We human beings are a social people. We develop many forms of relationships: marriage, family, friends and colleagues. But as we get to know different people, there are those we can easily relate to and others we can�t figure out for they act in ways we don�t understand. Personologiests, those psychologists who study human personality, have tried to categorize the human behavior that is most natural for each individual. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI, is the result of one such system and today is used and respected the most with governments, businesses, and other organizations.
Historical Overview
Plato did the earliest known categorizing of personality around 340 B.C. He sorted behavior into four categories: eikonike (Artisan), pistike (Guardian), noetic (Idealists), dianoetic (Rationals). Since then philosophers developed and redefine the four personalities.
However at the turn of the 20th century, psychologists didn�t saw personality as a predisposition you are born with but rather a response to environmental stimuli. Carl Jung disagreed in his book Psychological Types. He claimed that personality is derived from our preference to be extraverted or introverted and our �four basic psychological functions�: sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling. But the study of human behavior continued to focus on Freudian psychodynamics and Pavlovian conditioning.
At the mid-twentieth century, Isabel Myers and her mother, Kathryn Briggs, discovered Jung�s book and made a questionnaire out of it, �The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator�. This questionnaire made personology mainstream as it was quickly implemented as a research tool and later by business to assign tasks according to people�s personality. The primary difference between MBTI and Jung�s work is that the MBTI added a new aspect: do we want a scheduled and orderly or more free and casual lifestyle.
The Four Dimensions
People call MBTI�s four dimensions of human behavior by different names, but the definition and order of the dimensions never change. Each usually has a preference for one of the two choices for each dimension, but that preference might be strong, weak, or even non-existent. It is important to note that the MBTI tells want people want to act like and people do act differently under certain circumstances.
The best way how to find your personality is not here but through a test. I recommend The Keirsy Temperament Sorter II, found in Keirsey�s book Please Understand Me II. However, after reading through this list you should be able to guess or, if your preference is a strong one, determine who you are from the following.
1. Interacting: how we interact with others and direct or energy
2. Attending: the kind of information we notice or trust
3. Deciding: how we make decisions or conclusions.
4. Living: do we like to live in a planned or spontaneous lifestyle.
With this type of system, human behavior can be divided into 16 different personalities (2 x 2 x 2 x 2).
The Sorting Problem
One of the early complaints is that sixteen personalities is a lot and the need to sort the personalities into small groups was very much desired. Myers initially divided them into their psychological functions: SF, ST, NF, and NT. This worked out well with the NFs and NTs, but the same kind of likeness did not exist for the SFs and STs. Later some personologiests observed that SPs and SJs do have personalities similarities like the NFs and NTs, but it was all hypotheses with only observed behavior as evidence.
This is when David Keirsey released his groundbreaking book Please Understand Me. In it he observed that SPs, SJs, NFs, and NTs act like Plato�s eikonike, pistike, noetic, and dianoetic personalities respectively. The reason this is groundbreaking is because it gives the MBTI historical evidence for support in its theory.
But this evidence brought more questions. Due to the fact Sensors are sorted by their Living dimension and Intuitives are sorted by their Decision dimension, why are they not sorted by the same dimensions? This question can be broaden into two additional questions. Are the definitions for each dimension function not enough? Is it not just the definitions but how each dimension and/or function affects each other that determine personality?
Functional Analysis
With the unusual results from the sorting problem, MBTI personologiests knew they had to look deeper into how each of the four preferred functions affected each other. SPs and SJs still use their Decision function of course, but how in relation to the other dimensions was still a mystery. In addition, can it be explained in a way to relate with the NFs and NTs? To answer this question requires a look at each dimension as it relates to the others.
The Attending and Decision dimensions goes hand-in-hand with each other due to their use in problem solving. The Attending function gathers information and the Decision function interprets the information into a decision. Although all four functions (S, N, T, and F) can be used, each personality uses them in different ways and might neglect using the two the personality doesn�t have a preference for. So personologists asked thereselves which of these functions is used the most and how?
Next personologists looked at the Living dimension. What they discovered was that Preceptors express their preferred Attention function more than their preferred Decision function. For Judgers it is the Decision function that is expressed over the Attention function. The other functions were only used if the situation requires it (an NT falling in love, for example) and might result in the person being awkward in the situation. The result brought with it the concept of a dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior function for each personality. For example, ESFP and ISFP express Sensing more than Feeling and express Thinking only on occasion.
But when they looked at the Interacting dimension, it got more complicated. Extraverts express their dominant function outwardly and their secondary function inwardly. Introverts express their dominant function inwardly and auxiliary function outwardly. So the ESFP are outwardly sensoring and inwardly feeling while the ISFJ are inwardly sensoring and then outwardly feeling like ESFJs who are outwardly feeling before they are inwardly sensoring.
Learning More
This is only an introduction to the MBTI. To learn more, check out the following:
| Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey |
HIGHLY recommended. Not only is Keirsey the most respected and quoted personologist today, his book offers a wealth of information for a good price. His website is here: www.keirsey.com |
| www.typelogic.com | This is a website that offers good and brief explanation to each of the personality types. |
| Paul & Barbara Tieger books | Nice introductory books with each one focusing on a certain use for MBTI. For example, Do What You Are specializes in job hunting. However each book costs more than Keirsey�s book. Check them out here: www.personalitytype.com . |
