As many as 2 million people a year take the Myers-Briggs personality test, according to CPP Inc., the company that sells and distributes the test. It is used for many purposes, including career counseling, marriage and relationship counseling and teamwork building.
History
Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs-Myers created this test based on Carl Jung's theory of psychological types. They wanted to create a personality test that would help people understand and appreciate the individual differences in personality. The assessment first officially appeared in 1942, and their book "Briggs-Myers Type Indicator Handbook" was published in 1944. The publication of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test was transferred to Consulting Psychologist Press in 1975 and has been revised several times since then.
Features
The current version of the Myers-Briggs personality test includes 93 forced-choice questions. There are only two possible answers to each question, with one answer representing one side of a scale and the other answer representing the opposite side. Each answer is either a mixture of word pairs or a short statement. After the test is scored, the mental health professional who administered the test will explain the scales and various personality types to the test-taker and will typically include a bar graph and number to show where the individual fell on each scale.
Types
The 16 personality types are determined by where the person falls on four different spectrums. The Extraversion (E) and Introversion (I) scale differentiates people who direct their energy inward toward their thoughts, experiences and inner environments from people who direct their energy outward toward other people and events. The Sensing (S) and Intuition (N) scale differentiates people who gather information based on information taken through the concrete five senses from those who use their "gut" and hunches, impressions of the world and the potential of the future to gather information. The Thinking (T) and Feeling (F) scale differentiates people who make decisions based upon facts and figures from those who consider personal values and the effects their decisions will have on others to make decisions. Finally, the Judging (J) and Perceiving (P) scale differentiates those who prefer order, structure and predictability from those who prefer flexibility and spontaneity. The combination of an individual's preferences for each side of these scales will determine their personality profile type. The 16 different personality types are INFP, INFJ, INTP, INTJ, ISFP, ISFJ, ISTP, ISFJ, ENFP, ENFJ, ENTP, ENTJ, ESTJ, ESFP, ESFJ and ESFP.
Considerations
The MBTI can only be administered by a mental health professional. However, there are many online tests that mimic the MBTI, and some of these tests may provide people with some indication of what their MBTI personality type may be. While the results from these online tests cannot be guaranteed, it may be useful for those who are simply curious about the test and do not wish to see a counselor in order to take the test.
Warning
There have been some concerns about the validity, reliability and utility of the Myers-Briggs personality test. People who tend to fall in the center of the four scales may not feel as if the results accurately depict their personality. The personality type descriptions themselves are also somewhat vague and flattering, which may lead to people believing that the type fits them when in actuality it does not. There is also the potential to use the results in a way that would typecast certain people without getting to know them. Studies have also been inconclusive about the application of the personality type to career selection or satisfaction.
