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What is MBTI?
MBTI is the abbreviation of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. It is a self-report questionnaire designed to categorize individuals into 16 different 'psychological types' or 'personal types.' MBTI is based on the theory of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung in his 1921 book The Psychological Type. This test specifies a binary value for each of the four categories: introvert or extrovert, sensory or intuitive, thinking or emotional, judgment or perception. Take a letter from each category and get a four-letter test result, representing one of the 16 possible types, such as 'INFP' or 'ESTJ'.
The core philosophy of MBTI emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences. It assumes that each of us has specific preferences in the way we interpret experiences that underpin our interests, needs, values, and motivations. MBTI aims to help people better understand their personality traits, values and behavioral habits of others, and can assist in exploration in career planning, interpersonal communication, self-growth, etc.
The History and Origin of MBTI
MBTI was built during World War II by American Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. They were inspired by Carl Jung's book 'Psychological Types'. Briggs began her personality research as early as 1917, initially proposing four temperament types: contemplative (or considerate), spontaneous, executive, and social. After Jung's English translation was published in 1923, Briggs realized that Jung's theory was similar to her own, but much more than that.
During World War II (1939-1945), Briggs and Myers began to create their metrics, believing that understanding personality preferences would help women who first entered industrial work so that they could find the “most comfortable and effective” wartime jobs. The 'Briggs Myers Type Indicator Manual' published in 1944 was renamed 'Myers-Briggs Type Indicator' in 1956.
It should be noted that neither Myers nor Briggs have received formal education in psychology, and they are both self-study students in the field of psychometrics. Miles studied under Edward N. Hay, the human resources director at a large Philadelphia bank, and learned basic test construction, scoring, validation, and statistics from him.
MBTI's work attracted the attention of Henry Changxi, the head of the Educational Testing Services Center. The first MBTI 'Handbook' was published in 1962 under the sponsorship of the Educational Testing Service Center. In 1975, the copyright of MBTI was transferred to Consulting Psychologists Press (later Myers-Briggs Company), and the Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT) was established as a research laboratory.
The core concept of MBTI
MBTI theory is based on Jung's theory of psychological type and has been developed on this basis.
Four dimensions (dichotomy)
MBTI divides a person's personality into four dimensions, each with two opposite tendencies. These dimensions describe a person's psychological activity patterns and personality types in terms of obtaining information, making decisions, and treating life.
1. Energency: Extraverted (E) – Introverted (I)
Extraversion : energy is directed to the outside world, gaining energy by interacting with people and taking action. Inclined to be action-oriented, seek breadth, and prefer more frequent interactions. Recharge by living with people. The spelling of 'extraversion' is used in the MBTI literature.
Introversion : energy is directed to the inner world, and gains energy by thinking about ideas, memories and experiences. Inclined to think-oriented, seek depth, and prefer more substantial interactions. Charge by being alone.
These preferences are often referred to as 'attitude.'
2. Understanding the world: Real sense (S) — Intuition (N)
Sensing : The way of obtaining information focuses on specific, realistic, and touchable information perceived through the five senses. Positive to pay attention to details and facts.
Intuition : The way of information acquisition focuses on a more abstract level, seeing the global situation, finding relationships and patterns. More interested in theory, model, and explanation, and care more about the future than the present. Intuition uses 'N' to avoid confusion with 'I' of Introversion.
Feeling and intuition are functions of obtaining information (perception).
3. Judge things: Thinking (T) — Emotion (F)
Thinking : The decision-making method focuses on logical analysis and find the most reasonable and consistent options. Inclined to make decisions from a detached standpoint. Pay attention to the truth and think that the truth is more important.
Feeling : The decision-making method focuses on considering the importance of the person involved, making decisions through association or sympathy, and seeking harmony, consensus and fit. Inclined to make decisions from the heart.
Thinking and emotions are the functions of making decisions (judgment). MBTI measures preference rather than ability. People who prefer thinking do not necessarily 'think better', and people who prefer emotions do not necessarily have 'better' emotional reactions.
4. Life attitude: Judgment (J) — Perception (P)
Judging : The way you treat the outside world tends to be planned and organized, and like to draw conclusions and decisions.
Perceive : The way you treat the outside world tends to be spontaneous and adaptable, and like to keep your choices open.
A judgement or perceptual preference indicates which function (judgment function or perceptual function) is used first when interacting with the outside world.
The preferences in these four dimensions are either one or the other, but the proportions are different in each person. Myers believes that preference directions (e.g. E vs. I) are more important than preference degree (e.g. very clear vs. slight). But critics point out that most studies show that scores in each dimension are normally distributed, and most people fall in the middle rather than explicitly biasing to one end, which is inconsistent with the concept of classification 'type' in MBTI.
Myers-Briggs Sixteen Personality Types
According to different preference combinations of four dimensions, sixteen personality types can be derived. Each type is represented by a four-letter abbreviation, each letter represents a preference in a dimension. For example, the personality type that tends to be introvert, intuitive, emotional and judgment is 'INFJ'. PsycTest Quiz lists the 16 types of MBTI and their nicknames , such as INTJ is 'Architect' and INFP is 'Mediator'.
There is no difference between good and bad in Myers-Briggs personality types . No one type is better than the others. Each type has its valuable talents, strengths and contributions.
Myers and Briggs' important addition to Jung's theory is their concept of 'type dynamics.' Type dynamics describe interactions between different preferences. According to this concept, for each of the 16 MBTI types, there is a dominant feature followed by accessibility, third function and least developed disadvantage function. The dominant function is usually first manifested, the auxiliary function becomes more obvious in adolescence, the third function develops in middle age, and the disadvantage function is the least conscious and often appears in high-pressure situations.
The association of Myers-Briggs tests with other psychometric tools
The researchers analyzed the correlation between the MBTI scale and other personality assessment tools such as the Big Five. McCree and Costa’s study found that the four MBTI scales were correlated with the four dimensions in the Big Five personality model (extroversion, openness, pleasantness, and conscientiousness). However, MBTI lacks measurements of the emotional stability (neurotic) dimension in the Big Five personality . These results suggest that the MBTI scale can be interpreted within a broader framework of personality traits, but it measures relatively independent dimensions rather than truly bipartite preferences or qualitatively distinct types.
MBTI's popularity and usage
Despite scientific controversy, MBTI has had a wide impact since its adoption by the Educational Testing Service Center in 1962. It is estimated that 50 million people have participated in the MBTI test worldwide. In the United States alone, MBTI is used by 10,000 businesses, 2,500 colleges and universities, and 200 government agencies.
MBTI is widely used in education, career planning consulting, team building, career development and interpersonal relationships. However, its relevance in career satisfaction is controversial, and there are concerns that the tool will be abused for labeling people.
In some areas, the popularity of MBTI has reached a trend. For example, in Korea, MBTI testing is very popular among young people and is used to find compatible dates. This trend stems in part from a website that offers free approximate testing. However, experts and MBTI publishing representatives warned against using MBTI for dating because it was not designed for it. In addition, some South Korean companies even require job seekers to provide MBTI test results, which has sparked opposition from job seekers, who believe this is an unreasonable standard.
Free MBTI tests provided by PsycTest Quiz
PsycTest Quiz (PsycTest) is based on MBTI theory and provides you with a permanent free, registration-free MBTI personality test service. We provide a variety of test versions of different lengths to meet your different needs and schedules, including MBTI 12-question trial version , MBTI 28-question simple version , MBTI 72-question classic version , MBTI 93-question standard version , 145-question professional version and MBTI 200-question full version . No matter which version you choose, we will generate a personalized personality type report for you to help you:
- Better understand your natural tendencies, values and behavioral habits.
- Understand other people 's differences and improve interpersonal communication.
- Explore career direction and self-growth.
We support international multilingual, which can be easily used by users around the world.
Please note : While MBTI is a popular tool for self-exploration, there is a debate in the scientific community about its effectiveness and reliability. When performing myers-briggs test, we need to look at the test results in a more critical way and use them as a reference tool for understanding ourselves, rather than an absolute scientific diagnosis. PsycTest Quiz encourages users to use test results as a starting point for personal growth and reflection, and combine other methods and practical experience to fully understand themselves.
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