FAQs - TPR Model of Behavior

Question: Why is it important to learn about this model of behavior, the "needs motivated" model we call "The Platinum Rule"?

Dr. O'Connor: This model is consistent with what we know about motivation in terms of the three fundamental tasks that each of us has to deal with in our life.

First, it can help us be more effective in coping with the different demands and stresses in our daily life, whether they are self-imposed, from others, or from our job, family, or other sources.

Once we've gotten to a point of coping, then the second level is relating-- to help us become more compatible and reduce conflict in terms of work or personal relationships.

The third level is when you get beyond coping and relating, you look at what life really has to offer us and where we can use this is to be more successful in life. Of course, individuals who are more successful lead to groups and organizations that are more successful.

Question: Is there a best behavioral style-Director, Thinker, Relater, or Socializer?

Dr. O'Connor: A lot of people would like me to say yes, but in fact the research indicates overwhelmingly NO.

In our book The Platinum Rule, Dr Tony Alessandra and I talk about that, the principle of human imperfection.

The reality is that when people are saying, "Is there one best style," often they're saying, "Say yes, and tell me it's my style." Instead, what's closer to the point is that each of us has our own unique strengths and weaknesses.

The other interesting part of that is people have preferences and culturally what we find is that people in fact are socialized into a certain preferred way of behaving. So that, for instance, when I work in Italy, I find very few reserved individuals. It's more common-place for everyone to be interactive and somewhat dominant, the Directors and Socializers tendencies are more socially desirable.

Question: So this information really applies across the world.

Dr. O'Connor: Absolutely. I have found this is equally as valid and worthwhile information no matter what culture you are in.

There are four types of people, and it makes no difference whether you're talking about a certain part of the United States or a certain part of the world.

Question: Let's talk then about the model itself. Is it valid and scientific?

Dr. O'Connor: Absolutely. This goes back to ancient times up to modern days. The more recent research by behavioral scientists such as Dr. Karl Jung, Dr. William Marston, and Dr. John Geier, who have looked at different dimensions of human behavior, said there are basically two types of general orientations among people-Openness and Directness-and four more specific tendencies-- Director, Thinker, Relater, or Socializer tendencies.

Question: One of the things that critics of this model of human behavior often will say is that you're "labeling" people, you're pigeonholing people, you're putting people in a box.

Dr. O'Connor: Well the fact is the labels are not something we're trying to put on people.

There are basically four patterns.

People say whether or not they feel one of the patterns is going to be a more accurate description of them than another. So that's their choice, not ours.

The second thing is that we're really not trying to focus on what a person is. We're trying to talk about what that person does. So, for instance, let's say you have a Director pattern. And let's say a situation calls for more cautious behavior, that's your choice, whether you want to show that behavior or not. If the situation calls for more interactive behavior, again that's your choice. If it calls for steady, follow through work; again that's your choice. We're not saying because you're a Director, you're doomed only to that style of behavior.

Question: Does The Platinum Rule model apply to all cultures around the world?

Dr. Alessandra: The Platinum Rule model does span all cultures BUT it's important to remember that people around the world are socialized into a certain preferred way of behaving. So that, for instance, in Italy, there are very few reserved people.

It's more commonplace for everyone to be interactive and somewhat dominant--Directors and Socializers are the tendencies that are more socially desirable in Italy.

Question: How did you get involved in studying The Platinum Rule?

Dr. Alessandra: I started my work/ research on the behavioral style concept when I was going through my doctoral program in 1974. My dissertation topic was, "Buyer-Seller Similarity as a Determinant of Success in Industrial Selling." My work on The Platinum Rule was an outgrowth of the research of D. W. Merrill and R. H. Reid in Personal Styles and Effective Performance. But I discovered that the beginnings of the concept went back MUCH further than that.

The earliest recorded efforts to explain our differences were made by astrologers who recorded the positions of the heavens. The twelve signs in four basic groupings--Earth, Air, Fire, and Water--are still used today.

In ancient Greece, Hippocrates' concept of four temperaments followed---Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholy, and Choleric.

He viewed personality as shaped by blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. As unpalatable as this might sound to us, people accepted these physical or bodily causes for varying "humours" for centuries.

Respected figures from medical/physical sciences, metaphysics, mathematics, and philosophy observed these four temperaments--including Aristotle, Empedocles, Theophrastus, and, in Roman times, Galen.

In 1923, Dr. Carl Jung wrote his famous Psychological Types, at that time the most sophisticated scientific work on personality. In it, he again described four behavioral styles--the Intuitor, Thinker, Feeler, and Sensor.

Today's Information Age features more than a dozen varied models of our behavioral differences. But they all have one common thread--the grouping of behavior into four categories. Most of these explanations of behavioral styles have focused on internal characteristics leading to external behaviors.

The Platinum Rule focuses on patterns of observable, external behaviors that each style shows to the rest of the world. It also demystifies those lesser known, but scientifically proven, internal forces that are the motivating clues behind our behaviors. In other words, they help you understand why you do what you do.

Because we can see and hear these external behaviors, that makes it much easier for us to "read" people. Therefore, The Platinum Rule model is simple, practical, easy to remember and use, and extremely accurate.

Based on the work of William Moulton Marston, The Platinum Rule model provides a theoretical foundation for four behavioral styles or clusters of readily observable behaviors.

Marston also noted that each style is particularly effective in certain types of situation and that truly effective people readily modify their natural behavior to meet the demands or expectations of a particular situation.

The Platinum Rule model divides people into four natural, core behavioral styles:

The Dominant Director, The Interacting Socializer, The Steady Relater, and The Cautious Thinker.

We generally develop our behavioral style in our childhood. It is the result of some possible genetic predisposition and our early life experiences.

Everyone has a predominant style that we tend to use most of the time. Many of us also have a secondary or backup style that we use to supplement our primary style.

Our style reflects behaviors that worked for us as children in meeting our needs. In fact, they worked so well that we just kept repeating them until they became habitual, often to the point where we continue to use them even when they may be working against us in a given situation.

We are all capable of any of the behaviors of all four styles

Question: Can you give me a very brief description of all four styles?

DIRECTORS: Firm and forceful, confident and competitive, decisive and determined risk-takers. While their impatience sometimes causes eyes to roll, the DIRECTORS leave no doubt who sits at the head of the table.

SOCIALIZERS: Outgoing, optimistic, enthusiastic people who like to be in the center of things. SOCIALIZERS have lots of ideas and love to talk, especially about themselves.

RELATERS: Genial team players who prefer stability to risk and who care greatly about the feelings and needs of others. They're likeable but sometimes too timid.

THINKERS: Self-controlled and considerate, preferring analysis to emotion. They love clarity and order but may come across as a bit starchy.

Question: What are some other books / models that compare to The Platinum Rule?

HOW CAN I GET THROUGH TO YOU?
Breakthrough Communication--Beyond Gender, Beyond Therapy, Beyond Deception (Hyperion, 1994) by D. Glenn Foster and Mary Marshall, uses a four-style model that it then correlates to psychological moods Depression, Anger, Bargaining, and Denial). Written by an attorney and a law-enforcement professional, this book provides a general--not a business--audience with a system that may be difficult to understand and apply to others.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND ME
Character and Temperament Types by David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates (Prometheus, 1984) is based on a more complex model dividing personalities into 16 different types. It deals more with introspection than relating to others.

TYPE TALK
Or How to Determine Your Personality Type and Change Your Life by Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen (Delacorte, 1988) also uses a more complex model.

PERSONALITY PLUS
How to Understand Others By Understanding Yourself by Florence Littauer (Power Books, 1983) is the only humorous book available, and it is written for the Christian market.

Here is a bibliography of several other books and models:

People Smarts
Alessandra, Tony, Ph.D., and Michael J. O'Connor, Ph.D. 1994. San Diego, CA: Pfeiffer & Company.

The Name of Your Game
Atkins, Stuart. 1982. Stuart Atkins, Inc.

Coping with Difficult People
Bramson, Robert M., Ph.D. Anchor Press/Doubleday.

The Anatomy of Melancholy
Burton, Richard.

Nice Guys Finish First
DeVille, Jard. 1979. William Morrow & Company.

Second Century A.D. Philosopher & Physician
Galen, Claudius, as referenced by Carl Jung in Psychological Times.

(D.I.S.C.) Personal Profile System
Geier, John C., Ph.D. 1977. Performax Systems International, Inc.

The Creative Brain II
A Revisit with Ned Hermann.
Gorovitz, Elizabeth.

Social Psychology: An Attributional Approach
Harvey, John H., and William P. Smith. 1977. St. Louis, MO: C.V. Mosby.

Social Behavior: Its Elementary Form
Homans, George Caspar. 1961. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

The Art of Managing People
Hunsaker, Phillip, Ph.D., and Anthony J. Alessandra, Ph.D. 1980. Touchstone Press.

Responsible Assertive Behavior
Jabubowski, Patricia, and Arthur Lange. 1976.Champaign, IL: Research Press.

Japanese Resurrect Behavioral Theory Connected to Blood Types
Austin American-Statesman (May 24, 1984): D3.

Psychological Types
Jung, C.G. 1923. London: Pantheon Books.

The Dynamics of Personality
Kildahl, John P., and Lewis Wolberg. 1970. New York, NY: Grune & Stratton.

Effective Motivation Through Performance Appraisal
Lefton, Robert. 1977. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Discover the Real You by Uncovering the
Roots of Your Personality Tree
Littauer, Florence. 1986. Waco, TX: Word Books.

Silent Messages
Mehrabian, Albert. 1971. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Personal Styles and Effective Performance
Merrill, David, and Roger Reid. 1977. Chilton Book Company.

Human Behavior and Social Process
Rose, Arnold. 1962. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Person Perception and Interpersonal Behavior
Tagiuri, Renato, and Luigi Petrullo. 1958. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Social Styles Sales Strategies
Wilson Learning Corporation. 1977. Wilson Learning Corp.