Personal Style Application
About the Personal Style
Application
Susan K. Gilmore, Ph.D. and Patrick W. Fraleigh, Ph.D. worked together as counseling psychologists with a focus on career and life planning. After years of conducting workshops, consulting, and coaching, in 1980 they co-authored a book entitled Style Profile for Communication at Work. It became the basis for a series of profiles studying communication styles and their impact on people in settings from home to school and work.
The Friendly Style profile questionnaire highlights how individuals respond in various situations, both calm and stormy. For decades this knowledge has proven valuable to participants for self-awareness and understanding interpersonal dynamics.
Another source in this area is research done by David W. Merril, Ph.D. and Roger H. Reid in the 1960s and 1970s reflected in the book they published in 1981, Personal Styles and Effective Performance. This kind of approach to studying personal style is based on external, practical observation of what one says and does, and not on inner psychological aspects or personal history.
Gilmore and Fraleigh acknowledge the limitations of this kind of questionnaire and recognize it is not to be viewed as a standardized psychological test. The Friendly Style Profile is a tool to aid in communication. The information can aid self-management and help you bring out the best in others.
