When I facilitate Enneagram workshops, sometimes the audience are curious about knowing the correlation between MBTI, Enneagram and DISC 5 personality systems.
The Enneagram is not based on a certain set of personal characteristics/traits with every person scoring differently on the different characteristics. This is unlike some major other personality type models, including the DISC, MBTI and Big Five. These are all built around their own list of dimensions (traits, preferences, talents, behaviours), which are used to differentiate people or types.
Even though it can be very difficult to make a perfect and meaningful comparison between enneagram and other personality systems, I did some research to know if there are any such correlations and found few observations which I wanted to share below.
Since there are 16 MBTI types and only 9 Enneagram types, there is a lot of potential overlapping. This is a quick match-up of the highest percentage for each.
High level correlation between MBTI and Enneagram.
For more information on MBTI, we could refer to https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/the-mbti-preferences/
- Where you focus your attention/energy – Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)
- The way you take in information – Sensing (S) or INtuition (N)
- How you make decisions – Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
- How you deal with the world – Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
High level correlation between Big 5 and Enneagram.
The below graph, taken from the research paper Relationships between OPQ and Enneagram Types by Anna Brown and Dave Bartram, shows how the Enneagram types score on the dimensions of the Big Five (which is the model considered to have the most scientific reliability).
Source: Relationships between OPQ and Enneagram Types by Anna Brown and Dave Bartram
Conclusion
All the 3 personality systems compliment each other and each of them provide different levels of insights. I quote the example of different flavors of ice cream being compared to different systems. When we know all the systems, it is like having a gud bud ice cream.
Please note that the above resource is for the quick reference. I am still working on the deep research and validation of the above correlation work.