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"Sorter" is
probably not a familiar word to most readers. To
the best of our knowledge it was first used by David
Keirsey to describe his Keirsey Temperament Sorter.
We use it to describe our temperament questionnaires,
for a particular reason. These instruments are working
tools. They do not set your temperament in stone
in the way that you might think of an IQ test as setting
your intelligence in stone with a single number.
Rather, they are an aid to "sorting" through the many
things you already know about yourself and your
children, in order to find basic, underlying patterns or
temperament traits. Accuracy depends greatly on how well
you know yourself or your child, and how rigorously
honest you are able to be with yourself.
The Sorters and our parenting philosophy
I. We are convinced,
both by personal experience, and by scientific research,
that we all do bring inherited temperament tendencies
into the world from the very beginning. We think
that you can see some of these qualities in your
children as early as four years, and perhaps earlier, if
you are very observant.
II. We believe that
the estimate of a genetic basis for 30 to 50% of all
temperament differences is well supported by research.
III. We also believe
that that genetic basis is further strengthened during
development by the child's own actions. That is,
insofar as children have any control of events, they
tend to seek out those settings and activities that are
most comfortable for them. As a single example, an
extraverted child would be much more likely to make
active connections with other children in all sorts of
settings, than would an introverted child. This
difference, in turn, will have some effect on the amount
and timing of social experiences parents tend to
provide.
IV. Based on all of
the above, we believe that there are three main ways
that parents can use an understanding of temperament to
foster the child's best growth and happiness.
A. Becoming familiar with their child's
temperament preferences
and their own.
B. Working to help the child strengthen skills in
the areas that don't fit his or temperament preferences,
as you might slowly help a very shy child to become more
comfortable with others.
C. Learning to really respect temperament-based
differences and make compromises between what you want
of your child and what your child wants of the world.
(This last is a very useful skill for husbands and wives
to practice too.)
Our three Sorter
sets
I. The Harkey-Jourgensen Childhood Temperament
Sorters.
Form 1 Ages 4-8 years
Form 2: Ages 9-12 years
II. The
Harkey-Jourgensen Adult Temperament Sorter.
Form 1 (4-8 years)
and Form 2 (9-12 years) are
being offered on this website free of charge. Form
1 has a self-scoring form, while Form 2 must be mailed
in to receive results. We apologize for this
inconvenience however, we
have added some new questions to Form 2 and wish to test these on
interested parents.
The Adult Sorter
is also being offered
free of charge. A short form, not fully tested,
appears in our books, but we have since completed the
research for the full scale and it is offered here.
This Sorter is self-scoring.
A little History
The particular set of
temperament preferences that we are concerned with originated with the Swiss
psychiatrist, Carl Jung in work he published in the
1920s.
In America, Isabel Myers designed a
scale to measure those traits. This later became known
as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (the MBTI). This scale is widely used today,
particularly in business and industry, where it is a
favorite measure in personnel work.
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Vol. II |
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Sorter info |
4-8
Sorter |
9-12 Sorter | Adult Sorter |
Pref. Info |
Child Types |
Adult Types | Visit with Authors |
Workshops
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