DISC or Extended DISC
DISC Definition
DISC assessment is a personality assessment tool derived from the DISC personality theory of psychologist William Marston. His theory focuses on four different Disc personality types or personality traits: Inducement, Dominance, Submission, and Compliance. Industrial psychologist Walter Vernon Clarke (July 26, 1905 – Jan. 1, 1978) then evolved this theory into a personality assessment tool (personality profile test). John Geier then simplified the test for more concise and better results. This version is the one that’s used today.
William Moulton Marston, after doing research on human emotions, published his findings in his book titled Emotions of Normal People in 1928. In this book, he elucidated his theory that people demonstrate their emotions through behavior utilizing the four behavior types called (Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C). He explained that these behavioral types came from people’s interaction with the environment and their sense of self. He talked about two dimensions that swayed people’s emotional behavior. The first being whether a person views his environment as unfavorable or favorable. The second being whether a person sees himself as being in control or not over his environment.
In 1956, Walter Clarke, an industrial psychologist, by accident constructed the DISC assessment using William Moulton Marston’s theory of the DISC model. He achieved this by publishing the Activity Vector Analysis, a list of adjectives on which he inquired from people to specify descriptions that were precise about themselves. This assessment was envisioned, to be used in business needing assistance with choosing qualified employees. Even with all of William Moulton Marston’s and Walter Clarke’s work and advances, the DISC assessment still had to mature further. John Greier put in a lot of work into this assessment by producing the DISC personality profile in 1958 based on the earlier works of Marston and Clarke. Greier undertook hundreds of clinical interviews in order to assist him to further develop the fifteen patterns that Walter Clarke had uncovered.
Extended DISC definition
The Extended DISC® System is based on a psychological theory developed in the 1920′s. Carl G. Jung created the foundations for the theory in his book The Psychological Types (Die Psychologische Typen). His theory was based on outlining two behavioral axes; sensation- intuition and thinking – feeling, and the four main behavioral traits that they composed. William Moulton-Marston further developed Jung’s work and described a four dimensional behavioral map.
Consequently, the four-quadrant thinking of human behavior was developed. It is still prevalent and is used in many sales, management and leadership training techniques.
The DISC profile has demonstrated a very clear way of analyzing and describing an individual’s normal reaction mode to any stimuli in the environment. Acknowledging some 160 different behavioral styles, The Extended DISC® System lets an individual be more dynamic (adapting) and flexible in his/her behavior.
Extended DISC® Theory does not categorize people into bad or good. Nor does it limit a person’s potential to develop in any other work environment or direction. Extended DISC® Theory explains the person’s normal behavioral style or reaction mode in different situations. It also helps the person in understanding one’s own and others’ behavior, to regulate one’s own behavior to better suit a given situation, to avert unnecessary issues in communication and to direct one’s life into a positive direction.
Learn more about yourself by taking an Extended DISC Test via link Extended DISC Test