Enneagram Types As Students

What is the Enneagram?

…And what does it have to do with being a student?

The Enneagram is a tool used for personal reflection and growth. It is based off of a nine-point star (see graphic below) that represents the different ways we relate to ourselves, others, and the world. Each Enneagram type is marked by their different patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that arise from a deeper worldview. Learning about these patterns will give you a clearer understanding of how you work, how you “student”, and how you respond to different environments.

P.S. I’m a 3 wing 2 (and so is my husband which makes for an interesting match!)

With every “personality test,” you might not fit completely into one single type, and the Cap & Co. team are definitely not experts on the Enneagram. However, learning more about what type you are can help you understand more about how to maximize your growth and motivation, especially throughout school. Learn more from the official website, here. (This is also the website where we got most of the information you’ll see throughout this blog post.)

Let’s Break It Down…

Basic Personality

There are 9 numbers that connect to 9 different personality types and the one that you identify with the most is your basic personality type. The Enneagram is based off of childhood psychology and a philosophy that focuses on the presence of one single core personality in each person (“your soul.”)

Wing

To further personalize your individual personality type, a wing is one of the two adjacent numbers to your basic personality type that you also relate with -- the “second side” of your personality. This means that if you are a Enneagram Type 5, your wing has to be either 4 or 3. It can’t be any other number. They’re placed in the order they are in for a specific reason! This also means that two people can be an Enneagram 5, but an Enneagram 5 W 4 processes a bit differently than a 5 W 3.

Growth + Stress

To reflect the fact that our personalities are not constant, the enneagram recognizes where each type goes during moments of growth and stress. This makes the most sense when you’re viewing the types on the nine-point diagram.

Growth: 1-7-5-8-2-4-1 (Ex: An Enneagram 1, goes to an Enneagram 7 when they’re in a season of growth.)

Stress: 1-4-2-8-5-7-1 (Ex: An Enneagram 1, goes to an Enneagram 4 when stressed.)

The Types…

As taken off of the Enneagram Institute website:

Type One (Reformer) is principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionistic.

Type Two (Helper) is generous, demonstrative, people-pleasing, and possessive.

Type Three (Achiever) is adaptable, excelling, driven, and image-conscious.

Type Four (Individualist) is expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental.

Type Five (Investigator) is perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated.

Type Six (Loyalist) is engaging, responsible, anxious, and suspicious.

Type Seven (Enthusiast) is spontaneous, versatile, acquisitive, and scattered.

Type Eight (Challenger) is self-confident, decisive, willful, and confrontational.

Type Nine (Peacemaker) is receptive, reassuring, complacent, and resigned.

Knowing Your Enneagram As A Student…

Knowing your Enneagram Type, your wing, and where you go in growth and stress is important to maximizing your potential. Specifically as students, understanding more about how we process can encourage longer seasons of growth and shorter spurts of stress. Check out this article that goes deeper into what each Enneagram Type can do to be a better student or this article to read about what type of learning environment is best for your Enneagram Type.