In 1928, William Moulton Marston put forward his idea that human behavior is a function of the environment, and that people behave according to their view of how they can interact with the environment. In his book, emotions of normal people, he suggested the people view the environment as something that they have power over or not. And depending upon whether they're active or passive within the environment will drive a certain set of behaviors. They also see the environments as being favorable or unfavorable, which drives another set of behaviors. From this for behavioral styles can be determined. dominance is an active positive set of behaviors within a perceived unfriendly environment, influence or inducement as mastered labeled it is an active positive set of behaviors.

In a policy friendly environment, steadiness or submission as mastered referred to it is a passive agreeableness in an environment perceived as favorable. While compliance is a cautious, undecided response within a perceived less than favorable environment, which is designed to calm the degree of antagonism. The energy used within the environment can be fast paced with dominance and influence and slower paced with steadiness and compliance. Also, the focus is either around tasked with dominance and compliance or relationships with people with influence and steadiness. The model even though it's almost 100 years old, is constantly being researched and refined. There was some work done in the 60s at the University of Minnesota to produce a reliable and valid psychometric Known widely as disk, and this psychometric measures these behaviors and how they change inside and outside of work and under stress