While the true origin of the Enneagram remains obscure, there is little doubt that it is an important method of explaining temperament.  The work of Oscar Ischaso at the Arica Institute and current research being undertaken at Stanford University in the USA confirms that the system can be applied in transforming people from a fixated state where their behaviour is largely determined by their beliefs and remembered psychological injury, to a state of heightened functioning and awareness. One of Ischaso's early trainees, Claudio Naranjo, was instrumental in popularising the system with psychologists and worked with Raymond Cattel, the author of the 16PF, on the system (Naranjo, 1994).

The Enneagram of Consciousness (Palmer, 1988) describes nine mind-states or life strategies which are adopted by individuals and which predict certain characteristic behaviours.  While this is often taken to suggest that individuals can be classified into specific types by means of this system, there is also evidence that people adopt different strategies under varying environmental conditions but still have a “home” point or central strategy to which they return under “normal” circumstances.  The process of character formation is described by Palmer (1988) as follows:

“Once personality is formed, attention becomes immersed in the preoccupations that characterise our type.  We lose the essential childlike ability to respond to the world as it really is and begin to become selectively sensitive to the information that supports our type's worldview.  We see what we need to see and become oblivious to the rest.” (p 26)

She continues to point out that the preoccupations of a type are easy to name (Palmer, 1988, p27).  We have adopted a naming convention based on the central behaviour of the Enneagram points and these are shown in Figure 1.

Ischaso maintains that the points of the Enneagram can be divided into three centres each of which represents a basic instinct.  These instincts of self-preservation, self-presentation and relationship are associated with the gut, heart and head respectively indicating their preoccupations in power, feeling and thinking again respectively.

THE MEASUREMENT OF TYPE BEHAVIOUR

Although a number of methods are adopted to identify type-specific behaviour, we hold that a behaviour-based questionnaire is both the easiest and most efficient method of doing this.  It lacks the elegance of other methods, notably those developed by the Arica School, which allow for self-discovery rather than a test-and-tell approach.  Yet, we believe that we are able to tap into a full range of behaviour using a simply worded, descriptive questionnaire.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIOURAL ITEMS

A panel of colleagues, all psychologists or social workers, was formed and supplied with two commonly used books on the enneagram (Palmer, 1988; Riso and Hudson, 1973) and instructed to identify fifteen key behavioural characteristics for each of the enneagram points.  These items were edited and constructed into a questionnaire consisting of 150 items where ten additional items were included measuring the perceived need to change and satisfaction with life (PNTC).  All the items were rated on a three-point Lickert-type scale.

SCALE STATISTICS

The questionnaire was administered to 600 people drawn from the business community in Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa.  This initial sample was representative of gender and race although it numerically favoured the white members of society, being more represented at the levels of business that were tapped.

The results of the scale analysis are shown in table 1.

Table 1.  Item Statistics

The questionnaire data was submitted for factor analysis which revealed two factors but failed to converge using Varimax rotation.

DISCUSSION

The Alpha indices shown in table 1, a measure of scale internal inter-correlation, while relatively low for the nine enneagram scales, still suggests that the items are inter related.  On closer examination of the responses to the individual items, it was found that many of the items were responded to positively by more than of sixty percent of the sample group suggesting that they were not discriminatory.  On the other hand, because of the nature of the items in the last scale (PNTC), this scale revealed a strong Alpha coefficient and a low mean.  Here the items were much less popular with the sample group. 

It has been decided to produce a second version of the questionnaire in which the scale items are designed to be more discriminatory by hardening the wording of the items which failed to adequately discriminate between people but leave the first questionnaire in place because our use of this questionnaire's results, in conjunction with a self-discovery process, has suggested that we are indeed predicting fixated behaviour.

REFERENCES

Naranjo, C. "Character and Neurosis: An Integrative View." Gateways/IDHHB Inc, NEW YORK, 1994.

Palmer, H. “The Enneagram: Understanding Yourself and Others in Your Life.” Harper Collins Publishers, NEW YORK, 1988.