Myers briggs type indicator manual#

Point scores on each of the dichotomies can vary considerably from person to person, even among those with the same type. Nor does the MBTI instrument measure aptitude it simply indicates for one preference over another.:3 Someone reporting a high score for extraversion over introversion cannot be correctly described as more extraverted: they simply have a clear preference. For example, people who prefer judgment over perception may not necessarily appear more judgmental or less perceptive in their behavior. Note that the terms used for each dichotomy have specific technical meanings relating to the MBTI which may differ from their everyday usage. The four pairs of preferences or dichotomies are shown in the table to the right. INFP: introversion (I), intuition (N), feeling (F), perception (P)Īnd so on for all 16 possible type combinations. For instance:ĮSTJ: extraversion (E), sensing (S), thinking (T), judgment (J) The 16 types are typically referred to by an abbreviation of four letters-the initial letters of each of their four type preferences (except in the case of intuition, which uses the abbreviation N to distinguish it from Introversion). None of these types are better or worse however, Briggs and Myers theorized that individuals naturally prefer one overall combination of type differences.:9 In the same way that writing with the left hand is hard work for a right-hander, so people tend to find using their opposite psychological preferences more difficult, even if they can become more proficient (and therefore behaviorally flexible) with practice and development. The MBTI sorts some of these psychological differences into four opposite pairs, or dichotomies, with a resulting 16 possible psychological types. Jung’s typological model regards psychological type as similar to left or right handedness: individuals are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of thinking and acting. Jung went on to suggest that these functions are expressed in either an introverted or extraverted form.:17 From Jung’s original concepts, Briggs and Myers developed their own theory of psychological type, described below, on which the MBTI is based. The “irrational” (perceiving) functions: sensing and intuition.The “rational” (judging) functions: thinking and feeling.

Myers briggs type indicator manual#

However, the registered trademark rights to the terms Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and MBTI have been assigned from the publisher to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust.Īs the MBTI Manual states, the indicator “is designed to implement a theory therefore the theory must be understood to understand the MBTI”.:1įundamental to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the theory of psychological type as originally developed by Carl Jung.:xiii Jung proposed the existence of two dichotomous pairs of cognitive functions: The definitive published source of reference for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is The Manual produced by CPP. The use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a predictor of job success has not been supported in studies, and its use for this purpose is expressly discouraged in the Manual. Some studies have shown the statistical validity and reliability to be low. However, some academic psychologists have criticized the MBTI instrument, claiming that it “lacks convincing validity data”. Some studies have found strong support for construct validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability, although variation was observed. The CPP and other proponents state that the indicator meets or exceeds the reliability of other psychological instruments and cite reports of individual behavior.

The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences.ĬPP Inc., the publisher of the MBTI instrument, calls it “the world’s most widely used personality assessment”, with as many as two million assessments administered annually.

They began creating the indicator during World War II, believing that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time to identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be “most comfortable and effective”.:xiii The initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was first published in 1962. The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.:1 These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories proposed by Carl Gustav Jung and first published in his 1921 book Psychological Types (English edition, 1923).