As a starting point, you must avoid judging personality differences as good or bad. Instead, you should accept them as simply different. Understanding others without attempting to impose your personality on them is a major step toward establishing a good rapport with all types of students.
Some personality characteristics are detrimental to safe flight, and you need to deal with them. But you can use your interpersonal skills to increase the probability of changing these "bad attitudes" (in some students) without imposing your personality on them.
It's also important to remember that personality descriptions and labels represent extremes. People are not completely one or the other, but tend toward a direction and are more likely to behave in a certain way.
So where do you start? Information about personality types is available almost everywhere. Bookstores, libraries, and the Internet contain volumes of information, which you can find under headings such as psychology, personal growth, personality, temperament, management, and others. Some information sources are appropriate to aviation training; others are not. All vary in depth and scope. Since space is limited, this article only discusses several of the more common personality types. This is just one approach to interpersonal relationships and is not all-inclusive.
Ancient Greeks described four personality types. Karl Jung also used these general categories in his works. Isabel Myers and Katheryn Briggs used Jung's theories to create the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). More recently, David Kiersey and Marilyn Bates have refined and adapted the MBTI for personal use (Please Understand Me, Gnosology Books Ltd., 1984).
The four categories (in generic language) cover how you process information for decisions (intuition vs. sensory), how you structure your life (judgment vs. perception), your sociability (extroversion vs. introversion), and your emotions (thinking vs. feeling). These characteristics exist simultaneously in humans, and they combine to create a distinct personality. There can be 32 possible personality combinations when integrating all factors.
The intuition vs. sensory scale defines methods of perception and thought. This may be the widest scale of personality differences and the most likely to create conflict.
Intuitive personalities (intuitives) function internally and define their reality without apparent reasoning. They go with their instincts and hunches. They look at the future, daydream, and jump from subject to subject. Details are boring to these people, who tend to think in generalities rather than specifics. They think about things rather than do things. They want to know how and why something works, not just that it does work.
Persuading intuitives that they need to pay attention to details can be a challenge. By explaining the negative consequences of inattention, you can help these individuals to learn to follow through on detailed activities. If your intuitive students don't accept your suggestions to pay attention, let them make a mistake or two, then point out how the inattention caused the problem. If the mistake?s consequences are important enough to them, they will start to pay closer attention to details.
Sensory personalities (sensors) arrive at conclusions through their experience with external events. They are very practical, observe details, and want to take action rather than think about it. They will concentrate on tasks with tangible results, but only pay lip service to situations with no immediate or apparent usefulness. They want specific facts and not generalities. They want to be shown and only pay attention to practical information pertaining to the situation. They are not interested in theory. They observe the present and are not too concerned with the future.
You may have difficulty persuading sensors that the future is just as important as the present and that understanding why and how is just as important as understanding what is. They need to recognize the importance of planning and learn how to develop theoretical contingencies for unexpected events. Since they tend to be hands-on people, explain things to them by using examples from actual experiences. "Real- life" events have more meaning to sensors than supposition does.
The judgment vs. perception scale defines judgers as individuals who plan and structure their lives, and perceivers as those who prefer flexibility and welcome change. This is probably the second widest scale of personality differences. It may also be your biggest headache when it comes to teaching.
Judgers organize, plan, set goals, complete projects, and meet deadlines. Rigid schedules rule, and changes are catastrophic. They make swift decisions. Recreation comes only after work. This may sound like an ideal student, but the inflexibility creates problems. They may have difficulty reordering priorities when unexpected events occur. They may finish a rote procedure while completely ignoring new circumstances. They also will try to get the job done regardless of the situation.
When working with a judger, be organized, punctual, and plan ahead. Lessons must be structured. Create a detailed syllabus and stick to it whenever possible. If a situation changes, use the event to point out the problems with inflexibility. For example, you can explain that radio calls on final approach are irrelevant if you ignore airspeed and stall in the turn, or that not changing to an alternate plan when adverse weather arrives unexpectedly can lead to an accident.
Perceivers thrive on spontaneity. Neatness doesn't count. Deadlines represent the time to start, not finish. They find time to work between play activities. They study problems from all sides and often delay making decisions. These people will have trouble with ?go, no-go? decisions, especially when weather is a factor. They will want to fly to the adverse weather and then decide what to do.
Perceivers can learn to plan once they understand its importance. As with intuitives, explain the negative consequences of their actions (such as "you will flunk the test," or "you will crash and burn"). Perceivers' best planning may never satisfy judgers, but it will be good enough to be safe, and safety is what you're after.
The extroversion vs. introversion scale defines the extrovert as one who is concerned with the physical and social environment, and the introvert as one who is concerned with inner thoughts and feelings.
Extroverts need to be with people and are outgoing, gregarious, and sociable. Introverts are quiet, shy, and live in their "own space." To extroverts, introverts are antisocial and unfriendly. To introverts, extroverts are overbearing "personal space" violators.
Another important aspect of these personality traits is that extroversion is a positive attribute in western culture, while introversion isn't. Shy people are said to overcome their shyness, yet people don't overcome their sociability. Loners often are mistrusted, but few mistrust affability. In general, extroverts will adapt well to the social aspects of flight training, however it may be difficult to get one to study alone. They'll do well in a classroom environment. Introverts have more difficulty adapting to the group environment. They will be reluctant to ask questions, seek information from others, and talk on the radio. They will probably be good at self-study.
To help introverts, focus on establishing a quality one-to-one relationship and temper your extroverted exuberance so that it will not be perceived as obnoxious. A good way to shut down introverts is to come on strong. They shy away from unrestrained enthusiasm. They need to be encouraged but not forced. Once they trust you, they will become more open to learning new things.
The thinking vs. feeling scale defines differences between those who use logic and those who use emotion to make decisions. Possibly this half century's most famous pair who best depict these personalities is Star Trek's Mr. Spock (thinker) and Dr. McCoy (feeler). Thinkers use rules, criteria, and procedures to critically analyze situations before making an objective decision. When they're right, they're not overly concerned with how people feel about them. They appear to be calm in a crisis and be objective, although internally they may be just as emotional as a feeler, but they won't show it.
Feelers show their emotions, and they're concerned with how others feel about them. They make decisions subjectively. They're concerned with people and interpersonal relationships and like to do things for people.
Thinkers perceive feelers as soft-hearted, emotional, and illogical. Feelers perceive thinkers as hard-hearted with ice water for blood. Neither perception is correct. When working with a thinker, use logic. When working with feelers, appeal to their emotions.
Learning to recognize and handle these personality types will not solve all teaching problems, but it will help. Be open to the ideas of other psychologists and integrate this information with other knowledge and with experience you may already have.
There is no single answer to all problems, and even the best answer may not fit all of the time.
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