The Original Publication by the Creator of DISC
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Why we recommend it: The Emotions of Normal People by William Moulton Marston takes you back to the source of DISC, as it is the original publication written by the creator of DISC, William Moulton Marston. Released 80 years ago, this is where it all began. More than 50 million people worldwide from all differing contexts such as corporate leaders, industry professionals, managers, sales people, teachers, coaches and athletes have used DISC to improve their understanding of themselves and their behaviors. As DISC is today is recognized as the most valid and reliable behavioral profiling tool to develop self-awareness, it is easy to see why this book still remains valuable and relevant.
Read more on William Moulton Marston and the History of DISC here.
Book Overview: In the early 1920’s, an American psychologist named William Moulton Marston developed a theory to explain people’s emotional responses. Until that time, work of this kind had been mainly confined to understanding the mentally ill or criminally insane. Marston wanted to extend these ideas to cover the behavior of what we know as “normal” individuals. In order to test his theories, Marston needed some way of measuring the behavioral styles he was trying to describe. His solution was to develop his own technique to measure four important factors (a four quadrant behavioral model). The factors he studied were Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance, from which the theory takes its name – DISC. Marston discovered that people do things for various reasons and are motivated by their reasons, not ours, and recognized that one individual could possess many traits, to more or less of a degree. In 1928, Marston published his findings in The Emotions of Normal People, which included a description of the system he had developed. It was the first time the four styles were identified as dynamic and situational which means the styles people displayed could change depending upon environmental factors and differing situations.
