Just as Mormons have made it their mission to convert the world, I have made it my mission to proclaim to the world what Meyer's Briggs is and why I love it so much.
Studying people interests me to no end. I love to understand what makes people tick and I love to help people. Studying personality types is a great way to understand someone pretty quickly. Some people ask "What's your sign?" -- I ask "What's your MBTI?"
According to www.personalitypage.com, there are 16 different personality types formed from combinations of 8 different "letters." Out of those 8 letters, each person is 4 of the 8. They are:
Extrovert vs. Introvert (E or I)
Intuitive vs. Sensing (N or S)
Feeling vs. Thinking (F or T)
Judging vs. Perceiving (J or P)
Extroversion and Introversion
When we talk about "extroversion" and "introversion", we are distinguishing between the two worlds in which all of us live. There is a world inside ourselves, and a world outside ourselves. When we are dealing with the world outside of ourself, we are "extraverting". When we are inside our own minds, we are "introverting".
Sensing and Intuition
The "SN" preference refers to how we gather information. We all need data on which to base our decisions. We gather data through our five senses. Jung contended that there are two distinct ways of perceiving the data that we gather. The "Sensing" preference absorbs data in a literal, concrete fashion. The "Intuitive" preference generates abstract possibilities from information that is gathered. We all use both Sensing and Intuition in our lives, but to different degrees of effectiveness and with different levels of comfort.
Thinking and Feeling
When Jung studied human behavior, he noticed that people have the capability to make decisions based on two very different sets of criteria: Thinking and Feeling. When someone makes a decision that is based on logic and reason, they are operating in Thinking mode. When someone makes a decision that is based on their value system, or what they believe to be right, they are operating in Feeling mode. We all use both modes for making decisions, but we put more trust into one mode or the other. A "Thinker" makes decisions in a rational, logical, impartial manner, based on what they believe to be fair and correct by pre-defined rules of behavior. A "Feeler" makes decisions on the individual case, in a subjective manner based on what they believe to be right within their own value systems.
Judging and Perceiving
Judging and Perceiving preferences, within the context of personality types, refers to our attitude towards the external world, and how we live our lives on a day-to-day basis. People with the Judging preference want things to be neat, orderly and established. The Perceiving preference wants things to be flexible and spontaneous. Judgers want things settled, Perceivers want thing open-ended.
Want to know what you are? Go here to take the test: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
Then go here to learn more about it: www.personalitypage.com
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2 comments:
I'm no stranger to the MBTI (I'm INTP), but I think it's dangerous as a possible avenue for prejudice. It's kinda unsettling that such a test might be required by employers, for instance. It's neat, it's pretty accurate, but when people start interpreting it as a boundary to behavior instead of a mere pointer, there are problems.
I'm most interested with your comment about being so enthralled with studying other people. I was always more worried about understanding myself; my philosophy is that as people, we're all pretty similar, so understanding me gives me ideas about understanding you. Another thing is that there are less obstacles in understanding yourself. For instance, the constraints of understanding me are imposed by me alone, but the constraints of understanding you are imposed by you (and me, to some degree). You aren't required to convey yourself in a simple or truthful manner, and so, that's an obstacle to my understanding of you. My idea of you is limited to what you convey and how you convey it. Therefore, I have a better chance of understanding me, and there's inherently more value in that self-investment.
Ah... that's the difference between you and I. Because I am a very open and honest person and because I hide nothing, I automatically assume everyone else is the same way. Therefore, I am always seeking to understand others and get them to be just as open as I. My tragic flaw is that most people either think I'm annoying, nosey or they just plain lie to me to get me to shut up.
I've been doing a lot of training classes lately at Northrop Grumman and just recently we discussed the dangers of "pigeon holeing" people based on the MBTI. I'm beginning to learn that I am to use it as a baseline to understand why people do the things they do, but I also have to understand that everyone is different in their own way and there is no way that everyone can be 100% classified into only 16 categories.
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