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The Myers Brigg
Type Indicator
An Overview

The shared vision of Katherine Biggs and Isabel Myers was to “enable
individuals to grow through an understanding and appreciation of individual
differences in healthy personality and to enhance harmony and productivity
among diverse groups”.
Briggs and Meyers believed that Carl Jung’s understanding of human
development, his theoretical model encompassing psychological type, his
concept of the process of individuation, and his structure of the psyche
offered the most promising approach.
Their mission was to give the individual access to the benefits of this
understanding.
MBTI manual: a guide to the development and use of the Myers-Briggs type indicator instrument. CPP, 2003.
Theory

The essence of Jung’s theory is that much seemingly variation in behavior is
actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the way
individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.
The MBTI personality inventory is based on Jung’s ideas about how different
ways of perceiving and judging, in combination with different attitudes,
describe different types of people.
Theory

Perception and judgment are conceived of as mental functions, the term
attitudes refers to orientation of energy and orientation to the external world.
General interest in this personality tool is due to the fact that almost every
human experience involves either perception or judgment and is played out in
either the extraverted world of action or introverted world of reflection.
Theory

Every individual is unique.
Each of us is a product of heredity and environment and, as a result, is
different from everyone else.
The doctrine of uniqueness, however, gives no practical help in understanding
the people whom we must educate, counsel, work with or interact with in
our personal lives.
In practice we tend to assume unconsciously that other people’s minds work
on principles as our own. All too often, however, the people with whom we
interact do not reason as we reason, do not value or are interested in what
interests us.
The assumption of similarity, therefore, can promote misunderstanding of the
motives and behaviors of people whose minds operate quite differently from
our own.
Theory

The challenges involved in constructing the MBTI instrument derive from the
nature of Carl G. Jung’s theory of psychological types.
The intent of the Indicator is not to measure people or the traits they are said
to “have” or possess, but rather to sort people into groups to which, in theory,
they already belong.
The object of the MBTI instrument is to determine the person’s preference on
each of the four dichotomies so that these results can be reported to the
person as a four letter type.
Although the measurement of preferences is currently obtained on four
individual scales, the results are meant to be interpreted as whole types.
The assumption is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Theory

The value of the theory underlying the Myers Briggs Type Indicator personality
inventory is that it enables us to expect specific differences in specific people
and to cope with people and their differences more constructively than we
otherwise could.
Briefly, the theory is that much seemingly chance variation in human behavior
in fact is not due to chance; it is the logical result of a few basic, observable
preferences.
Theory

The MBTI instrument differs from most other personality instruments in that
the theory upon which it is based postulate dichotomies.
These dichotomies are believed to reflect innate psychological or mental
dispositions.
The MBTI instrument is different from typical trait approaches to personality
that measure variation along a continuum, instead the MBTI seeks to identify
a respondent’s status on either one or the other of two opposite personality
categories, both which are regarded as neutral in relation to emotional health,
intellectual functioning, and psychological adaptation.
Each of the categories specified in the instrument represents a multifaceted
domain of psychological functioning. The assumption here is that one of each
pair of categories is inherently more appealing than the other to a particular
respondent. Thus the forced-choice format of items is designed to reveal a
preference between equally viable mental process and attitudes. (Right
Handed versus Left Handed).
Why the MBTI is Different

People who take the MBTI inventory may make important life decisions based
on the results.
These results have a significant impact on a person’s self understanding and
self-esteem.
Results can affect how individuals on teams interact with each one another or
can help identify sources of job satisfaction.
MBTI – Practical Use

As a consulting tool, the MBTI can serve as a nonthreatening vehicle to
introduce the concept of individual differences in personality and the relation
between personally constructs and behavior to a general audience.
Counselors use the MBTI for individual, group, and family counseling for issues
of self understanding, communications, career planning, learning and life long
development. In Education, the MBTI is used by teachers in curriculum and
instruction to reach 16 types of learners.
MBTI applications in organizations include team building, leadership
development, improving communication, career development, outplacement,
problem solving, quality and managing change.
McCaulley, M. H. (2000). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: A bridge between counseling and consulting. Consulting
Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 52(2), 117.

MBTI results do not “tell” a person who she or he is.
Rather, individual respondents are viewed as experts who are best qualified to
judge accuracy of the type descriptions that result from their self-report.
The type descriptions are designed to reflect a theory that includes a model of
development that continues throughout the lifespan. As a result, specific
hypotheses relevant to different ages and stages of life can be made and
tested empirically. For example, the theory predicts that younger persons are
generally less clear and consistent in their preferences than are more mature
individuals. As a result, we expect lower reliability coefficients when testing
samples of young people and higher reliabilities with older subjects.
The MBTI dichotomies are concerned with basic attitudes and mental
functions that enter into almost every aspect of behavior; therefore the scope
of practical applications is broad rather than narrow and includes quite varied
aspects of living.

A major strength of the MBTI comes from the type descriptions Isabel Myers
wrote for each type.
Each description begins with the characteristics of the type at its best when
the dominant is well developed and then adds the strengths from the
auxiliary.
The description is a kind of road map to the gifts of each type. It ends with a
comment on blind spots if the auxiliary does not develop to balance the
dominant.
The positive tone of the type descriptions makes the MBTI more affirming
than personality tests that focus on problems.
When explaining types to clients, consultants should make sure there is time
for the individual to understand the type preferences and then decide if the
MBTI type is actually the best fit.

The goal of the latest revision Form M in 1998 was to make the theory of
psychological types described by Jung understandable and useful in people’s
lives.
The new standard form M used a different statistical method for scoring from
one used in earlier parts.
MBTI should be viewed as a dynamic tool:
Specifying that the MBTI Tool is a personality inventory rather than some
other kind of assessment tool discourages its misuse as a simple measure
of a particular construct such as “cognitive styles”.
An associated and far more serious issue is mistaking the MBTI
instrument for a personality trait measure rather than a dynamic
typology.
MBTI – Form M

Administration:
Eighth grade reading level
Age 14 and over
Latest version Form M (computer scoring) & Form M self-scorable
(hand score)
93 Items
Approximate time for Administration: 15-25
Guidelines:
Remember, there are no right or wrong answers
It is best not to think too long about any questions, your first
response is likely to be most true for you.
If you cannot decide on the question, skip it.
MBTI – Administration

When asking respondents to take the MBTI Instrument, consider the probable
type of the individual client. Sensitivity to the following can also increase
cooperation:
- Sensing type will want to know that the information will have some
practical value.
- Intuitive types will want to see possible future benefits. They may also find
the choice between alternatives frustrating, they like the widest possible
range of possibilities.
- Thinking types can be expected to be skeptical, since skepticism is an
important part of their type. It helps to acknowledge the skepticism and
suggest they “wait and see”.
- Introverted types can be expected to be concerned with privacy issues and
whether they may unknowingly reveal sensitive personal information.
MBTI administrators can assure that it will not reveal anything hidden or
negative about them.
MBTI – Administration

The MBTI identifies preferences rather than competencies.
Personality types result from interactions among four MBTI dichotomies.
These dichotomies encompass four opposite domains of mental functioning:
opposite ways of perceiving, opposite ways of judging, opposite attitudes in
which preferred perception and preferred judgment are typically used and
opposite ways of relating to the world.
The eight characteristics that are defined by the MBTI results are not traits
that vary in quantity; they are dichotomous constructs that describe equally
legitimate but opposite ways in which we use our minds.
The particular preferences that interact in a person affect not only what is
attended to in any given situation but also how conclusions are drawn about
what has been perceived.
MBTI - Dichotomies

The MBTI instrument contains four separate dichotomies:
Extraversion – you prefer to focus on the outer world of people and
things
Introversion – you prefer to focus on the inner world of impressions
Sensing – you tend to focus on the present and on concrete
information gained from your senses
Intuition – you tend focus on the future, with a view toward
patterns and possibilities
MBTI - Dichotomies

The MBTI instrument contains four separate dichotomies:
Thinking – you tend to base your decisions primarily on logic and on
objective analysis of cause and effect
Feeling – you tend to base your decisions primarily on values and on
subjective evaluation of person centered concerns
Judging – you like a planned and organized approach to life and
prefer to have things settled
Perceiving – you like a flexible and spontaneous approach to life and
prefer to keep your options open
MBTI - Dichotomies

Two of these, S-N and T-F, describe functions and reflect basic
preferences for use of perception and judgment
The other two, E-I and J-P, reflect attitudes or orientations.
Together these functions and orientations influence how a person
perceives a situation and decides on a course of action
MBTI - Dichotomies

The main objective of the MBTI tool is to identify which of two opposite
categories is preferred on each of the four dichotomies.
The indicator obtains a numerical score based on responses favoring one pole
versus its opposite.
These calculations are designed not as scales for measurement of traits or
behaviors but rather as indications of preference for one pole of a dichotomy
or its opposite.
The intent is to reflect a habitual choice between rival alternatives analogous
to right handedness or left handedness.
An example: one expects to use both the right and left hands, even though
one reaches first with the preferred hand. Similarly, everyone is assumed to
use both sides of each of the four dichotomies but to respond first, most
often, and most comfortably with the preferred functions and attitudes.
MBTI - Scoring

As evidence that a preference has been accurately reported, MBTI results
include an indication of clarity of preference termed a preference clarity
index.
Preference Clarity Indexes range from 1 to 30 on each of the four dichotomies.
The higher the index, the greater the clarity of preference that can be
assumed.
A higher Preference Clarity Index does not mean someone is more skilled or
abled in that index than another person. Someone with a 30 on T (Thinking)
may not necessarily be better than someone with a 15 on T.
The person with the higher score uses that ability more often as compared to
the person with the lower score.
MBTI - Scoring

The MBTI assessment describes a dynamic personality system such that the 16
types are greater than the sum of their parts.
The identification and description of the 16 distinctive personality types that
result from interactions among the preferences.
A type is not created by simply adding the four preferred ways of
functioning.
Each type described by Jung and Meyers is greater than the sum of
its parts because of the different interactions among the four
preferences that make up a type.
By identifying the preferences, the combinations of the preferences
and how the combined preferences operate as a whole dynamic
types, researchers can establish effects and put them to practical
use.
MBTI - Types

Assumption underlying the types:
Each type has its own special gifts and strengths, its own areas of vulnerability
and its own pathway for development.
The type description presents these relationships in everyday terms.
Each type is described in terms of effective use of functions and attitudes and
also in terms of the specific difficulties arising when type is less developed or
not used effectively.
MBTI - Types

Reliability:
Internal consistency reliability is concerned with how consistently
respondents answer the items on a given scale.
- The more consistency the less “noise” in the
measurement.
Split Half Reliability – split the item pool into two halves, compute
the internal consistency of each half and correct the result for the
length of the scale.
For Form M, improvement in reliability than Form J – each .90 or
greater; The same found for Coefficient Alpha - each .90 or
greater.
Reliability

Reliability:
Test-Retest Reliability – estimate of how stable a characteristic is
over time.
Practical questions revolve around the likelihood that on retest a
person will choose the same pole of all four dichotomous domains.
The test retest reliabilities of Form M are generally higher than
those of Form G.
Reliability

Validity:
Evidence for Validity of the Four Preference Scales
(E – I, S – N, T – F, J – P).
A number of exploratory factor analyses have
demonstrated very close correspondence with the
hypothesized four-factor structure.
More rigorous confirmatory factor analyses provide even
stronger support for the model.
Validity

Validity:
The important feature that warrants attention is the fact that Jung’s
theory and the MBTI are typologies (McCaulley, 2000).
More specifically, the instrument treats personality types as
distinctive groups. This perspective suggests that there are
quantitatively and qualitatively different populations of people who
express different personality characteristics.
In other words, these populations will demonstrate relative
homogeneity of variance within groups and heterogeneity of
variance between groups (Block, 1971; Block & Ozer, 1982; Pittenger
2005).
Validity
Pittenger, D. J. (2005). Cautionary comments regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice and Research, 57(3), 210.

There is no evidence of separate populations of personality types using the
standard scoring procedure. Thus, concluding that an E type is qualitatively
different from an I type is indefensible unless there are corresponding data to
suggest that the difference between the scale scores is sufficiently large to
support such a distinction.
From a statistical perspective, the MBTI four letter type formula may imply
statistically significant personality differences where none exists.
Stated from a different perspective, the four-letter type formula may create
the impression that there is meaningful difference between the personality
profiles of two individuals when no such difference exists.
Validity
Pittenger, D. J. (2005). Cautionary comments regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Consulting Psychology
Journal: Practice and Research, 57(3), 210.

MBTI manual: a guide to the development and use of the Myers-Briggs type
indicator instrument. CPP, 2003.
McCaulley, M. H. (2000). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: A bridge between
counseling and consulting. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and
Research, 52(2), 117.
Pittenger, D. J. (2005). Cautionary comments regarding the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 57(3), 210.
References

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