(Source: http://medicablogs.diariomedico.com/reflepsiones/2009/09/12/% C2% BFel-enneagram-have-any-basis-scientific /)
"The Enneagram has any scientific basis?
September 12, 2009
At times, some psychologists speak of the Enneagram as a personality test, even get to present it as a scientific method, even if those stipulates clear that "will never be a diagnosis of personality."
However, as we read in The Skeptical Digital, in an article titled "Pseudoscience in Human Resources," "the Enneagram, advocates say, is presented as a method of spiritual growth to know oneself as nine archetypes personality-like handwriting, which can acquire better and more balanced personal integrity. It is a method personal knowledge based on the interaction of nine universal cosmic forces "... it is not surprising that D. Ricardo Fernández Díez de la Lastra, Assistant Director of Training of DaimlerChrysler Spain, SA, writer, asked sarcastically "Is not this sound like you horoscope?", Clearly indicating that "the enneagram has no basis in psychological science, and any other scientific discipline, "although presented by its supporters as a psychological method. But its real identity is in the esoteric, and a secret wisdom accessible only to initiates. "
addition, according to the author, "Was Oscar Ichazo, Bolivian psychologist and very fond of occultism who introduced the Enneagram the correlation of his nine points with nine personality types, and it is not unusual that none of this is based on a scientific method, since Ichazo , "said to have discovered the Enneagram personality types during one of his ecstasies and under the influence of an angel."
For Fernandez Diez, "the enneagram dazzles the most gullible for the same reason that horoscopes: it is a simple and universal fit everything and everyone and know the deep reasons of the people and events to come. " According
Palmer (1996), whose book helped the Enneagram to spread worldwide, "the Enneagram is an ancient Sufi teaching that distinguishes nine different types of personality and relationship. Education may help us to recognize our own type and how to address our problems, to understand our co-workers, family and friends and to assess the predisposition of each type has for higher human capacities such as empathy, omniscience and love. " On the cover of his book can be read that "the Enneagram is an ancient system of psychology rooted in the sacred traditions. His insights into human behavior have made it popular enough to be applied in very diverse areas ranging from the Stanford School of Businnes to personal growth groups. The work of Helen Palmer joins this ancient system of identifying personality types with empirical research and insights of modern psychology to create a practical and powerful method with which to understand ourselves and others. "
This explanation of Palmer, and as indicated on the cover of your book, do not seem to mention empirical research, since according to Bermudez (1991) "which is intended in any scientific activity is to achieve certainty about the functional relationships between the phenomena of interest. This goal can be accomplished in a number of procedures, which are what, in one form or another is called 'method' (...) the use of these methodological procedures must satisfy certain requirements included in the concept of validity (... ) is not worth any method for any problem. "
Bermúdez (1991), clarifies some key issues for the study of personality:
What sense of personality refers to the uniqueness of the individual?
"Personality is the result of the relationships between various characteristics that may be common to all individuals, but not only that, it peculiarly defining personality is the particular combination of these characteristics in each person gives rise to a new unit, qualitatively different from the components that are blended in it "(Allport, 1963, quoted by Bermúdez, 1991).
What methods can be used in the study of something that is unique? Can we all do science?
There is some dispute "between two forms, apparently exclusive to understand the research"
• Alternative idiographic, "argues that the person is unique and therefore have used specific methodological strategies designed to capture all the richness of its individuality. "
• nomothetic approach, "argues that the uniqueness of individuals is something that touches the artists and historians, science deals with the development of laws applicable to everyone, then in this sense, personality, by their very nature, fall outside the scope of science. "
Bermúdez (1991) proposes an integrative suggestion:
"The study of personality if you want to stay in the context of science, must rely on their own approaches to science, although this does not mean that there that neglect the consideration of those issues that only careful study of the case (idiografía) can provide.
The overall research process there are various stages and some of them, particularly in the development of hypotheses may be relevant to the contribution of the studies led by an idiographic approach, to enhance significantly the description the phenomenon under study. "
After Bermúdez considerations and despite that Dr. Charles T. Tart of the University of California, has supported the book by Helen Palmer to write the preface, in my view, the Enneagram is not located in the "context of science, pseudo their approaches are closer to esotericism or as indicated Fernández Díez, the horoscope as science, without empirical evidence attesting to his statements or his ranking of the correlation of his nine points with nine personality types that seem to Oscar Ichazo discovered "during one of his ecstasy and under the influence of an angel ", which obviously is far from approaching the scientific method.
However, it is true that there are some studies, like Wagner & Walker (1983), which finds evidence that "the Enneagram typology seems to have diagnostic value, forecast and heuristic for the study of the structure and dynamic personality, "although I have not located further research to confirm these findings. If any reader has references to articles that support or refute these results, it would be interesting to include them in the comments of this post.
References:
Bermúdez, J. (1991). Personality Psychology (Volume I). Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.
Palmer, H. (1996). The Enneagram. Barcelona: The Books of the March Hare.
Wagner, JP & Walker, RE (1983). Reliability and Validity study of a Sufi personality typology: The enneagram. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 39 (5), 712-717. (Abstract)
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