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ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POSTURE AND PERSONALITY TYPE
by Dr. Sylvain Guimond , A.A., B.ed., D.O., Ph.D.
San Diego University for Integrative Studies
For centuries, researchers and practitioners have attempted to explain a relationship between the mind and the body. One cannot function without the other, proving a unique and interesting interdependence. This research hypothesizes a relationship between physical posture and personality type. Each person thinks for himself and develops a personality type that is unique. That personality type influences the person’s day-to-day function as well as affects the individual’s comportment. Posture makes a statement about an individual: a statement that he or she may not be intending to make.
Finding a connection between posture and personality could be very helpful to professionals in the medical field. This type of data could help with prevention and treatment of back pain and other forms of pain and discomfort. It will provide insight to what causes pain and what can be done to prevent it.
A total of one hundred subjects participated in the study of posture and personality. Two assessments were used, one to distinguish personality type and the other to evaluate biomechanics and posture. For the identification of personality, or typological inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was used. This questionnaire, consisting of 93 questions about day-to-day life, asks respondents to self-report preferences in four scales: Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E), Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). The combination of the preferred dimensions results in 16 personality types.
The second form of assessment measured the biomechanics of posture. A test was administered with the BioPrint system by Biotonix. Photographs were used to evaluate the subject’s posture, detecting any type of postural deviation. The Bioprint system identifies 4 major types of posture categorized by Kendall and Kendall: ideal posture (A), kyphosis-lordosis (B), flat back (C), and sway-back (D). The BioPrint system identified one of the four types of posture for each subject.
Our results showed that 96% of subjects in Posture A, ideal posture, fell into the category of Extraverted (E) personality type, leaving only 4% of those subjects in the category of Introverted (I) personality type. 83% of subjects in Posture B were Extraverted (E) and 17% were Introverted (I). In Posture C, 42% were Extraverted (E) and 58% were Introverted (I). Finally, in Posture D, 26% of subjects were Extraverted (E) and 74% were Introverted (I).
Personal orientations are categorized into either Judging preference (J) or Perceiving preference (P). Interestingly, J preferences were 23% in Posture A, 47% in Posture B, 53% in Posture C, and 57% in Posture D. Perceiving was present in 77% of Posture A subjects, 53% in Posture B, 47% in Posture C, and 43% in Posture D. The majority of Posture A subjects were Adaptable Extraverts: ESTP, ESFP, ENFP, ENTP (EP). Furthermore, the results showed that most subjects in Posture D were Decisive Introverts: ISTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ (IJ). A conclusion was made that there is a relationship between posture and personality type based on the data.
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