Myers-Briggs Type Indicator | MBTI

Description of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Explanation.

Definition Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Description.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality type model which measures psychological preferences of people concerning how they perceive the world and make decisions. The MBTI assessment was derived from psychologist Carl Jung's theory of psychological types (1920s). It was developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers during World War II.

In an MBTI test, certain preferred psychological preferences of managers / employees / students / people are placed on 4 dichotomies:

E / I dichotomy of MBTI
- Measures a psychological attitude: is a person's favorite world (source of ENERGY) INTERNAL or EXTERNAL?
- E - Extraverts try things out (action oriented). They trust, focus on, and get energy from the outer world of people, seek breadth of knowledge and influence, prefer frequent interaction.
- I - Introverts think things through (thought oriented). They trust, focus on and get energy from the inner world of ideas, seek depth of knowledge and influence, prefer substantial interaction.
S / N dichotomy of MBTI
- Measures a psychological function: does a person have a preference for INFORMATION or for PERCEIVING?
- S - Sensors are practical, detail-oriented. They trust and focus on tangible, concrete, measurable facts and procedures.
- N - Intuitors are imaginative, concept-oriented. They trust and focus on intangible, abstract, theoretical, unconscious insights, meanings and possibilities.
T / F dichotomy of MBTI
- Measures a psychological function: what is a person's preference for DECISION-MAKING (JUDGING)?
- T - Thinkers decide from a detached, skeptical standpoint. They prefer to make decisions based on reason, logic, causality, consistency and rules.
- F - Feelers are appreciative, associating or empathizing. They tend to make decisions based on personal, humanistic considerations, inner balance, harmony, consensus.
J / P dichotomy of MBTI
- Measures the psychological LIFESTYLE preference people have for either their perceiving function (2. S/N - sensing or intuition) or for their judging function (3. T /F - thinking or feeling) when they are relating to the outside world (extraversion).
- J - Judgers have preference to show their preferred (dominant) judging function (thinking or feeling).
- P - Perceivers have a preference to show their preferred (dominant) perceiving function (sensing or intuition).

The MBTI type preferences can be combined to form 16 different personalities / learning style types. For example, one manager may be an ISTJ (Intravert, Sensor, Thinker, Perceiver) and another may be an ENFJ (Extravert, iNtuitor, Feeler, Judger).

In academic circles the opinion of MBTI is low and it the model is often dismissed as commercial or pseudo-psychology. The MBTI can be seen as an example of Trait Leadership Theory.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Forum (2)

Quotes on Personality Tests
"Let's start collecting remarkable quotes here on MBTI and personality tests in general.
The below excerpts are taken from a recent short Forbes Magazine article by Paul King, which was posted 2012 August 02.
- '...The real problem with MBTI is not the stability issue, but that it is merely one scheme among many for thinking about personality. The dimensions are somewhat arbitrary, like many personality typing systems. But the arbitrariness does not take away from its usefulness for providing a perspective'.
- '... People are sometimes fooled into thinking a person can really have a “type,” and that this type can somehow fully describe the person. Some people will fit the MBTI model better than others. And no system can ever fully describe a human being'."

MBTI Does Not Measure Traits or Behaviors
"The following excerpts are from the "Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator" by Isabel Briggs Myers and Mary H. Mccaulley:
The aim of MBTI is to identify the basic preferences of people in regard to perception and judgment. Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings, or ideas. Judgment involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived.
The indices EI, SN, TF, and JP are designed to point in one direction or the other. They are not designed as scales for measurement of traits or behaviors.
The intent is to reflect a habitual choice between rival alternatives, analogous to right-handedness or left-handedness. One expects to use both hands, even though one reaches first with the hand one prefers. Similarly, every person is assumed to use both poles of each of the four preferences, but to respond first or most often with the preferred functions or attitudes."

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