The Granddaddy of DISC, Father of a Superhero
Thursday, January 7th, 2010As the use of DISC assessments continues to grow in popularity, a new generation of professionals are benefiting from the insights into behavioral styles that these tools provide without necessarily knowing the history behind their origin. Dr. William Moulton Marston Ph.D., a Harvard-educated psychologist and writer born in 1893, was the publisher of a 1928 essay entitled “Emotions of Normal People.” It was in this document that he presented the DISC Theory.
Although others have played an important role in the development and refinement of the theory, and in the creation of practical tools to apply DISC in ways beneficial for personal and corporate development, it was Marston who first wrote that people behave along passive and active axes. By arranging these axes at a 90 degree angle, a four-sectioned diagram can be made in which each segment can measure a behavioral style. Originally the terms Dominance, Inducement, Submission and Compliance were used to identify the quadrants, but later Influence replaced Inducement and Steadiness replaced Submission.
DISC isn’t Marston’s only claim to fame: he also developed the systolic blood-pressure test which became a component of the modern polygraph – colloquially referred to as “the lie detector”. And that’s not all, Marston taught at American University and Tufts University, and worked for time for Universal Studios, but he is perhaps best know for a comic book character he created under the pen name Charles Moulton. Yes the grandfather of the modern DISC assessment is also the father of Wonder Woman! It was Marston’s work as a psychologist and the influence of his wife Elizabeth that led him to present the Wonder Woman idea to comic book publisher, Max Gaines.
Marston passed away in 1947 after living a relatively short, but creative life. His theories and inventions have been influential in the fields of psychology, law enforcement, popular culture and of course, we here at Data Dome are grateful for his contributions that led to the development of today’s practical and insightful DISC assessments.
