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Wednesday 17 August 2016

Myers Briggs Type Indicator quizzes

Personality is made up of unseen characteristics and processes in our environment. Personality underpins our relatively stable behaviour patterns as we respond to ideas, objects, and others (Daft & Pirola-Merlo, 2009).

Others can see our personality by the way we act & speak, the way we present ourselves, our attitude towards others, and in the expression of our values.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality test which attempts to measure how we differ in collecting and analysing data for problem-solving and decision-making.

Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, during World War II extrapolated four continua from Jung's typological theories, in the belief that personality understanding would help war service women who were entering the workforce for the first time to identify their "most comfortable and effective" war-time role. By 1962, the initial questionnaire had become MBTI, normalised for the US population.

The four continua - roughly outlined - are:
  • Where do you prefer to focus your attention – and get your energy Extraversion (I like to talk to people) – Introversion (I like to read a book)
  • How do you prefer to take in information? Sensing (I like to learn the facts) – Intuition (I like to imagine possibilities)
  • How do you make decisions? Thinking (I like to decide logically) – Feeling (I like to consider people)
  • How do you deal with the outer world? Judging (I like to organize my schedule) – Perceiving (I like to adapt to changes)
The result is a four letter personality 'type'. For example: ENTJ or ISFP. There are 16 personalities.

Ideally you should go to a trained consultant to see what your MBTI type is. This is likely to cost around $200, and involve a test battery of around 200 questions.

However, if you are not sure if this should be one of your 360 degrees of tests, you can get a rough idea on the web. There are lots of tests available online that will give you a fast and dirty idea as to whether you are.

However, the most roughly reliable test I have found is this one, prepared by a colleague of mine many years ago. The downloadable pdf test form is here (which auto-sums for you). You can then look up your type and read the more in-depth information that my colleague collected here.

If this feels useful to you, get a professional test done to find out more detail.


Sam

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