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Kendra's Psychology Blog

By Kendra Van Wagner, About.com Guide to Psychology since 2005

What's Your Learning Style?

Tuesday September 29, 2009

Have you ever noticed that you seem to learn best under certain conditions? For example, some students learn best from class lectures while others learn best by reading textbooks. Your unique learning style can play a role in how well you learn as well as your ability to retain and recall information.

learning styles
Discover your unique learning style.
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All people have different abilities, personalities, motivations and past experiences that may impact how they learn best. Numerous theories exist to categorized and describe these different ways of learning. One of these theories is based upon the work of analytical psychologist Carl Jung. Jung's theory suggests that there are a number of psychological types based on several different personality patterns.

Jung's theory focuses on four basic psychological functions:

  1. Extroversion vs. Introversion
  2. Sensation vs. Intuition
  3. Thinking vs. Feeling
  4. Judging vs. Perceiving

You may be familiar with these personality types from the well-known Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator, which is based upon Jung's work. While Jung's theory is typically applied to personality assessment, it can also be a useful tool for understanding your unique learning style.

Remember that your learning style is not set in stone. It may change over time or based upon the learning situation that you are in. Most importantly, remember that no single theory or style can fully encompass the way you learn best. In reality, your learning style is likely a mix of many different abilities, characteristics and preferences. Learn more by reading the article on the learning styles based on Jung's personality theory and consider which combination of styles most closely describes how you learn best.

Comments

October 1, 2009 at 6:44 am
(1) Arthur Smith says:

Jung’s model was never really that well applied to the MBTI and the MBTI suffers from many psychometric weaknesses as well.

I really like the Hybrid Model of Learning in Personality as a modern, valid and reliable way of understanding the development of functional learning.

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