Individual Differences: A Question of Meta Program Variety

Abstract

Personality types are determined by thinking styles known in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as ‘meta programs’. These programs work as filters, determine our perception of experiences and underpin the personality type of each individual. They are context specific and may change with time. This article discusses personality types according to five complex meta programs and aims to enable teachers to deal with students according to their individual differences from this perspective. The five meta programs are presented according to the type of filter they relate to. First, the motivation direction filter consists of two meta programs: ‘towards’ and ‘away from’. It indicates values that direct people’s actions. Second, the relationship filter which determines how people process new information contains two meta programs: ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’. Third, the way work is carried out, or operation filter has two meta programs: ‘options’ and ‘procedures’. Fourth, the frame of reference filter indicates the decision making process and consists of the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ meta programs. Finally, according to the chunk-size filter, there are two ways in which people present information as in the ‘specific’ and ‘global’ meta programs. This paper also aims to equip teachers with a theoretical knowledge base that would make them tolerate certain behaviors from students since they will recognize the underpinning cognitive reasons that justify them.