Healthy Five at level 2 and 3
Motivation Traits; Internal, Difference, Options
Working Traits; Specific, Person, Proximity
There isn’t a meta-programme for curiosity , but if there was one, type Fives would score as one of the highest.
At level 2, Fives “enjoy thinking for its own sake”, which to other people would come across as a Reactive trait; someone who thinks about things, before acting on the information.
Given the Fives Specific tendency as they begin “training a microscope on the environment” – the level of information required, takes longer to accumulate.
The tendency to “point out the subtleties” and “watch for anything out of place” which “ catches their attention”, point to LAB traits of Specific and Difference. Further evidence for Reactive can be gleaned from their “wanting to know what will happen next”.
Healthy Fives are “fascinated by people” other people have not yet become objects to the Five the trait of Person may still be present.
Although they are “extremely independent – working best on their own” (at level 3) they “enjoy communicating their knowledge to others” suggesting a Proximity working style.
However, at level 3 we do begin to see evidence of a Proactive shift towards more Internal and Difference as “they want to push the envelope to test their competency and create a niche for themselves”
Their “love of tinkering” and “finding new combinations” marks a slight shift away from Procedures approach at level 2 where they “want to find order and meaning” towards the Options trait as they become “prolific generators of ideas”.
Motivation Traits; Reactive, Internal, Difference, Options
Working Traits; Specific, Thinking, Self
Shifts: from person to Thing | from Proximity to Independent
As the Specific trait increases in average Fives, the “need to know everything in more detail before they can act with confidence” leads to the downside of a Reactive trait; “delays and missed opportunities”.
”Precision and detail” require Specific trait, which Fives have in bucket-loads, but also a certain amount of Procedure. Whilst healthy Fives have flexibility of mind to be able to shift into procedure, that very flexibility is derived from a strong Options trait, which drives average Fives to continue to tinker with the data “in pursuit of exact knowledge”; thus driving more into their minds to become “disembodied minds, eggheads and nerds” The focus now is on Thing, and the attention more Self.
The mental flexibility alluded to earlier of being able to Chunk up to General and down to Specific becomes stuck at level 5 as they become even more Specific “unable to see the forest for the trees”. The mix of Internal, Self, Thinking and Thing fuels the “argumentative” average Five who has also become “Sceptical” Away-from (what others offer) and Internal, “overpowering others with their intellectual intensity”
As the Internal / Thinking / Self mix causes them to “think about their thoughts and think about those thoughts”
As they move to level 6, Internal and Thing, Thinking Five becomes Proactive as they “jump to conclusions, become reductionists, abrasive, quarrelsome – unwilling to listen to others of compromise”.
Internal Fives “do not even try to disprove their own theories”. Affirming their Independent status by “not sharing information or communication”
The Fives Internal / Thinking stress response, to any challenge of their ideas, is taken as a rejection of themselves. The Proactive “ go on the offensive as “individuals must be discredited, their ideas shown to be worthless” the “ then become antagonistic and nihilistic about the value of relationships” The Self orientated Thinking, Internal, Away-from Five “rejects all human contact”
At level 8 their identity is sorted by their Difference trait, to become the “Terrified Alien”
Fives at this level “make connections between things that have no connection in fact” I don’t see this as Sameness, but the process and combination of Options Chunking up from Specific to General to find connections or even Specific to even more Specifc – after all, at the atomic level, everything connects eventually!
Ultimately, when Fives continue Thinking, Internal, Options about themselves, they become the “Imploding Schizoid – Split personality”
Healthy Fives at level 1
When Fives at level 1, they are “able to see things in whole, perceiving patterns where others see confusion”
Maybe it is direction of the Chunking Process that shifts? Instead of finding connections soley at the Specific, microscopic level; Fives ability to Chunk up to the General level allows them to “see connections between phenomena” A flexibility requiring Sameness and Difference.
The flexible mind of a healthy level one Five means they can be both Other and Self External and Internal as “they are open –minded, taking in more than others”
They have followed the Procedures of “years of study and preparation” and can explore the Options to “develop new art forms (if they are artistically inclined) or revolutionise the form they are working on in ways that have not been seen before”