Myers Briggs Personality Types

In 1921, Carl Jung, the famous Swiss Psychologist wrote the book ‘Psychological Types’ in which he suggested that there are three basic dimensions of individual behaviour each having two polarities. Around the same time, Catharine Briggs and later her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers who were studying similar concepts found Jung model very useful in creating a greater understanding about individual differences and achieve higher satisfaction in relationships, career and life. They elaborated Jung’s concepts, added one more dimension and developed an indicator, which is called Myer Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which can be used to assess personality types. Personality Type model has been successfully used over the past six decades and proved to be accurate in assessing personality types. One such application is for choosing the right career based on the personality type.

The four dimensions and their polarities of the personality type model are:

• Energy – polarities Introversion and extroversion
• Perception – polarities Sensing and Intuiting
• Judgement – polarities Thinking and Feeling
• Orientation – polarities Judging and Perceiving

Above four dimensions with polarities, form 16 basic personality types. Further to this, Myers Briggs Type Indicator formulated eight ways of working based on these personality types. This indicator can be used to assess one’s preferences in working behaviour in relation to individual and group

You can go through self assessment check lists and find out your personality type from the books on MBTI. This will be the informal way and is useful for individuals working on self growth. One such book is What’s your type of career? Find your perfect career by using your personality type by Donna Dunning. You can find the link to review in the right panel.

Complete MBTI test can only be conducted by MBTI certified professionals. This test can be taken online  by paying a fee. One of the partner sites suggested by Myer Briggs foundation, is listed in the resources section below.

If you are looking for assessment and training for a larger group in your organization, you can consult MBTI certified professionals. You can get this information from Myers Briggs foundation site in the resources section.

Understanding the natural differences lead to better team work in organizations, cohesive relationships in personal life and more tolerance and better co-existence in societies.

At the individual level, understanding the concept of personality types helps in choosing which career is best for you and how to understand and interact with other people and relate to them better.