Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Introduction

Sixteen Personality Types Characterized by the Four Attitudes

About the author of 3DPersonality.com

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) system is a way of describing people by focusing on how they view the world and their strategies for setting priorities. It classifies personality types into 16 different styles along the four different characteristic continuums: Introvert/Extrovert, Sensing/iNtuitive, Thinking/Feeling, and Perceiving/Judging. A person's specific MBTI type is referred to as a series of four letters, for example, ISTP or ENFJ. (Note that iNtuitive substitutes the letter N instead of I to avoid confusion with Introvert.)

The MBTI system is used in a number of applications, but especially in business as a way for employees to improve their working relationships by forming better understandings of themselves and others. Being informed about each person's MBTI type helps facilitate communication and cooperation. For further discussion, see Employee Performance Management, Team Building, and Customer Relationship Management.

The Sixteen Myers-Briggs Types

Introvert-Perceiving Viewed as quiet and thoughtful.	Extrovert-Perceiving Regarded as engaging and flexible.	Introvert-Judging Seen as strong and reflective.	Extrovert-Judging Portrayed as energetic and confident.

The definitive way to discover your Myers-Briggs personality type is to take the MBTI, which is a carefully-designed instrument. Like an extensive personality test, the MBTI instrument has been created to identify a person's preferences along the four measurement scales. However, our Interactive Matrix and the materials available at 3DPersonality.com will give you a quicker, informal indication of a person's MBTI type.

As you learn more about the MBTI system, you will improve you ability to characterize yourself and others along the four fundamental characteristic sets. However, since each of these characteristics is not either/or but rather a matter of degree, individuals will vary based on how high they "score" on each of the different characteristics. The nuances of the relative quantitative strengths on each of the scales are something that can only be learned by taking the actual MBTI instrument. Our approach to discussing the MBTI types is to group them by the four different Attitudes which are defined by the rows of the MBTI Matrix.

The Four Attitudes

The Attitudes are defined as the combination of Extrovert/Introvert and Judging/Perceiving. This combination indicates how often individuals will want to be with others and the ways they act when in company. This is the outward persona that a person shows to others, and these are the features that are easiest to guess about another person. They relate to how people conduct themselves in public.

The first trait, Extrovert/Introvert, deals with how people become energized. If they enjoy talking and being with people, they are probably Extroverts. If they find being with people tiring and are renewed by time alone, then they are probably Introverts.

The second characteristic, Judging/Perceiving, addresses how a person chooses to live each day. If they like it to be planned, ordered, and controlled, they are probably Judgers. If they want the day to be flexible, spontaneous, and adaptable, they are probably Perceivers.

• Introvert-Perceiving Attitude – oriented toward internal reflection and meditation, making them appear distant and even mysterious. They are also flexible, casual, and easygoing. Unfortunately, their willingness to change their minds and their quiet, agreeable nature can be seen by some of the other types as being indecisive and tentative.
• Extrovert-Perceiving Attitude – enjoys being with people and taking action in the world. They are articulate, charming, and fun to be around. But they don't like to be tied down to schedules or routine and are better when their days include variety and change. They need to find the right career fit so that they are not seen as flighty or chaotic.
• Introvert-Judging Attitude – appears to be focused, direct, decisive, and controlled. They are drawn to the inner world of ideas and theories. As Introverts, however, they may seem to be slow to act and can occasionally seem disconnected and disinterested in the problem at hand.
• Extrovert-Judging Attitude – portrays self-confidence and self-assurance; even when things go wrong they are able to bounce back and seem decisive without internalizing blame. They are competent and capable, organized and structured, personable and engaging. They have a good dose of stamina and energy that propels them to be successful.

The Four Perspectives

The four Perspectives relate to internal ways of seeing the world and are more difficult for an outside observer to ascertain. They are defined as the combination of Sensing/iNtuitive and Thinking/Feeling. They deal with how a person gathers information and, once that information is in place, how he or she makes decisions based on it.

The first characteristic set, Sensing/iNtuitive, deals with how a person learns. Some prefer to learn by seeing concrete examples, while others understand better by investigating theoretical frameworks. Those who are literal, practical, and realistic with a preference for experience and hands-on proof are probably Sensors. Those who look for theories, processes, relationships, and unifying patterns, as well as appreciate the figurative, approximate, and random, are probably iNtuitives.

The second set of traits, Thinking/Feeling, considers whether a person makes decisions based on objective facts or whether they are influenced by how the decision will affect others. A logical, analytical, and detached approach is the strategy used by a Thinker. Those who are interested in having the decision reflect mercy, harmony, and friendship, perhaps in addition to making logical sense, are probably in the Feeling group.

• Sensing-Thinking Perspective – direct and down-to-earth with an analytical and somewhat detached approach to life.
• Sensing-Feeling Perspective – realistic and practical with a tenderhearted empathy for others and a consideration of social and moral issues.
• iNtuitive-Feeling Perspective – concerned about people and focused on interpersonal relationships.
• iNtuitive-Thinking Perspective – logical and organized; this viewpoint needs to appear competent and believes others do, too.

Beginnings of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The development of MBTI began with the insights from the famous psychiatrist Carl G. Jung. Jung published Psychological Types in 1921; here, he outlined the basic ideas of personality types. Jung argued that people see and think in distinctly different, but not unique, ways. Therefore, it was possible to sort people into types based on a few identifiable differences. In the 1930s Katharine Briggs, a dedicated student of Jung's work, started to design testing instruments and develop and improve the ways they would measure personality characteristics. Isabel Myers, Briggs's daughter, began working with her mother to further develop the idea. Myers and Briggs used the theoretical foundation laid by Jung to develop a well-crafted instrument, a personality test that would allow them to sort people into the different Jungian categories.

Myers and Briggs started developing a database of personality profiles in the 1940s. They wanted to show that their test was a practical tool that would be psychometrically sound but could be used by non-psychologists. Because Myers and Briggs did not have formal training in psychology or statistics, it took a long time for the academic community to accept their work. Eventually, the MBTI began to be distributed by The Educational Testing Service, the country's largest test publisher, and by the 1970s, MBTI had become one of the most popular ways of measuring personality types in the United States and Canada (Hogan and Smither 96). Now published by Consulting Psychologist Press, MBTI was taken by more than two million people in 1990 and has been translated into numerous languages, including French, German, Japanese, and Spanish (Kroeger, Thuesen, and Rutledge 6-7).

In order to identify which MBTI personality type best describes you or someone you care about, you can use our free Myers-Briggs Matrix to see the characteristics of all the styles, and then choose the one that seems to fit best.

References

More on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:
Use our Interactive Matrix to find your Myers-Briggs personality type.
     Four Introvert-Perceiving Personality Types
     Four Extrovert-Perceiving Personality Types
     Four Introvert-Judging Personality Types
     Four Extrovert-Judging Personality Types

About the primary author of 3DPersonality.com: Dr. R. Jean Maddigan is a professional social scientist who has been interested in personality systems for over a decade. Read more on her background.