References for studying the Enneagram
Meet the books cited on this site and the themes each one treats. The notes below present ideas; they do not reproduce the books or validate the questionnaire.
By Hermano Reis
Helen Palmer: The Enneagram
One idea Palmer works with is the link between personality and attention: what a person notices first, what they tend to skip, and how that shows up in relationships.
That reading can sit next to a simple question: in a situation that repeats, where does my attention go? Compare what you notice with the type descriptions.
Meet the nine typesRiso and Hudson: The Wisdom of the Enneagram
Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson present type descriptions, wings, and levels of development. Those ideas widen the study of motives and of how people react.
The levels belong to that theoretical teaching. This site's test does not measure a person's level of development or mental health.
Learn the Enneagram ideas used hereAnd what does the research say?
A review of studies published by Hook and colleagues in 2021 found mixed evidence for the Enneagram's reliability and validity. It also notes little research on aspects such as wings and movement between types.
That is why we present the result as support for reflection, with limits. Personal experience with the Enneagram does not prove a questionnaire is accurate.
Read the review in the Journal of Clinical Psychology