Every morning I run a three-mile loop on the Devonian Pathway which surrounds the urban side of Wascana Lake. Every morning I say, “Morning” to everyone I meet on these runs. This blog entry is simply a conjecture on what these morning recipients are thinking, my inductive approach to measuring the responses, and then bracketing these responses into four different personality traits. Of course I could be wrong about everyone in this morning regard.
I could have followed the Greek physician, Hippocrates “father of medicine” (400 BC) theory that we are either sanguine (pleasure seeking and sociable), or choleric (ambitious and leader-like), or melancholic (analytical and literal), or phlegmatic (relaxed and thoughtful).
I could have followed the early 1900’s personality theory of American writer, Katherine Cook Briggs, and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, the Myers-Briggs Personality Test insisting on the four categories of people being: introversion/extroversion, or sensing/intuition, or thinking/feeling, or judging/perceiving.
I could have followed the personality theory of Swedish writer, Thomas Erikson, suggesting that people belong to the Reds (dominant and commanding), or the Yellows (social and optimistic), or the Greens (laid back and friendly), or the Blues (analytical and precise).
Instead of following any of the above I chose to create my own psychology test, The Morning Pneuma: The Pedestrian Personality Profile, which is based upon my morning runs. “Morning” is a wordplay. I do run every morning and while running I say “morning” to everyone I meet on the path.
Pneuma, which in Latin means air in motion or simply, breath, is a word I’ve chosen, too, for the title because it is alliterative (the P is silent), and because of the connotation of air in motion for a runner and the short greeting by anyone responding requires just a breath to deliver. (And it so happens that Pneuma, too, refers to spirit, mind, soul, self, and subconscious, also anima, psyche, and personality. It’s the perfect word!)
Like any other psychology test, the Morning Pneuma only measures one moment of behaviour in a person’s life. The Morning Pneuma is simply one snapshot of one personality caught in a mere moment in life. It would be wrong to suggest that this moment represents this person’s whole personality. It would be wrong to inductively reason that from one isolated moment of behaviour reflects one’s entire persona. Saying this, however, if someone’s behaviour is consistently cheery or grumpy or fastidious or flaky in test after test, whatever test being administered to measure this personality would for certain have some validity and/or credibility.
- · ADMINISTRATION
Instructions for the standardized administration of the MORNING PNEUMA: THE PEDESTRIAN PERSONALITY PROFILE are simple, simple.
Because I’m a regular morning runner, I tend to meet the same people on every run. You know what I mean? At the gym every day I meet the same people who go to my gym at that same hour. As I pass a couple of bus stops on my walk to my workplace every day I meet the same people standing at those bus stops. In the world of psychology, such people who are predicatively present in places you frequently visit at the same particular hours, those people who share the same space and times as yourself, are referred to as familiar strangers.
- · METHOD
On the morning of the fourth of July, a usually busy, busy holiday but because of the Covid restrictions in my city, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, I said, “morning,” to just 31 people walking down the path. (I could’ve greeted people other than walkers but I didn’t.) The length of my run was three miles; the entire testing time took 33 minutes. This is my typical running speed – 11 minutes per mile.)
For my test I ran. To deliver my “mornings” I could’ve walked or I could’ve ridden my bike, with likely the same test results.
Also, to conduct my test, I could’ve picked anywhere, could've picked most any day, could've picked most any time of day, or most anytime in any season. There are some obvious exceptions: Anytime after dark would be ridiculous. During heat waves or frigid temperatures would be ridiculous. In a mall or down the midway would be ridiculous. Anywhere in the boonies too far from the madding crowd would have been ridiculous.
- · RESULTS
Essentially, I have bracketed these “morning” recipients into four pseudo-psychological personality types: Cheerios (the rather sunny group), Grumpos (the surly group), Perfunctos (the austere group), and Astros (the somewhat abstracted group). For the purposes of my points today, four such personality types shall suffice. Those sunny Cheerios are sweet and cheerful; those surly Grumpos are menacing and even threatening; those austere Perfunctos are serious and stern; those abstracted Astros are out of touch and lost in La-La land.
Of the thirty-one morning recipients, I discerned thirteen Cheerios, four Grumpos, eleven Perfunctos, and three Astros. Thirteen cheers for the Cheerios --
HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY ...
And here are four of the familiar strangers that fit the bill of those personality groups I am presenting. I shall refer to them by nickname to protect their true identity, though I must confess I’ve no clue of their true identities anyway.
Saint Nick is an older man who looks exactly like the 50’s and 60’s Coca-Cola Santa Claus. He is balding and sporting a long white beard. He even dresses in red most of the time. I have seen him in a red t-shirt and I have noticed he wears red socks in his sandals. Saint Nick always says “hi there” or “hello” to me before I morning him. Definitely a Cheerio, Saint Nick always smiles while he greets me.
Mister Tattoo is thirty-something, with shoulder-length hair and shirtless, seemingly showing off his tattooed skinny arms, tattooed moobs, and even his tattooed pot belly. Mister Tattoo glares at me whenever we pass one another. To my morning greeting, Grumpo, Mister Tattoo, never nods or orally responds; instead, he just sneers.
Red is always walking her two dogs. To my “mornings” she simply nods her head with an expressionless visage. I have noticed one thing, especially, about her. She is always rifling through the dumpsters on the pathway, not looking for cans or bottles, but for food for her dogs. I have seen her grab a box from the garbage, empty the contents into her hand, then toss the food contents to the ground for her mutts. Red is of the Perfunctos ilk.
Twist and Shout is always shakin’ it up and workin’ it on out as he meanders down the path. Twist and Shout seems in no shape to recognize, never mind acknowledge, my morning greeting. Always wearing a set of headphones, Twist and Shout belongs to my Astros.
- · CONCLUSIONS
Basing my MORNING PNEUMA results upon the responses from my cache of familiar strangers, here is my skinny comparison to the other aforementioned published psychological personality types:
My Cheerios would align with Erikson’s Yellows and Hippocrates’ Sanguines. My Grumpos would align with Erikson’s Reds and Hippocrates’ Cholerics. The Perfunctos could be compared to Erikson’s Blues and Hippocrates’ Melancholics. Those I’ve bracketed as Astros can be compared to Erikson’s Greens and Hippocrates’ Phlegmatics.
None of my groups can easily be compared to those in the Myers-Briggs. Neither can Erikson’s nor Hippocrates’ personality types be easily compared to any in the Myers-Briggs. This is my educated guess.
Another educated guess is that my MORNING PNEUMA can be closely replicated while I'm thrumming at my next buskspot. Within the next day or two whilst on a busk with my banjo, I shall greet the first 31 passers-by with a "Morning" and keep a record of their responses.
Hmmm ...
STRUMMING SO, MY BUSKING WILL SOON BE TRANSFORMED FROM RECREATIONAL TO A MENSURABLE AVANT-GARDE ADVENTURE IN ACADEMIA!
- · REFLECTIONS
Psychological tests/inventories measure only person/s in a particular moment. Any behaviour before or after the testing moments are very independent of the testing moment. Should the same test be replicated frequently with the same results, the more reliable and the more valid do the test results become.
Some theorists have suggested that one’s true personality is only expressed under emergency situations or expressed when a person knows that no one else is around to observe one’s personal behaviour. Such an emergency situation could include a heart attack or stroke, or a natural disaster such as a flood or tornado. Such behaviours occurring when no one else is around could include picking one’s nose or being a litter bug.
I shall add a point of personal reflection: The Cheerios could have been high on drugs. The Grumpos might have been having just a bad day. The Astros might have been rehearsing for a play or stage presentation somewhere. The Perfunctos might have just been absorbed in thoughts elsewhere, yet still knowingly be sociable enough to treat me with a morning respect.
While administering any academic psychological test that is credible, one has to adhere to a code of ethics. However, with regard to ethics while conducting my Morning Pneuma, having people unwittingly be subjected a rather non-intrusive morning greeting to determine some patterns of human behaviour, then attaching such behaviours to certain personality types, I believe, is okey- dokey. No person is identified. No person is personality criticized or humiliated. Every unknowing participant is just another ghost in the morning pneuma machinery.
Speaking of which, are we not all just ghosts in any stranger’s life. Of course I am not referring to haunting ghosts – I am referring only to friendly ghosts.
IN THE WORLD OF GHOSTS WE ARE MOSTLY CASPERS.
Not-so-strangely, here are some movie ghosts making a shadowy appearance in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE today:
POLLYANNA -
CHEERIO - POLLYANNA MOVIE
MEAN GIRL -
GRUMPO - MEAN GIRLS MOVIE
MR. SPOCK -
PERFUNCTO - STAR TREK MOVIE
JEFF SPICOLI
- ASTRO - FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH MOVIE
