Elias H. Porter, PhD

Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) was developed by psychologist, clinical therapist, educator and author, Elias, H. Porter, PhD. It is the primary inventory in a suite of inventories based on his Relationship Awareness® Theory – a group of ideas that help people to build productive relationships and manage conflict by providing a window into the motivation that drives behaviour. 

Dr Porter’s experience in clinical, industrial, military and government settings provided the rich diversity of environments needed to validate a comprehensive theory of relationships and the suite of inventories based on that theory. The awareness of self and others gained from SDI helps people to improve all types of relationships – be they at home, work, school, social or otherwise.

Early influences of Dr Porter include the work of Erich Fromm and Carl Rogers. His collaborative work with Rogers and other notables, including Tom Gordon and Will Schutz, at the University of Chicago helped him to evolve Fromm's Freudian frame of reference into a person-centred approach for describing the dynamics of relationships – which ultimately became Strength Deployment Inventory.