An Application of Enneagram to Explore Causal Factors Influencing Different Personality Types: Case Study of Bachelor Degree Students, Rajabhat University

Abstract

The objectives of this investigation were to study causal factors influencing the nine types of personalities according to the enneagram theory and to examine the opinions of the participants on the enneagram-based learning process. The sample group involved in this study was 368 undergraduate students who were enrolled in the Contemplative Studies Course in the second semester of the 2016 academic year. The research instruments included details of the course, a Contemplative Studies coursebook, a personality test, and the AAR activities. The Content Analysis was used to analyze the data and the findings were presented descriptively with examples. The findings are summarized as follows. The factors influencing the different types of personalities were from the rearing of parents and relatives as well as teachings of teachers, followed by local socio-cultural contexts and childhood or adolescent experiences which created an impression and habit formation. And, the opinions of the participants on enneagram-based activities were that there were a lot of fun activities, enabling them to understand themselves and others better as well as implementing the idea with others as friends.