MPA was developed by Warren Lamb in the 1940's and ‘50’s, building upon the innovations of movement theorist Rudolf Laban and management consultant F. C. Lawrence.
Warren Lamb assisted Laban and Lawrence in their groundbreaking research within British industry, first among factory workers, then focusing on management.
Over 30,000 individuals, primarily those involved in senior management, have made use of MPA profiles, and some companies and multinational corporations have continued their success with MPA for over three decades.
“There is a sense in which ‘mind’ can be said to reside in every cell.” Warren Lamb, 1992
Research
Years of academic and experimental research have attested to both validity and reliability in MPA. Recent research involving two Ivy League universities has demonstrated MPA’s ability to predict behavior in relation to decision-making. These are unparalleled findings in the field of personal assessment. Some examples are: Connors et al., “Chapter 11: Movement Pattern Analysis (MPA): Decoding Individual Differences in Embodied Decision Making”, The SAGE Handbook of Personality and Individual Differences, Part 02: Research Strategies For Studying Personality And Individual Differences, SAGE Publications Ltd., 2018.
Connors et al., “Embodied Decision-Making Style: Below and Beyond Cognition”, Frontiers in Psychology, 4 July 2018, Vol. 9, Pg. 1123.
Connors et al. "Staging of Decision-Making Style in Leaders: Decoding Individual Differences in Cognitive Motivations Using Movement Pattern Analysis", Journal of Functional Neurology, Rehabilitation, and Ergonomics, 01 September 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3.
Connors et al., “Beyond Self-Report: Emerging Methods for Capturing Individual Difference in Decision-Making Process”, Frontiers in Psychology, 3 March 2016.
Connors et al., “Decision-Making Style in Leaders: Uncovering Cognitive Motivation Using Signature Movement Patterns”, International Journal of Psychological Studies, May 29, 2015, Vol. 7, No. 2.
Connors et al., “Predicting individual differences in decision-making process from signature movement styles” an illustrative study of leaders”, Frontiers in Psychology, September 2013, Vol.4, Article 658.
Connors et al., “Inter-rater reliability for Movement Pattern Analysis (MPA): measuring patterning of behaviors versus discrete behavior counts and indicators of decision-making style”, Frontiers in Psychology, June 2014, Vol. 5, Article 605. Lamb, T.J., “Theory and Management Applications of Action Profiling: A Technique for Identifying Individual Motivational Patterns.” Master’s thesis, Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, 1985.
Lovell, Susan M., “Posture and Gesture and Personality Trait Measures: A Study of Nonverbal Behavior,” PhD dissertation, Claremont Graduate School, 1992.
Welsche, Mone, (2009). “Die Analyse des Bewegungsverhaltens jugendlicher Mädchen mit depressiver Symptomatik: Eine explorative Bewegungsanalyse mit Vergleichsgruppe anhand der Laban Bewegungsanalyse,” PhD dissertation, Hamburg University, 2009.
Welsche, Mone, “Bewegungscharakteristika jugendlicher Mädchen in Depression. Tagesband, “Gender & Health in Motion,” Symposium Universität zu Köln, 2010.
Winter, Deborah D.N., “Body Movement and Cognitive Style: Validation of Action Profiling [Movement Pattern Analysis]” in Susan Loman, ed., The Body-Mind Connection in Human Movement Analysis (Keene, NH: Antioch, 1992), pp. 153-201.
Winter, Deborah D.N., “Empirical Studies of Posture-Gesture Mergers,” Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Winter 1989.
Winter, Deborah D.N., “Field Studies of Action Profiling Reliability,” Movement Studies 2, 1987.