Financial Therapy Association Annual Conference 2017

"Mental Health & Money", Dr. James M. Dodson

Financial Therapy Association Annual Conference 2014

"Personality & Money", Dr. James M. Dodson

CBH is developing the Money Behavior Assessment to describe one's strengths and weaknesses pertaining to financial matters. We hypothesize that describing how one's personality type pertains to financial behavior will increase adherence to a financial plan designed by a financial therapist. Ultimately, CBH wants financial therapists to use this tool to help clients achieve a better financial outcome.

The MBA describes behaviors of spending, saving, shopping, communication, and risk tolerance with money in effort to reveal how one’s personality type influences financial decisions. It is based on the widely accepted Jungian dimensions of Introversion/Extroversion, Intuitive/Sensing, Feeling/Thinking, and Perceptual/Judgement most commonly measured with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Financial therapists can use this tool to foster personal change with their clients so they can better adhere to an optimal financial plan (i.e., change the person to fit the plan). They can also use it to design flexible financial plans that accommodates a person's natural preference or approach to money (i.e., change the plan to fit the person). Either way, the goal is for the financial therapist to increase compliance with any given personal financial strategy.

CBH, above all, serves to improve health. Research shows that fiscal stress adversely affects physical health. Other research shows that pain avoidance behaviors are influenced or augmented when one is faced with choosing risk over security (i.e., a "bird in the hand" is a less painful choice than "two in the bush"). CBH hypothesizes that one’s personality type influences how a person perceives the risk of such choices. The implications of this possibility could reveal further understanding into how adverse money behavior leads to fiscal pain, compromising physical and mental health.