PAS Training

See the PAS tab, the Bibliography and the Resources tabs for online resources. In particular, the Resources tab links to the entire archive of PASF journals.

See the Conferences tab for information on any upcoming conferences or training sessions.

Also, personalized training and mentoring is available. Please Contact us for information.

A guide to a self-study course on the PAS using resources on this web site is presented below.

Suggested Order of Study

Important Before You Start:

  1. Dr. Bob MacLachlan notes at the beginning of his short video introduction to the PAS (referenced below) that the PAS cannot truly be learned from books. It must be learned from other people. Furthermore, it can only be understood by observing people in light of PAS theory. The self-study materials here are a starting point for anyone interesting in learning the PAS.
  2. The PAS is not just a list of traits for each "kind" of personality. Rather the PAS is a more comprehensive theory of how personality develops through life. We often use language like, "An Ec is contemplative and self-sufficient" as a way to describe behavior that comes from the Ec adjustment. But learning the PAS means learning the underlying theory of how personality develops in each dimension and how the dimensions interact to result in various behavioral traits. Furthermore, sometimes, the same PAS personality profile might result in somewhat different behavioral traits in different cultural, family, or social environments.

  1. The best starting point is the article: The Personality System - A Radical Hypothesis by C. J. Krauskopf.

  2. Paper: "A Brief Explanation of the Personality Assessment System"

  3. A brief description of the PAS Model and A more thorough description of the PAS Model

  4. Paper on the "Origins of the PAS"

  5. Video Course (several hours) with an introduction to the PAS This is an organized, somewhat academic, introduction to the PAS. The presenter, Dr. Bob MacLachlan, is by profession a teacher. He learned the PAS from John Gittinger and through years of clinical experience and teaching which gives him a somewhat different emphasis than John Gittinger. Watching these video lectures and listening to (or reading the transcripts) of the John Gittinger series below are complementary learning exercises.

  6. Long Video Course by Robert Maclachlan PHD. This seminar consists of approximately 15 hours of lectures.

  7. Extensive lecture series on the PAS by John Gittinger. There are transcripts that go with all of the lectures except the first one. The transcripts, taken from the audio lectures, have a very readable conversational style, complete with incomplete sentences and so forth. However, they are quite readable for those preferring the speed of reading vs. the time it takes to listen to the lectures. These lectures have many examples of how the PAS applies to life situations that are not found elsewhere.

  8. Video lecture series by Marshall Heyman Ph.D. This repeats much material from item 3 (MacLachlan videos) but with a different presenter. It uses different examples and provides information on the Responsbility Cluster, 4th dimension, and reference groups.

  9. The Weschler scales and the PAS - how they relate.

  10. Several case studies relating PAS profiles to actual cases

  11. The most thorough resource for further study is the book:

    Krauskopf, C. J., & Saunders, D. R. (1994).  Personality and ability: The Personality Assessment System.  Lanham, MD: University Press of America. This book contains a rather complete statement of the theory and supporting research to date.