The Three Parts of The Mind

Long ago, experts in the field of psychology (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) determined that there are three parts of the mind that we each have. These three parts make up our whole person. These three parts represent how we feel, do, and think during our individual creative processes. What we feel impacts how we will do and that influences what we think (in that order). As complex human beings, these traits combine to be unique from person to person and are hard to detect in shorter windows of time without the help of reliable assessment tools.

Affective (Relating "Feel" Style)

A person’s affective strengths lie in their ability to use emotion effectively. Assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator measure a person’s reaction to circumstances and assigns a “personality type” that defines the emotional tools that you use to cope, grow and communicate in your daily life. Like the cognitive mind, your affective traits evolve and fluctuate given your experiences and circumstances. 

A person acquires these by choice.

• Personality

• Attitudes

• Emotions

• Wants

• Desires

• Preferences

• Values

• Beliefs

• Feelings

• Motivations

• Social styles

• Ways of caring

• Likes and dislikes

Examples of affective assessments:

• DiSC

• ProfileXT (Behavioral Traits)

• Myers-Briggs

• Profiles Performance Indicator

• Profiles Sales & Customer Service

• Profiles Step One

• StrengthsFinder

• Working Genius

• Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)

Conative (Striving "Do" Talents)

We didn’t invent the conative mind. But our founder, Kathy Kolbe, and our team of psychologists have come to understand how it works and how to measure it. Your conative mind contains the instincts and innate attributes that define your natural method of operation (MO). When you work in your natural style, you are more productive, more comfortable and more successful. We identify people’s instinctive strengths, explain them, analyze how they align with tasks and other people, and offer practical solutions for putting them into practice — from doing better in a job, to team performance, to personal relationships.

A person acquires these innately.

• How one acts

• Behaviors

• Actions

• Natural talents

• Uses of time

• How one strives

• Performances

• Instincts

• How one avoids

• Forces, drives, urges

• Necessities

• Natural ways of doing

• Innate forces

• Commitments

• Self-control

• The executive brain

• Mental energies

• Inclinations

• Will or won’t do

• “God-given gifts”

Examples of conative assessments:

• Kolbe Wisdom Kolbe Indexes A, B and C

Cognitive (Thinking "Think" Skills)

This part of your mind defines your “intelligence.” It grows as you learn and is ever-changing. IQ tests are the most common form of testing; however, anyone who has taken a test more than once knows that the results only showcase a portion of a person’s true ability to learn, retain, and recall information.

A person acquires these developmentally.

• Education

• Training

• Skills

• Experiences

• Reasoning

• Habits

• Thinking styles

• Learning styles

• Knowledge

• Learned behaviors

• Biography – Data

• Applications

• Judgments

• Understanding

• Memories

• Can and can’t do

Examples of cognitive assessments:

• ProfileXT (Thinking Style)

• Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Style

• Hermann Brain Dominance

• Various skill tests

• IQ tests

>>Read more about the Insight Whole Mind recruiting and selection process

Source: Our work about The Three Parts of Mind is derived from Kolbe Corp.