MBTI © and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator © are registered trademarks of Consulting Psychologists Press (CPP) Palo Alto, USA.
Isabel Myers worked on the MBTI for nearly 40 years, until her death in 1980. The MBTI has been continually researched and was recently revised, with the publication of Form M in 1998.
The MBTI is an extremely reliable personality questionnaire. On average, 75% who take the MBTI report the same result on retake. For those with clear preference results, this can go up to 95%.
The MBTI and psychological type enables you to use a non-judgemental language to talk about some serious issues, both within an organisation and in counselling and helping people. Type theory is comprehensive, involving both nature and nurture: it is a systems theory and a stage theory, a dynamic way of representing who and what people are, and may be.
As a theory of personality, it sits comfortably with the latest research on human g development, including early childhood and the brain, and is tremendously successful when applied across cultures, particularly in the world of work.
Individuals completing the MBTI are provided with a four letter code (e.g. ISTJ; ENFP etc.) which, when verified, indicate their personality preferences as one of 16 Types. The different type preferences lead to different ways of living and working, taking in information and making decisions. They describe different, effective approaches to working and learning styles and methods, managing, leading, coaching and teaching as well as general communication, teamwork, relationships, counselling etc.
Because the MBTI is based on a comprehensive and coherent theory of personality, applications can be found in almost any human field of endeavour. Thousands of research papers, theses and articles as well as more than a hundred general books and training materials are currently available, investigating the MBTI and Type with topics such as leadership, change management, team building, planning, marketing, writing, counselling, personal development, career planning, teaching and learning and so on.
The MBTI, unlike other psychological instruments dealing with personality (e.g. 16PF, CPI, MMPI , NEO-PI etc.), is not designed as a clinical inventory. All 16 types are considered valuable and normal, each with their own strengths and weaknesses and contributions to make to society and the workplace..
The MBTI is copyright and its use is restricted to registered psychologists or people who have successfully completed an Accreditation or Qualifying programme that is approved by Consulting Psychologists Press, publisher of the MBTI.
As psychologists tend not to encounter Jung's ideas in any depth through their academic studies, Accreditation is really the basic qualification. A primary degree from a recognised tertiary institution is a pre-requisite for participating in these courses, with exceptions made from time to time for those with relevant experience, but insufficient formal qualifications.
The cost of these programmes varies. The Otto Kroeger Associates Workshop, which I conduct under license, has a total cost of $1150 for a five-day course. Expertise amongst accredited MBTI practitioners varies widely according to knowledge, interest and skill, as with the use of any other method
There are no licence fees currently applied to Accreditation. MBTI materials are also relatively cheap, booklets and forms costing roughly $2 per person, unless the forms are computer scored. The MBTI is available in various forms and can be hand scored, self scored or computer scored.
People who complete the MBTI must receive either personal feedback of 45 minutes or so, or feedback within a group setting, where the presentation is a minimum of half a day. They must also receive at minimum a booklet briefly explaining type and with descriptions of all 16 types. These booklets range in cost from $9-11each.
There are a variety of MBTI Forms. The standard Form, Form M has 93 questions. It takes around 20 minutes to complete and about 1 minute to score.A more complex scoring system for Form K (131 questions) provides further detail on type preferences through an Expanded Interpretive Report. Earlier Forms F and G are still available
Like anything else, understanding of type and its practical application increases with practice. Conducting introductory MBTI presentations and leaving it at that is a waste of time and money for all concerned. Type principles need to be applied and tested for their worth.
Type preferences are easy to understand, but also contain a lot of depth.
C.G.Jung, one of the pioneers of psychology, developed his theory of types as a means of accounting for differences in the way people take in information and make decisions. The theory remained a cornerstone of his thought and practice over many decades. His work was studied by Briggs and Myers who produced, the MBTI after much research, the MBTI. They considered , broadly in line with Jung, that people had innate preferences for either:
Extraversion or Introversion i.e.whether people gained their personal energy from the outer world of people, things and action, or the inner world of thoughts, ideas and concepts.As an example, people preferring Extraversion may tend to enjoy involvement with sometimes large groups of people and prefer to act rather than reflect, while people preferring Introversion may tend to enjoy quieter activities and prefer to reflect before acting.
These concepts are much more complex than this simple example.
It seems that there are more Extraverts than Introverts in Australian society, but the difference is not great.
Extraverts tend to predominate in marketing and entrepreneurial spheres, while Introverts predominate in professions such as medicine and law ,also politics. Career processes invariably are biased towards extraversion and components of recruitment and selection can favour extraversion (e.g. the interview process) regardless of job requirements.
The MBTI identifies Extraversion with E, Introversion with I.
Sensing or Intuition i.e. whether people pay attention to their 5 senses, seeing the world as it is, from the standpoint of facts, or whether they are more interested in interpreting or applying meaning to what they see before them.
As an example, people preferring Sensing can be seen as practical and down to earth, relying on either past experience or what they see in the moment, while people preferring Intuition can be seen as visionaries or idealists, more interested in the future or some timeless principle.
These concepts are much more complex than this simple example.
There are considered to be three times as many people preferring Sensing than those preferring Intuition in Australian Society.
Intuitives outnumber Sensing people quite comfortably in academic institutions, particularly in post-graduate work, as well as in the arts in general, counselling and consulting. Sensing people predominate in teaching, small business, banking, law enforcement, sports etc., and are often attracted to work in large organisations.
The MBTI identifies Sensing S, Intuition with N
Thinking or Feeling i.e. whether a person prefers to make decisions based on an objective non-personal assessment, or based on subjective personal values. Both these processes are considered rational i.e. there's an order to either process.
Thinking judgement can be incorrectly associated with the intellect, or intelligence, while Feeling judgement can often be incorrectly confused with emotion, which is not an ordered process.
As an example, people preferring Thinking judgement may seek conceptual or factual clarity in a dispute, seeking to identify objective principles, whereas a person preferring Feeling may seek harmony or collaboration in the same dispute, seeking to bring the principals in the dispute together according to their personal values .
These concepts are much more complex than this simple example.
There are considered to be roughly equal numbers of each preference in Australian society, with the difference being that more males than females prefer Thinking judgement and more females than males prefer Feeling judgement.
People preferring thinking predominate in management, medicine and all aspects of the law while people preferring Feeling predominate in counselling and many of the helping professions.
The corporate and government worlds, irrespective of gender, are comprised overwhelmingly of people preferring Thinking judgement. When a plan goes awry, it is generally because the subjective , personal element of decision making has not been factored in sufficiently.
The MBTI identifies Thinking judgement with T, Feeling judgement with F.
Judgement or Perceiving i.e. how a person prefers to run their life. A person preferring Judging likes to make decisions and may tend to want to be scheduled and ordered, driven by lists and timeframes and expecting the same of others, whereas a person preferring Perceiving may tend to not make a decision until the last possible moment, preferring a more spontaneous approach to life and work and resisting closure until it's time.
These concepts are much more complex than this simple example.
There are considered to be slightly more people preferring Judging than Perceiving in Australian society.
People preferring Judgement generally predominate in management positions (whatever the organisation), teaching, banking and law enforcement, whereas people preferring Perceiving predominate in marketing, entrepreneurial activities, counselling and consulting. Components of recruitment and selection can favour judging (e.g. an organised cv, or a well-pressed suit).
The MBTI identifies Judgement with J, Perceiving with P.
A type preference doesn't necessarily translate into skill. For example, a person may prefer making decisions, but it doesn't follow that they are good ones and a person interested in possibilities about the future may not identify the most worthwhile and appropriate vision.
This is a key reason why the use of the MBTI as a part of recruitment and selection process is not recommended until after a selection has been made. People can also complete the MBTI given to them as part of a selection process in a way that fits the job requirements as they see them, and not with respect to their own skills and experience, which may add to the value of the advertised position.
As these are preferences, a person can and does develop skill in their non-preferred areas, but they do not change their core preferences. These skills, when developed appropriately, are simply support their original preferences A person preferring Perceiving can be most timely with all their work and attend to their diary, if it makes sense to them and a person preferring Thinking judgement can be interested in people and personal issues if they can see the logic in it.
Not spending sufficient time in time in your preferred modes can result in stress and lack of effectiveness in the workplace and at home. Mid-life is often a time for the recognition of non-preferences i.e. the usefulness of future possibilities for the person with their feet on the ground, or flexibility for the scheduled.
Jung considered it was important to acknowledge the value of the opposite preferences and to develop some familiarity and expertise with them
While behaviour can be a predictor of type preferences to a certain extent, type theory recognises that there is more to personality than what you see.
Type is not simply behaviour, because people can perform the same task in the same way for different reasons. Types can also be identified cross-culturally (the MBTI is translated into about 40 languages), but the expression of people's preferences is contingent on their cultural experience.
The first organisational use of the MBTI was in 1942, by co-author Isabel Briggs Myers and Edward Hay, the job analyst, who was then a personnel manager in an insurance company.
The MBTI has applications in diagnosing organisational issues, teamwork (particularly quality systems), communication, counselling, careers, strategic thinking, performance appraisal, leadership and stress management.
Different types approach change situations in different ways. Some are better at focusing on the future than others; others refer to the past, or the present, because the future is an unknown to them. Some people prefer to work through procedures (SJ)/strategies(NT)/people(NF)/to just do it,(SP), depending on their type preferences.
Organisations themselves also have a type. The type code can be a shorthand for the way things are done around here e.g. a bank that is procedures driven hierarchical bottom line operation can be described as ISTJ; an entrepreneurial, flexible actively changing organisation like a merchant bank can be seen as ENTP.
Each of these profiles has their own strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages.
What practical use is the MBTI and/or type ? Well, it's a personality framework that makes more sense out of what people actually do than other frameworks. People of all walks of life identify with the general principles as having something to do with them in their daily lives. It's also a positive framework: It's good to be you, whoever that is, and there are lots of practical things you can do with type e.g.:
Population: There's sufficient data around to make some assertions about the percentages of the various types in Australia. If you're an ESTJ, for instance, you can expect that around 11% of the population will share your preferences; if you're an INFP, it's probably about 2%.. Given this, you would expect that the first type would be more likely to have their way of looking at the world supported by many more people than the second, and that the first type would expect more people to be like them. This has consequences for self-esteem, motivation, peer group pressure etc. although population statistics are only a small part of the impact of type in these areas.
Careers/Personal Development : The MBTI helps people identify career and /or life paths. There's lots of literature on this. Your type preferences indicate the skills you're most likely to be able to pick up easily, as well as the occupations that you might be interested in or how you operate within your chosen occupation.
If you take Jung's view of personality as a vocation or calling of some sort , then type can help people to access that part of themselves to find what it is that they feel driven to do and then to see how they can achieve or experience this calling in their job or day-to-day experience
For example, an INFP lawyer, driven by internal personal values and new interpretations of the law, will operate differently from an ISTJ one, driven by precedent and tradition.
While people whose preferences are consistent with large numbers of those in a particular profession or occupation may feel more comfortable operating in that field, those who have different preferences can add to the perspective and approaches simply through seeing things differently. No organisation benefits from people being much the same, particularly in senior positions.
Type is also useful in strategising interviews and helping people appreciate that everyone is not like them and so work, career expectations can be different. The MBTI points out that there is more than one way of completing a task.
While this seems self-evident, those who prefer SJ tend to want to find the "one best way", in some senses, therefore, not really focussing on the task. This procedural view is immensely influential in government and other large organisations; probably necessarily in the case of the former, as Acts of Parliament and rules and regulations must be implemented.
Learning Styles: Different Types learn more effectively in different ways. Some like and learn through group work, others don't. Some like to get their hands on what's to be learnt, others don't; some learn through discussion, others reading ; some are interested in theory, others practice.
The practical ESTJ manager may participate actively in a residential course designed to develop a mission and vision for his company, but may not apply the principles discussed on return to the office unless there is some practical reason or role-modelling by other managers that can convince them to change their approach to management.
This approach can stun fellow managers preferring Intuition whose mode of thought commonly includes appreciation of new ideas first, before testing out their practicality.
Teambuilding: Type is particularly effective in building and maintaining teams because it identifies similarities and differences in communication styles and how people prefer to work e.g.
Some types want to work smarter (NTs), not harder (SJs)
Some types want to put in minimum input for required output (SPs)
Some types think if they just work harder, things will work out (SJs)
Some types want to be liked, in order to do their best work (NFs)Some different team approaches can be explained quite simply:
Extraverts (E) need activity to participate, learn and understand.
Introverts (I) need time to reflect, often by reading, to interact .
Sensors (S) need hard, tangible data, often visually presented.
Intuitives (N) need to know the vision, the big picture.
Thinking judgers (T) need to see the logic.
Feeling judgers (F) need harmony in the team.
Judging Types (J) need to follow the plan, the order.
Perceiving Types (P) need information in advance, to decide.
Communication: The types communicate in different ways: big picture(N) /facts (S) ; values(F)/objectivity(T) ; talking(E)/ writing etc.(I) Making sure you're understood in the way you want means using type based strategies to deal with others more effectively. Many adult training methods presume the desire for group work and active discussion for all adults. For many types eg, ISTJ, INTP this is not a productive way to learn unless there's a relevant context.
Leadership: This overused term means different things for different people. For some types, mostly Introverts, leadership means leaving them alone to do their job. Some, usually NTs, don't want to follow leaders at all People that prefer Sensing generally want someone to model the behaviours required, for some (SJs) in a traditional, authority laden role, for others (SPs) as the leader of action. Some, usually NFs, look for a charismatic leader.
Type theory contends that all types can lead in a valuable way. Most senior executives, however, prefer TJ, thus limiting the possible roles and so also guaranteeing particular pitfalls and the invariable need for damage control when something goes wrong and affects people's lives and livelihoods.
Counselling: Different types get stressed or stimulated in different ways. Counselling strategies are more effective taking type into account, particularly in relationship counselling. Cognitive dissonance often takes many types outside their comfort zone and so they are less effective. The current focus on cognitive behaviourism as a method may not help those that prefer feeling Judgement as it uses a version of extraverted thinking to assess rationality and "good" thinking.
Thinking types that have thought things through may also not be overwhelmed with this process, as it can tend to deny personal experience.
Group processes are largely about extraverted Feeling (getting on with others; adhering to group norms etc.) and a presumption of sharing or emoting in these groups may stress rather than assist some of the types, depending on the issue. For Thinking types, they are by definition personal development at a stretch as well as highly stressful. Not all types learn in groups; some learn better one-on-one or alone.
The main benefit in using the MBTI is its breadth of application. You can use it in almost any situation and it's buttressed by a comprehensive and robust theory of personality. In one sense, then, there is no competition to the MBTI in workplace use as there is no comparable grand theory of personality associated with other methods.
It's inappropriate to use the MBTI when a workforce or person is under stress or there is a lack of trust, as you're unlikely to get accurate answers to the questions. People don't need to know type to be aware of the hidden requirements for succeeding in an organisation that literally clones its senior executive. BHP, particularly up until recently would have met this criteria, as would have banks and organisations like Australia Post.
Two of the many alternative approaches to utilising personality at work are The Team Management Index (TMI) and DiSC.
TMI, developed by Charles Margerison and Dick McCann, is essentially a combination of aspects of the MBTI and Belbin's Team Roles. Margerison wrote a number of articles on the use of the MBTI in Organisations over two decades ago. It's impressively presented, and works well at what it claims to do. The personality descriptions provided through TMI are often very good descriptions of particular types.
The TMI, however, is interested simply in who people are at work, so from a type perspective, it effectively denies the impact of role adaptation and personal experience in the workplace, as well as effectively discounting the needs of the self. As a consequence, it can be seen as a little clinical and soulless. This consequently limits the effective applications that can be made, although for those who wish simply to concentrate on the visible processes at work it is obviously beneficial.
TMIs other sub-component, Belbin's Team Roles, notwithstanding its revision a few years ago, has been critiqued for gender bias in its descriptions and for a hierarchical/boardroom approach to teamwork. Its role descriptions in any case do not cover the 16 MBTI types, and it describes behaviour/roles, not personality preferences.
DiSC is interested in a snapshot of the personality through its 28 questions and, like TMI, is a strong competitor with MBTI in the workplace. Unlike TMI, however there are few similarities with the MBTI, in theoretical orientation, mode of application and instrument construction, reliability and validity.
Material in my possession presented with DiSC claims an association between the four components of personality it deals with and Jung's typology. From my point of view as a researcher in the field, this is unsustainable in any shape or form and is not backed up by Research Reports provided by DiSC users, which are descriptive in tone, rather than investigatory in a scientific manner.
DiSC results are useful in the workplace according to their intention, which is really the subjective snapshot. No scientific claims can be made as to reliability over time, as the questionnaire is too short to assess that psychometrically and the aim of a snapshot precludes test-retest reliability in any case, as it approaches personality from the perspective of Roles, rather than a self that chooses and adapts which type describes. The personality descriptions from DiSC are also clinically oriented, as posed to the spread of normality provided by MBTI type descriptions.
Basically, you can do a lot more with MBTI and type than you can with DiSC and TMI. It's difficult to critique other processes as everything has its use and application.
Peter Geyer [BA(Hons) DipEd Grad Dip(Org Beh) MSc]
is a consultant, writer and researcher whose field of activity is C.G.Jung's theory of Psychological Types, and related ideas and applications. He has conducted MBTI Accreditation and Qualifying Programmes in Australia since 1993, training & consulting with type since the 1980s.
Peter is the leading Australian writer and researcher in this field, and is considered to be one of the deepest thinkers in the world on the MBTI and its uses. He presents internationally on a regular basis his research and practice and is currently editing a book on type, culture and leadership. Current projects also include a collection of essays around the theme of type.
Peter is a life member of the Australian Association for Psychological Type (AAPT), was editor of the Australian Journal of Psychological Type for 5 years and is co-founder of the Psychological Type Research Unit at Deakin University.
He is an Otto Kroeger Associate, and a professional affiliate of the Australian Psychological Society.
Peter Geyer© 2000