What Does Research Say About The Enneagram Personality Typology System (EPS)?
Enneagram 101
How legitimate is the enneagram personality typology system (EPS)? In 2021, researcher Joshua Hook and his colleagues set out to discover what is known about the EPS in the available scientific literature.
According to the comprehensive literature review conducted by Hook et al. (2021), there are only 104 existing empirical studies on the EPS that are written in English. Hook et al. divided their task into five major components: a) examine the methodology of the available research studies, b) investigate how the enneagram types are determined, c) explore the correlation between the EPS and other personality typology systems, d) review the evidence for the concepts of wings and intertype movement, and e) consider the evidence for the EPS’s utility for personal/spiritual growth (concepts grouped together by the authors). The criteria for studies included in the authors’ review were that the research had to be empirical in nature and presented in English. No theoretical papers or case studies were included. The strategies employed for exploration of the literature included searching databases, examining the reference sections of relevant articles, reviewing all applicable articles from The Enneagram Journal, probing previous EPS literature reviews, and contacting…
