Our approach to assessing personal characteristics is multidimensional. Having started with several one-dimensional assessment tools and making them available to a large cohort via the Internet, we have experienced the results as blossoming forth into a new and very accurate assessment system that tears away the masks and gets closer to the true person beneath the false.
The reason behind the integrated approach is to help the subjects analyze their current path, then make adjustments to improve their living and service. This does not always happen because a subject is sometimes not psychologically prepared to accept the mask or self-deception, or is unwilling to get beyond it. But in almost every case, subjects are edified by learning more about themselves and, occasion, some will experience Eureka!
Currently, the following inventories, modified insights and strategies are used in the Integrated Approach:
Charismata:
“Motivational Graces” – this is a totally concocted term based on the general usage term “Motivational Gifts.” The Motivational Graces are based on the seven behavioral types (actually seven words or phrases) found in the Bible’s Romans 12:1-10 and there termed simply charismata of “graces.” The seven Charismata words are actually verbal adjectives: teaching, ruling, exhorting, etc. Three inventories are used to render the charis type – two short and contradictory, and a long, classical survey. Having assessed undoubtedly thousands of people in the charismata, it became clear that two types had to be sub-typed. In other words, four very different styles of behavior were consistently fitting into two of the charismata. The obvious improvement is to expand the charismata from seven to nine. The nine charis words now used to describe behavioral styles are prophesying, teaching, serving, encouraging, motivating, managing, leading, sharing and caring.
Enneagram:
The original biblical author (insofar as we know) was thought to be very well-educated in Greek and Parthian / Persian philosophy and psychology. This author may have even clued us that he was once a member of a Persian order. Predating the charismata by over 500 years is the Enneagram system based on nine personality types. On the surface, the Enneagram seems to have little in common with the Charismata – but again, after assessing so many individuals in both systems, patterns began to arise that made it plausible to overlay the systems in a very cogent and profitable manner. It might be worth mentioning here that Enneagram is highly researched in our day and is now considered to be one of the accepted psychological systems.
Temperament:
This is probably the worst and most misleading form of behavioral assessment. It is limited in scope and one-dimensional. The Integrated Approach does indeed use temperament, but a new, cutting-edge version that stipulates 1) there are five (not four) basic temperaments and 2) there are three (or more) human dimensions, each with 3) two facets – to which each temperament may be applied. What that allows us is that instead of just assessing the person’s mask or self-deception with a one-dimensional temperament test, we find each person may instead be one of (3 x 2)5 personality types, though we only use 15 of the major types in the Integrated Approach. We have also found that the original 5 types ties in nicely with the 9 Charismata and 9-key Enneagram.
Mask / Self-deception:
We use two surveys to help us understand the difference between what a person thinks he does and what a persona actually does. One set of questions are open enough to allow the subject some leeway in choosing what he does. The second is very similar though offering no leeway at all. Sometimes there is a vast chasm between the outcome of the two and indicates that the subject is either deceiving himself or trying to deceive the assessors, whether intentional or not. In addition, we ask whether the person is an optimist and whether other people see the person as an optimist. Such a simple set of questions also overlays the Integrated Approach.
Final Assessment:
After all the information is collected and put in order, the data is then assessed by a human being with insight into the Integrated Approach. That person has designed and composed the components, written the literature, programmed the websites, is degreed in Psychology and is read-up in these psychological disciplines. The end result is remarkably accurate – as accurate as can be dependent upon the information obtained.
Spirituality:
The same author of the Charismata has second and third systems of classifying individuals in his sect. He calls one set of classifications Pneumatikoi, a plural adjective meaning “spiritualities” (“spiritual things”). Named are 15 terms or phrases (or categories), and the implication is that there are more. The other system he calls Domata, a plural noun meaning “grantings.” Pneumatikoi and Domata are supernatural powers that I deal with in the second book of Spiritual Gifts. But in this particular context, I will not discuss the subject of the supernatural. Suffice it to say that the Integrated Approach doesn’t teach spiritualism, only allows the subject to speak of it without comment, and then offers insight based on the other modules of the Approach.
Certification:
There are several levels of certification in the Integrated Approach meant to offer a person, usually a professional, a credential for teaching or assessing. There are three interactive textbooks – completing each textbook, including the praxis portions, entitles the student to a higher level of certification. The third book includes a mentored program along with three shorter books that delve deeper into the subject matter of Book 1.
Afterward:
I have used and taught various component of the Integrated Approach since 1990. I used manual assessment tools until 1993, when I wrote a computer program that is still in circulation that will assess Motivational Graces. Since 2001, I have had most of the inventories on the World Wide Web and have allowed free access to them. I still have all the data from these last six years of assessment. Other Motivational Graces teachers have sent their students to my assessment sites, and I have probably assessed people from 50 or 60 countries.