Life Styles Inventory Analysis

For over a decade managers, supervisors and psychologists have been using the Life Styles Inventory (LSI), developed by Dr. J. Clayton Lafferty, as a diagnostic tool to give individuals feedback as to how they see themselves. The benefit of the LSI allows an individual to better understand how they are and why they are this way. An individual’s performance is affected by both thinking and behavior. Taking the assessment will help pinpoint the persons strengths and weaknesses in order to make positive changes. And since people able to change how they think and behave, the LSI guides them as to what strengths will increase their effectiveness and what is preventing them from reaching their true potential.
There are three styles that are measured
when using the LSI. These include the constructive style, the passive/defensive style and the aggressive/defensive style. Broken down into these three groups there are 12 thinking and behavior styles. The constructive style measures humanistic encouraging, affiliative, achievement and self-actualizing: the level of a person’s satisfaction, the ability to develop healthy relationships, their ability to work with people and how they complete tasks. The passive/defensive style measures approval, conventional, dependent and avoidance. This style reflects the individuals need for security when interacting with other people. The aggressive/defensive style measures oppositional, power, competitive and perfectionistic. This style reflects the individuals need for security through task related activities (LSI Personalized Results, 2014). An individual’s scores are charted on a circumplex and the overall profile outlines the respondent’s strongest and second strongest styles.