103: “Questioning” the Four Tendencies

This week we're delighted to have Gretchen Rubin on The Psychology Podcast! Gretchen is the author of several books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, Better Than Before, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home. She has an enormous readership, both in print and online, and her books have sold almost three million copies worldwide, in more than thirty languages. On her popular weekly podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin, she discusses good habits and happiness with her sister Elizabeth Craft; they’ve been called the “Click and Clack of podcasters.” Her podcast was named in iTunes’s lists of “Best Podcasts of 2015” and was named in the Academy of Podcasters “Best Podcasts of 2016". Gretchen's latest book is The Four Tendencies, which is the main focus of this episode's lively discussion and debate. The larger themes of our conversation include: The four tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Oblidgers, and Questioners; they refer to the different ways each of us responds to internal and external expectations How Gretchen came up with these 4 categories The ways in which each of these 4 categories may be found to correlate with different "Big 5" personality traits The disadvantages of studying discrete types in the world of personality psychology The level of rigor necessary to distinguish a theory from a fully-formed, brand new personality dimension The place for writing that presents theories built on a more observational and experiential notion of truth, as opposed to a rigorously tested truth The ways that knowing your type can help you harness both your own strengths and those of others Links: [Book] The Four Tendencies [Quiz] Take Gretchen's Four Tendencies Quiz  [Twitter] Follow Gretchen on Twitter for updates