As we consider the Internal state that influences anticipation, the matter of personality will inevitably emerge. Personality plays a major role in determining the schema we apply to the world in which we act. As I have noted, the psychosocial template (and the somatic template) are important elements of the schema. While the schema (and personality) represents relatively stable components of the human psyche, the templates do shift constantly (or at least frequently) in our dynamic, mid-21st-century environment. While the polystatic process tends to focus on the shifting conditions of our internal and external world, it is important to acknowledge and seek a full understanding and appreciation of the role played by Personality in the psychology of anticipation.
There are many different models of personality types. Each of these comes with differing anticipations based on the specific personality (or character) being considered. I will illustrate how anticipatory psychology can be applied to personality types by focusing on one of the oldest and most respected models—this being the Enneagram. Our enneagram type leads us to differing anticipations. I offer a set of brief suggestions about the nine anticipations (both positive and negative) of the Enneagram (based on Helen Palmer’s version of the Enneagram). At the extreme, each Enneagram type anticipates a large amount of something (positive) or the complete lack of this something (negative). What this something is differs for each type.
Enneagram One: The Perfectionist
Helen Palmer offers the following summary description of the background and current perspective and behavior of someone with a strong Enneagram One orientation (Palmer, 1991, p. 72):
“Ones were good little girls and boys. They learned to behave properly, to take on responsibility, and, most of all, to be correct in the eyes of others. They remember being painfully criticized, and as a result they learned to monitor themselves severely in order to avoid making mistakes that would come other people’s attention. They quite naturally assume that everyone shares their desire for self-betterment and are often disappointed by what they see as a lapse of moral character in others. The Perfectionist outlook is encapsulated in the image of Puritan ancestors. They were hard working, righteous, fiercely independent, and convinced that plain thinking and goodness would prevail over the shadow side of human nature.”
If we explore the anticipatory reactions of Enneagram Ones, we find both positive and negative reactions. On the positive side, there is the prospect of living in an orderly world, or more immediately, the prospect of finding a room one is about to enter as being tidy or a relationship in which one is about to enter being highly predictable and constrained by social conventions or formal role. The Enneagram One is likely “light up” (a drop of dopamine in their bloodstream) when anticipating that the people with whom they are about to interact are responsible and to be trusted—they have “moral character.” The “light up” is also likely to occur when anticipating that a highly structured, rule-based (even legal) system is available for interactions with another person.
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