Self-Diagnosis 31ration, the president jumped from her chair and said, “Do any of
you NOT plan your weekends?” She was astonished to find that
half of her staff did not.
The opposite extreme is the perceiver. This person likes to go
with the flow. The perceivers like to remain open to last-minute
information or changes, and to investigate all the possibilities. They
hate planning their weekends. They prefer to do whatever they feel
like, when they feel it. The television show The Odd Couple was
a play on this polarity. Oscar and Felix were perfect opposites in
this way: one messy, one neat. Here’s one way to determine which
is your preference: What were your study habits in school? Did
you start early and read an assignment each week for six months,
or cram during the last two weeks before the exam? If you were
an all-nighter type, then your preference is for perceiving.
Here are some words that describe each type:Judging ( J) Perceiving (P)
Control Adapt
Closing off Opening up
Organized Flexible
Set goals Seek optionsA more modern pair of TV stars who represent these opposite
polarities are from the show Frasier. The father in the show, Mar-
tin Crane, is an easygoing guy who likes to lounge in his comfy old
chair. His son, Niles, is just the opposite. He dresses immaculately,
fusses over appearances, and uses a pair of tweezers to pick unde-
sirable elements off his breakfast muffin.
Slightly more than half the population shows a preference for
judging. These types tend to like jobs with closure and definition,
like trading securities, where a trade is completed and done quickly.
Another career choice for judgers would be quality control expert,
inspecting to make sure that everything is just so. (I couldn’t be-
lieve it when I learned that my cousin arranges his dollar bills in04 ware 31 1/19/01, 1:02 PM