A potent personality test, FIRO-B® Theory (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation–Behavior) is based on gauging your preferences in how you prefer to interact with others. How your innate preferences guide you to be most comfortable when interacting in and out of the workplace, with loved ones, managers at work, your peers, fellow employees, and others.
The FIRO-B is a valuable tool that provides in-depth insight into how individuals can best relate to one another while maximizing corporate team output and a company’s bottom line. It can also help with getting to know loved ones’ preferences and how they prefer to function within a personal relationship.
The FIRO-B can significantly improve your understanding of various behaviors in the areas it assesses. These include how you appear to others and how this might not be exactly recognizable to you. That is, how others view you might not be how you view or identify with yourself.
Additionally, the FIRO-B can help you understand how and why conflict arises between genuine individuals with good intentions; how to recognize your own needs and wants while relating to others; and how to manage your interpersonal needs and wants.
It is important to point out that no behavioral preference shown within your FIRO-B results is better or worse than another. Therefore, there are no right or wrong answers when completing the assessment—there are only answers that show who you truly are. It is important to answer the questions honestly according to what you prefer and not according to how others might prefer you to be.
Originally created in the 1950s, the FIRO-B instrument is currently one of the most popular resources for assisting individuals in gaining a better understanding of themselves and how they can best collaborate with others.
The FIRO-B is a powerful workplace tool for assessing employees, managers, and executives and understanding how they can best collaborate, maximizing occupational output and potentially increasing a corporation’s income stream.
Additionally, by assessing others with the FIRO-B Test, executives and managers can gain valuable information about the different interpersonal preferences represented within a work team. Understanding these differences can help leadership make more informed decisions about communication, responsibilities, leadership roles, and how team members might work effectively alongside one another.
This does not mean that everyone within a successful team needs similar FIRO-B results. Different interpersonal preferences can complement one another depending on the team, its responsibilities, and what the group is attempting to accomplish. A deep dive into a team’s FIRO-B results can become complicated, which is why the assistance of a third party with experience in this area can be beneficial.
Essential FIRO-B Interpretive Care
It is essential and of the utmost importance that after completing the FIRO-B Test and receiving your report/results, you have access to a licensed or appropriately qualified interpreter who can help you understand and decipher your results.
Participants should be able to ask any questions they have about FIRO-B Theory, as well as word definitions, scoring, and the different sections included in the report. A deep understanding of your report is indeed invaluable and very important.
Additionally, when completing FIRO-B Assessments as a team or group, it is equally important to compare and contrast results across the team or group to see how the individuals might best function together.
At Career Assessment Site, we provide a complimentary 30–45-minute interpretation session with each FIRO-B Administration/Purchase. This session is provided free of charge and can be completed via Zoom, phone, or conference call and is led by a Level B certified assessment interpreter licensed to interpret FIRO-B results.
This can be especially important for the more data-rich portions of the report and for understanding terminology that might not immediately be clear. Group interpretation sessions are also offered for bulk purchases, usually with approximately 10 individuals per session.
However, the FIRO-B can also help in several areas beyond workplace team building and occupational efficiency. These can include:
- Personal Development/Understanding Oneself
- Communication Training
- Individual and Couples Therapy
- Career Progression
The FIRO-B® Instrument’s Goals
FIRO-B Theory and the FIRO-B instrument were created by Will Schutz, Ph.D., based on the idea that each of us has distinct interpersonal requirements that greatly motivate us in addition to our basic wants for food, shelter, and clothing.
These basic interpersonal needs are related to what Schutz referred to as Inclusion, Control, and Affection, which will be explained in more detail in the following sections.
Much like other wants and needs, individuals can experience discomfort when important interpersonal preferences are not being satisfied or when circumstances require them to interact in ways that feel considerably different from what they naturally prefer.
Your FIRO-B results help identify your preferred interpersonal needs. They can show how your current use of certain interpersonal behaviors relates to what you want from others and what you tend to express toward them.
Your report can therefore provide insight into areas where your outward behavior and your underlying interpersonal wants are similar, as well as areas where they differ.
Furthermore, the FIRO-B family of assessments can help individuals become more efficient and effective at work, especially in group and team settings and when dealing with supervisors and managers.
Similarly, it can aid managers and supervisors by providing additional information about how members of their teams prefer to interact.
While a manager can gain insight into team members’ interpersonal preferences, it can be equally important—if not more important—for the manager to assess his or her own interpersonal preferences. Understanding one’s own style can provide useful context when attempting to lead a group composed of individuals with very different needs.
It is important to point out that the FIRO-B is an objective assessment, and there are no right or wrong answers when completing it. There is only how you see yourself when answering the questions.
No one way of relating to others, a group, or a team is universally better or worse than another. What matters is the context of what a team or relationship might need at a given time and how an individual can make the most effective use of his or her natural interpersonal preferences.
It is also vital to answer the questions truthfully and honestly without outside pressure from family, colleagues, psychologists, coaches, peers, employers, or other individuals who might prefer you to answer in a particular way.
FIRO-B Theory, Behavior, and Personal Choice
According to contemporary psychological theory, behavior can be influenced by personality, repeated experiences, and the environments in which we live and work.
FIRO-B Theory expands upon this concept by recognizing that people are not necessarily confined to behaving in exactly the same way in every circumstance.
Your FIRO-B scores are best viewed as information about your interpersonal preferences rather than strict rules dictating how you must behave.
People do not act exactly the same way at all times. Work responsibilities, relationships, previous experiences, the surrounding environment, and even the particular individuals involved can influence how someone responds to a situation.
You still have the ability to make conscious choices about how you react and interact, including in difficult settings. At times, behaving in the way that feels most natural to you may work very well. In other circumstances, you might deliberately choose an approach that falls somewhat outside your usual interpersonal comfort zone because the particular situation calls for it.
Understanding your FIRO-B results can provide greater awareness when making these choices.
For example, someone who generally has less preference for taking Control may occasionally find himself or herself in a situation where strong leadership is necessary. Likewise, an individual who normally prefers less Inclusion might need to participate much more actively in a particular team project.
Acting outside one’s usual interpersonal preferences can sometimes require additional effort. Knowing what your natural preferences are can help explain why certain situations feel effortless while others require considerably more energy or conscious thought.
Can FIRO-B Results Change?
FIRO-B results are not necessarily static throughout a person’s life.
Because FIRO-B measures current interpersonal preferences, assessment results taken at different points in a person’s life may differ. New responsibilities, environments, relationships, and life experiences can influence how an individual approaches certain interpersonal situations.
Social and cultural factors may also have an influence. A significant change in one’s environment, geographical location, workplace, relationships, or social surroundings can expose an individual to different interpersonal expectations.
When meaningful differences appear between FIRO-B assessments taken at different times, reviewing the individual scores can provide useful context for understanding what might have changed.
A change in results does not necessarily mean that a previous assessment was inaccurate. Instead, it may reflect changes in the individual’s current interpersonal preferences or circumstances.
The important thing is to understand your present preferences while recognizing that interpersonal behavior exists within the context of the situations and environments in which you find yourself.
Applying FIRO-B Results to Everyday Life
A number of goals can be achieved by applying your FIRO-B results to your daily work and/or personal life.
Your results provide information about how you currently interact with others and what you prefer from the people around you.
This can lead to an important question: Are you relating to others in the way you actually prefer, or have certain interpersonal habits developed that no longer feel particularly comfortable or effective?
The individual FIRO-B scores can be useful when examining specific situations.
Inclusion can help explain preferences surrounding group participation and involvement. Control provides information regarding leadership, responsibility, influence, and structure. Affection addresses closer one-on-one interpersonal relationships.
Looking at these areas can provide greater insight into why you might feel particularly comfortable in certain interactions and considerably less comfortable in others.
Changing Established Interpersonal Habits
Changing established patterns in the way you communicate and connect with others can take time. Some interpersonal habits may have developed over many years and become almost automatic.
Your FIRO-B results can help bring greater awareness to these patterns by showing the interpersonal behaviors that feel most natural to you and situations in which your present approach might not completely reflect those preferences.
With this understanding, you can begin making more deliberate choices in the way you communicate and build relationships at work and in your personal life.
Applying the information contained in your FIRO-B report may help you communicate more effectively, respond to others with greater awareness, and develop ways of interacting that feel more comfortable and authentic.
Over time, using these insights can support stronger relationships, provide a clearer understanding of your own interpersonal needs, and increase your confidence in the way you relate to the people around you.
Your loved ones, friends, co-workers, and managers may also become more accustomed to the way you naturally prefer to interact.
If conflict does arise, the goal is not necessarily to eliminate all disagreement. Healthy conflict can sometimes promote growth, clarify differences, and improve relationships when handled constructively.
There are assessments specifically designed to help individuals understand conflict, such as the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI®). The TKI focuses on conflict-handling styles by examining whether someone tends to Accommodate, Compete, Collaborate, Compromise, or Avoid.
Understanding both FIRO-B interpersonal preferences and conflict-handling preferences can provide useful information when attempting to improve communication at work or within personal relationships.
Once you have acquired this knowledge through completing a FIRO-B Assessment and reviewing your results, you can begin making choices about how you would like to apply what you have learned.
The more you understand your own preferences, the easier it can become to recognize situations where your current behavior feels comfortable and situations where you might want to approach the interaction differently.
FIRO-B does not require you to change who you are. Instead, the assessment provides another way to understand your interpersonal tendencies so that you can make more informed decisions about how you interact with others.
Satisfaction With Your Current Interpersonal Behavior
The FIRO-B can also help you consider how satisfied or dissatisfied you are with your current interpersonal behavior.
You might discover that certain behavioral patterns work extremely well for you, while others produce interactions or outcomes you would like to improve.
If you are dissatisfied with aspects of your existing interpersonal behavior, your FIRO-B results can provide another perspective from which to examine those patterns.
Discussing your results with a qualified FIRO-B interpreter can also be useful when exploring alternate approaches to situations that repeatedly cause discomfort or difficulty.
It is important to remember, however, that the objective is not necessarily to move toward a supposedly “better” FIRO-B score. There is no universally ideal FIRO-B profile.
Instead, you can use the information to understand your current preferences and determine whether different behaviors might be useful within a particular situation.
At times, you may intentionally choose to interact in a way that is somewhat outside your preferred style. Although this can require more effort, there may be situations in which doing so is beneficial.
The Importance of Your FIRO-B Interpretation Consultation
Career Assessment Site includes a complimentary FIRO-B interpretation consultation with each assessment purchase.
This session gives you an opportunity to review your results with a qualified interpreter, ask questions about your scores, clarify unfamiliar terminology, and discuss portions of the report that might initially be difficult to understand.
The consultation can also help you understand differences between your Wanted and Expressed scores and how Inclusion, Control, and Affection fit together within your overall profile.
Taking advantage of this consultation can help ensure that you receive the greatest possible clarity from your FIRO-B results rather than attempting to interpret complex scoring and terminology entirely on your own.
What Does the FIRO-B Include & What Does It Identify?
The FIRO-B instrument identifies three primary areas of interpersonal needs:
- Control
- Inclusion
- Affection
In addition, each of these three needs is measured through Wanted and Expressed dimensions.
Together, this creates six primary FIRO-B scores.
Control
This need reflects your desire for authority and accountability as well as your preference for how much guidance or influence you want from other people.
Both your one-on-one interactions and your group behavior can reflect your need for Control.
Questions related to Control include:
- To what extent would you like to be in charge, have authority, or take the initiative?
- To what extent do you typically assume responsibility?
- To what extent do you want to influence others, lead, or manage a work team?
- Do you prefer to be a team member surrounded by your peers, or do you prefer to have a manager or team leader involved?
- Do you prefer to follow and be led, or lead and have influence—or some combination of the two?
- Do you find structure important in work teams, or do you prefer a less structured situation?
An individual with a strong preference for certain aspects of Control may be very comfortable making decisions, taking responsibility, or providing structure.
Another person may prefer considerably less responsibility for directing other individuals while being more comfortable when leadership comes from someone else.
Wanted and Expressed Control provide additional information because wanting someone else to provide direction is not the same thing as wanting to provide that direction yourself.
Inclusion
The need for Inclusion concerns how much you prefer to relate to teams and groups.
The FIRO-B interpersonal need of Inclusion tends to focus on how much you prefer to relate to others and have others be an inclusionary part of your activities and tasks.
It can also address how involved you want others to be in your work-related responsibilities or whether you prefer to function more independently.
Inclusion can involve how much attention or recognition you seek from others and how important a sense of belonging is to you.
An individual with a stronger preference for Inclusion may enjoy being an active part of a group or team, appreciate recognition for his or her contributions, and prefer being involved with other people.
Someone with a lower Inclusion preference may be more comfortable spending substantial amounts of time working independently.
Neither preference is inherently better than the other.
The usefulness of each depends heavily on the individual, the role, the environment, and the situation.
Affection
The need for Affection addresses preferences concerning friendliness, warmth, closeness, and more personal one-on-one relationships.
While Inclusion focuses more strongly on participation in groups, Affection reflects the desire to develop comfortable individual relationships.
Questions related to Affection can include:
- Do you act in ways that convey closeness to other people, or are you generally more reserved?
- Do you prefer relationships that are somewhat detached and measured or ones involving more warmth and personal connection?
- Do you readily share emotions or personal information with other people?
- Do you enjoy having others share their emotions and personal experiences with you?
Again, a stronger or weaker preference for Affection is not inherently good or bad. FIRO-B is attempting to measure the individual’s interpersonal preference rather than judging it.
The Wanted and Expressed Dimensions of FIRO-B Theory
The FIRO-B assessment includes two dimensions—Wanted and Expressed—for each of the three interpersonal needs.
This creates:
- Expressed Inclusion
- Wanted Inclusion
- Expressed Control
- Wanted Control
- Expressed Affection
- Wanted Affection
These dimensions add an important layer to the assessment because what you prefer other people to do toward you is not necessarily identical to what you tend to initiate toward them.
The Wanted Dimension
The Wanted dimension examines how much you prefer other people to initiate Inclusion, Control, or Affection toward you.
It focuses on what you would like to receive from other people, whether or not you regularly verbalize those preferences.
Wanted Inclusion
To what extent would you like other people to invite you into their endeavors, pursuits, groups, or activities?
Wanted Control
To what extent do you want other people to take a leadership role, provide structure, influence circumstances, or offer direction?
Wanted Affection
To what degree do you prefer other people to initiate acceptance, attachment, warmth, friendship, closeness, or devotion toward you?
The Expressed Dimension
The Expressed dimension looks at the extent to which you initiate Inclusion, Control, or Affection toward other people.
Because Expressed behaviors involve actions that originate with the individual, they can frequently be observed by the people around them.
Expressed Inclusion
How frequently do you take the initiative to participate in activities, include others, organize group involvement, or make yourself part of social or workplace events?
Expressed Control
How frequently do you take actions that involve leadership, responsibility, influence, decision-making, or creating structure?
Expressed Affection
How frequently do you initiate warmth, friendship, closeness, attachment, or camaraderie within individual relationships?
The distinction between Wanted and Expressed behavior can be especially useful when interpreting FIRO-B results.
For example, an individual might strongly prefer other people to initiate friendship or emotional closeness while being considerably less likely to initiate that closeness personally.
Likewise, someone may frequently assume responsibility and provide leadership while having relatively little desire for other people to exercise the same degree of authority over them.
Understanding these differences is an important part of understanding one’s complete FIRO-B profile.
As explained, the FIRO-B is a multifaceted and highly effective assessment that can aid corporations and individuals alike with interpersonal development.
It can help increase the effectiveness and efficiency of work teams while providing executives and managers with greater insight into their own leadership preferences and the interpersonal needs of the individuals around them.
FIRO-B can also be useful when comparing interpersonal preferences, understanding sources of conflict, building stronger working relationships, and helping individuals gain greater confidence and awareness in their roles within organizations, teams, groups, and personal relationships.