Introduction to Myers Briggs Personality Type
Personality Type or Psychological Type are terms most commonly associated with the model of personality development created by Isabel Briggs Myers, the author of the world's most widely used personality inventory, the MBTI or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ®. Myers' and her mother, Katharine Briggs, developed their model and inventory around the ideas and theories of psychologist Carl Jung, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and a leading exponent of Gestalt personality theory.
Beginning in the early 1940's, Briggs & Myers extended Jung's model with the initial development of the MBTI. They put Jung's concepts into language that could be understood and used by the average person. Isabel Myers' book "Gifts Differing", published posthumously in 1980, provided a comprehensive introduction to the Jung/Myers theory. Myers' book and her philosophy of celebrating human diversity anticipated the workplace diversity movement.
The Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT)
CAPT is a non-profit educational organization founded by Myers and psychologist Mary McCaulley to promote continued research into psychological type and application of psychological type to foster enhanced personal development, increased human understanding, and improved management of human conflict. Another non-profit organization, The Association for Psychological Type (APT) is an international member education and certifying organization for professionals who use type in their occupations and professional practices. Membership is also open to lay persons who want to enrich their understanding and application of type.
The Association for Psychological Type (APT)
Another non-profit organization - APT - is an international member education and certifying organization for professionals who use type in their occupations and professional practices. Membership is also open to lay persons who want to enrich their understanding and application of type.
For a 5-page
pdf article by Lenore Thomson Bentz on the implications of John Beebe's
theory, click here. A shorter version of this article is in the Spring
2004 Bulletin of Psychological Type.
The Basic Myers-Briggs (MBTI) Model
In her studies of people and extensive reading of Jung's theories, Myers concluded there were four primary ways people differed from one another. She labeled these differences "preferences" - drawing a similarity to "hand preferences" to illustrate that although we all use both of our hands, most of us have a preference for one over the other and "it" takes the lead in many of the activities in which we use our hands.
The first set of mental preferences relates to how people "Perceive" or take in information.
- Those who prefer the Sensing Perception favor concrete, tangible, data and details from their direct here-and-now experience.
- In contrast, those who prefer Intuition Perception are drawn to information that is more abstract, conceptual, big-picture, and represents imaginative possibilities for the future.
The second set of mental preferences identifies how people form "Judgments" or make decisions.
- Those who prefer Thinking Judgment have a natural preference for making decisions in an objective, logical, and analytical manner with an emphasis on tasks and results to be accomplished.
- Those whose preference is for Feeling Judgment make their decisions in a somewhat global, visceral, harmony and value-oriented way, paying particular attention to the impact of decisions and actions on other people.
Applying the MBTI to the real world of people and relationships
One of the practical applications of the MBTI and understanding these preferences is in supporting better Teamwork. Differences in these mental preferences lead to quite different value structures and communication styles, which can hamper mutual understanding and cooperation.
For example, people who share Sensing and Thinking preferences find they are naturally on the same wavelength; they easily understand one another, making good teammates and partners. Likewise, people who share Intuition and Feeling have a similar kinship among them. However, in the "real" world, it is more likely that you'll find a mixed bag of people, a variety of types, in the same work group. While this diversity can be a useful strength, contributing to greater depth and breadth of team competence, there will be natural communication barriers within the team due to their natural mental language differences.
Such differences can be overcome, and the communication gap bridged, with mutual respect and practice learning to "talk" and "think" in a second or third language. A MBTI workshop can be seen as an introduction to learning the language, habits and culture of other types.
Extraversion and Introversion; Judging and Perceiving
There are two other mental preferences that are part of the Myers-Briggs model. One pertains to Energy Consciousness (Extraversion versus Introversion) and the other is Life Management Orientation (Judging versus Perceiving). The permutations of these four preferences result in the 16 personality types that form the basis of Myers' model and the MBTI inventory.
References and Recommended Reading
- Myers, I. (1980) Gifts Differing. Palo Alto, CA:Consulting Psychologists Press
- Lawrence, G. (1997) Looking at Type and Learning Styles. Gainesville, FL: CAPT
- Pearman, R. (1999) Enhancing Leadership Effectiveness through Psychological Type Gainesville, FL: CAPT
- Thomson, Lenore (1998) Personality Type: An Owner's Manual, Boston,MA: Shambhala
--Contributed by Ross Reinhold of PersonalityPathways.com: A Myers-Briggs & MBTI Resource
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ® and MBTI ® are registered trademarks of CPP (Consulting Psychologists Press).
