The Myers-Briggs Personality test, more commonly called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), is a psychometric assessment designed to measure preferences in how a person perceives the world and makes decisions. The test was originally based on the work done by Carl Jung and his typological theories published in 1921 in his book, “Psychological Types”.
The original work for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was done by a mother-daughter team during World War II. Believing that the knowledge of personality types would help women who were entering the work force for the first time, this team created the Indicator type testing. The goal was to help women identify the type of job they were best suited to be effective. (1)
Over the years the Myers-Briggs Indicator Type test has become one of the most trusted and widely used personality assessment tools available. The test is based on two different cognitive functions that Jung identified: judging functions that relate to thinking and feeling and perceiving functions that relate to sensing and intuition. These functions are then expressed in an introverted or extroverted form.
The model behind the Myers-Briggs test regards individuals much the same way as whether or not they are left-handed or right-handed. Jung believed that individuals were born with, or developed, certain preferred ways of acting and thinking, none of which changed throughout their lifetime. By combining the two judging functions and the two perceiving functions with the issue of introversion or extroversion the Myers-Briggs indicator type came up with 16 possible psychological types. (2)
Interestingly, none of these types is truly better or worse than another. However, Myers and Briggs theorize that people naturally preferred one overall combination over others. Some academic psychologists have criticized this instrument, but proponents point to anecdotal predictions of individual behavior which are accurate and claimed that the test meets the reliability of other psychological instruments. In several studies, between 75% and 90% of adults received the same results when the test was administered to the same person more than once.
References:
(1) Center for Applications of Psychological Type: The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers
http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/isabel-myers.htm
(2) The Myers-Briggs Foundation
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/
(3) The Myers-Briggs Foundation: Extraversion or Introversion
http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/extraversion-or-introversion.asp
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