Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• Pages: 759-760

Page 759

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an instrument designed to evaluate people and provide descriptive profiles of their personality types. Based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, it is widely used in the fields of business, education, and psychology.

MBTI was developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, during World War II. The two women were acquainted with Jung's theories and sought to apply them to help civilians choose wartime jobs well-suited to their personality preferences. Myers and Briggs felt that this would make people happier and more productive in their work. Consulting Psychologists, Inc. (www.cpp-db.com) bought the rights to MBTI in 1975. The company estimates that it administers MBTI testing to 2 million people per year worldwide.

The MBTI system begins with a test in which participants respond to questions that provide clues about their basic outlook or personal preferences. These responses are scored to see where participants' preferences lie within four sets of attributes: extroversion/introversion; sensing/intuiting; thinking/feeling; and judging/perceiving.

The attributes extroversion (E) and introversion (I) are designed to indicate whether a participant derives his or her mental energy primarily from other people or from within. Similarly, the attributes sensing (S) and intuiting (N) explain whether a participant absorbs information best through data and details or through general patterns. The attributes thinking (T) and feeling (F) show whether a participant tends to make decisions based on logic and objective criteria or based on emotional intelligence. Finally, the attributes judging (J) and perceiving (P) indicate whether a participant makes decisions quickly or prefers to take a more casual approach and leave his or her options open.

The MBTI system organizes the four sets of attributes into a matrix of 16 different personality types. Each type is indicated by a four-letter code. For example, ESTJ would designate a person whose primary attributes were extroversion, sensing, thinking, and judging. For each personality type, the MBTI system includes a profile which describes the characteristics common to people who fit into that category.

For example, an article in the Harvard Business Review noted that people who fit into the category ISTP (introverted-sensing-thinking-perceiving) tend to be "cool onlookers—quiet, reserved, and analytical...