We’re all fascinated by people, what makes them tick and behave as they do and ultimately, why are they not like us? We are after all, ‘how things should be’.  This is so often the starting base of human interactions that lead to conflict and antagonism. So it’s wonderful to find a tool that helps us take out the sting of difference and make sense of us and ‘them’. The MBTI is such a tool, and is widely used to help explain why we are, the way we are.

The story of how the MBTI was created

The MBTI is the world’s most popular personality instrument.   The theory behind it was furnished by the eminent Swiss psychologist, Carl C. Jung.   However, it took an “amateur” and a “little old lady in tennis shoes” to create the questionnaire itself.

Katharine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers were not psychologists.  Rather, they could have been described as “educated housewives”.  When the United States joined the Second World War in 1942, both ladies wanted to contribute to the war effort.  They decided to help people to understand themselves and others better.

They started to put together a questionnaire, based on Jung’s groundbreaking book, Psychological Types, and thought that they would complete it in a few weeks’ time.  But the task turned out to be rather more complex and took nearly 30 years!  During this time, Isabel Briggs Myers was treated with derision by professional psychologists.  How could an amateur possibly manage to devise a questionnaire to sort people into types? A feat which no psychologist had achieved before.

Actually, Isabel Myers was not that “unqualified”.  Certainly, she had no formal academic training in psychology or statistics but she linked up with someone who did indeed have the expertise in the techniques and tools she lacked.  Edward N Hay was a personnel manager of a large financial bank in Philadelphia.  He taught her what she needed to know about test construction, scoring, validation and statistics.  Isabel continued to develop the Indicator, gathering data, refining questions and applying the accepted tests for validity, reliability, test/re-test and statistical analysis.

Whilst she worked, she was delighted by the reaction of most people who took the questionnaire.  She called it the “aha” reaction – an expression of understanding people often displayed when they recognised some aspect of their personality which had been highlighted by the Indicator.  “What a relief to find out that it is all right to be me!”

It is now the most widely used personality questionnaire ever and has been translated into over 30 languages.

The MBTI in a nutshell

It examines the way in which we prefer to use our minds across four dimensions.  The MBTI considers where we focus our attention, how we take in information, the basis upon which we tend to make decisions and considers how we organise our lives.

• Extroversion or Introversion  - the preference of an individual to focus on the outer world of people and things (E) or the inner world of ideas and impressions (I);
• Sensing or Intuition  - the preference of an individual to rely on the five senses for perceiving the world around them (S) or to use intuition or “sixth sense” to focus on relationships and possibilities (N);
• Thinking or Feeling  - the way in which a person prefers to base their decisions, that is, focus on logical analysis (T) or on personal convictions and values (F);
• Judging or Perceiving  - whether you like a planned approach to life (J) or a more flexible and spontaneous one (P).

There are no right or wrong answers and all possible results are equally valid.  As a result of considering these four dimensions of personality, 16 different Types of personality emerge.  By finding out our natural Type, we can recognise our preferred style of working and interacting with other people.

What is the Value of the MBTI?
Fundamental to the MBTI is the fact that it encourages us to value the gifts each of us has as part of being unique human beings.

“For as we have many members in one body,
And all members have not the same office:
So we, being many, are one body…
And every one members one of another.

Having then gifts differing…
Whether prophesy, let us prophesy…
Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering:
Or he that teacheth, on teaching;
Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation…”

Romans 12: 4-8

Communication

When we encounter problems communicating with others, the MBTI can provide the key to explaining the differences at play.  When people differ, a knowledge of the MBTI Type lessens friction and eases strain by allowing people to be more tolerant and understanding of each other.  It actually promotes the value of differences as it causes people to actively look for the differing contributions of others’ perspectives.

Problem Solving

In a group where there are a great variety of MBTI Types, agreement on the solution to a problem will be harder to reach than if the group were composed of a smaller selection of Types.  However, with more Types considering the problem, the solution will be far more broadly based and thoroughly thought-out.  It is more likely to be a good solution with better chances of success.

In summary

Understanding and appreciating the reactions of those around us, who seem to be operating with an alternative set of preferences, can open up a whole world from an opposite perspective.  We are the richer for it, both at work and in our personal lives.

By developing individual strengths and appreciating the strengths of the other Types, life is more humorous, more intriguing and more enjoyable than it could possibly be if everyone were the same.

© Shirley Huntington
Psychometrics Specialist
Corporate Alchemy Limited