Assessment of Keirsey Personality Temperaments among Aerospace Electronics Students

Abstract

Personality temperaments of aerospace electronics (i.e., avionics) students attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) were obtained. The assessment tool was the Montgomery Shorter Sorter® (Montgomery, 2002), a short version of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II® (Keirsey & Bates, 1978). It was administered to all avionics students (N = 44) who graduated between the Spring 2004 and Spring 2007 terms. Results for the four temperaments were 23 (52%) “Guardians,†11 (25%) “Artisans,†6 (14%) “Idealists,†and 3 (7%) “Rationals.†Compared to population estimates by Keirsey (1998), this sample contained 6% to 12% more Guardians, 4% to 8% more Idealists, and 10% to 15% fewer Artisans. Of the possible 16 skilled role variants, “Guardian Supervisors†(52%) and “Guardian Inspectors†(27%) comprised 79% of the sample. According to Keirsey (1998), highly technical fields are predominated by Rational personality temperaments but this study produced only 3 (7%). The majority (80%) of the avionics students were “sensing†types, which agreed with the results from a study on the temperaments of aerospace and electrical engineering students (McCaulley, 1990). Yet, unlike the McCaulley study in which most of the participants were introverts, this study produced equal numbers of introverts and extroverts. Results from this study have not supported the claim that Keirsey temperament theory reliably matches personality temperaments with education majors. These findings have implications for college advisors, career guidance counselors, and those who use psychometric testing to facilitate academic placement of students in aerospace electronics and avionics.