Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it. — Bruce Lee
I’m not sure what led me to find the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I think I came across a video on characteristics of an INFJ on YouTube and thought what the hell is an INFJ ? Some investigating on YouTube and Google later and I found myself doing an online test, which announced that I was an INFJ – the world’s rarest personality type which makes up only 1.5% of the population.
Did looking into this personality type first influence my test? I don’t know, I tried to answer as true as possible. What I do know is that I feel I strongly resonate with some characteristics of an INFJ and that I believe that this has helped me understand myself a bit better, as well as fully accept myself.
Therefore, I thought I would write about the Myers-Briggs test and what it can offer in the hope that others may find this interesting and benefit in a similar way.
The Myers-Briggs personality types theory was created by mother and daughter Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers in the 1940’s. Their theory is based on the work of psychologist Carl Jung‘s ‘psychological types’ and was developed with the aim of helping women into the workplace by identifying what kind of work would be best for their personality type.
16 personality types are found from being more of one side of the spectrum of four preferences: Introvert (I) or Extrovert (E), Sensing (S) or Intuition (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), and Judging (J) or Perceiving (P). There are many free online tests such as here or here that generate your Myers-Briggs personality type, which is made up of the four letters that symbolise your dominant preferences. Thus the personality types are ISTJ, ISTP, ISFJ, ISFP, INFJ, INFP, INTJ, INTP, ESTJ, ESTP, ESFJ, ESFP, ENFJ, ENFP, ENTJ and ENTP.
Each personality type has a different name such as ‘The Protector‘ or ‘The Mechanic‘ (these seem to vary site to site) and each represent a proportion of the population ranging from 13.8% – 1.5% (again, I’ve seen slightly different figures on different sites).
The first of the four preferences is introversion or extroversion. This is basically whether you prefer to direct your attention inwardly (introversion) or outwardly (extroversion). Introverts tend to enjoy time for themselves and prefer one to one or small group meetings whereas extroverts may enjoy being the centre of attention and around a lot of people.
The second preference is sensing or intuition which refers to how we take in information. If you are more sensing you may favour factual information compared to being more intuitive and able to contemplate un-proven ideas and things you may not be able to see.
The third preference is thinking or feeling and refers to how we make decisions; whether by thinking rationally, logically and subjectively or in accordance to your values and of others.
Lastly, a person may be dominant in judging or perceiving. A person on the judgement side prefers plans and structure where as someone on the perception side will be more spontaneous and flexible.
The second time I took the test on a different site I came up as an INFP. This didn’t surprise me as I was only just in the judging side of the spectrum last time. The truth is that from looking at the characteristics of both I feel I am more INFJ but do resonate with some INFP characteristics.
I watched a video which strongly argued you could only be one of the 16 personality types but I don’t see why you cannot resonate with a few types if you are borderline on a preference.
Some INFJ characteristics I strongly resonate with are: an inability to do work which doesn’t mean anything to me, a desire to help others and to right wrongs, the need to spend some time alone, being sensitive – especially to conflict and criticism, and feeling different and misunderstood (which is no real surprise when so few people share your personality type).
Famous people and even fictional characters have been given a Myers-Briggs personality type. For example, according to the internet, famous living INFJ‘s include Nicole Kidman and Elon Musk where as Severus Snape is an INFP, Harry Potter an ISTP and Tyrion Lannister an ENTP.
There are a lot of arguments against the test. For instance, some say that it is easy to make connections to the personality traits. However, as you are answering personal questions in order to generate your type, you are surely bound to connect with the type you have been given? If we compare to basic star signs giving personality traits from the time of year people are born, we can see that the MBTI is much more individualised.
The test was developed for the workplace and putting individuals in the right professions/positions. However, although the test can suggest what an individual may be suited to, it is hard to see how the test can measure a person’s capability for a role.
Personally, I find a personality test strange and perhaps dangerous for hiring, as certain characteristics may be more desirable than others that will not necessarily affect performance. However, I can see the benefits of learning how staff like to work, their preferred methods of learning etc for best performance, team building, training, and happiness at work.
A common argument I have seen against the test is that Myers and Briggs were not psychologists. Nevertheless, they based their work on famous psychologist Carl Jung’s work on personality types and despite not having the psychologist status, did their own research and created something exceptionally influential to this day.
As I have seen when I completed a different test and got a different personality type, you can sometimes get alternating results. It could be that different tests obtain different results due to asking different questions or having different formulas. Or, of course, it could vary due to how you are feeling at the particular time you are taking the test.
Something I’ve been thinking while writing this is that the NF intuitive and feeling personality types may naturally be more interested and curious about personality tests. There also seems to be a lot of fascination regarding the INFJ type and I wonder if with all the fascination, it is still the rarest type…
I believe that the Myers-Briggs Personality Test may be extremely insightful to those who are curious about themselves and can be a means of deeper understanding and acceptance.
I feel it highlights the beauty of being different and unique – with the knowledge of there being similarly minded people out there, and can hopefully lead into more celebrating of ourselves.
I want to hear what you think, what personality type are you and what did you discover from doing the test? Comments very welcome 🙂
Written by Lucy Editha – Life coach for people suffering from anxiety or depression – Website / Facebook – Lucy Editha Coaching
References: https://www.personalitypage.com/html/high-level.html; https://my-personality-test.com; https://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/t-articl/mb-simpl.htm; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers–Briggs_Type_Indicator; https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en-IE/tools/MBTI/MBTI-personality-Types; https://www.careerplanner.com/MB2/TypeInPopulation.cfm https://flowpsychology.com/6-myers-briggs-strengths-and-weaknesses/; https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
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