Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator
MBTI Background
• Based on Jung – late 1800’s and early 1900’s
– Interested in individual differences to explain
behavior
• Preferences emerge from genetic predisposition and
influence of early environment
– What we pay attention to in the world (S/N)
– How we make our decisions (T/F)
MBTI Background
• Myers-Briggs expanded the theory in 1956
• Added the following:
– Where we get our energy from (E/I)
– How we get along in life (J/P)
Preferences
• Measures your preferred way of being
• Preferences come easily to us
– What we are comfortable with
– Seems natural to us
• No right or wrong preference or good or bad type
• Can do the non-preferred side, but after a while
doesn’t feel good
• Happier when you work within your preference
MBTI Information
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Assessment is right 83% - very high
One piece of the puzzle
You tell the instrument
Doesn’t measure skills or abilities
Used in corporate training, marriage counseling,
and career counseling
• Career goal: To help you find a compatible work
environment that allows you to use your preferences
MBTI Information
• You confirm or disconfirm results
• Factors that can affect results:
– Social expectations
– Stress/crisis
– Answer as you wish you were
– Test-taking situations
Extrovert/Introvert
Scale
Where do we get our energy from?
Extravert
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Get energy from outside self
Relaxed, confident
After-thinkers
Mouth and mind are connected
Think things through by talking
Seek variety and action
– Tend to dislike complicated procedures
– Get bored with slow, long projects
• Like background noise
• Doing a lot gives them more energy
Extravert
• Can jump into writing
• Take breaks for outer stimulation
– Don’t mind getting interrupted
• Want to be with others – many friends
• Have many interests
• Prefer oral communication
– Talk things over in order to understand them
• Share thoughts freely
– Can learn a lot about them in a few minutes
Introvert
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Get energy from within self
Energy directed inward toward concepts and ideas
Reserved, quiet, questioning, careful with details
Think things through
Seek quiet for concentration
Learn best by pausing to think
Doing a lot makes them tired
Introvert
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Pause to think in writing
Want time alone
Have fewer interests
Reflection over action
Don’t mind working on one project for a long time
Prefer written communication
Guard thoughts
They talk, but to fewer people and get to know
them first
E/I Scale
Exercise
Sensing/Intuitive Scale
What we pay attention to in the
world?
Sensing
• Rely on experience and factual data
• Seek specific information, specific examples
• Pay attention to real things – five senses
– That is what is real to them
• Present enjoyment
• Like hands-on experience
• Can have hunches but want the data to back it up
• Prefer using learned skills
Sensing
• Use past experience or detail to make sense of new
experiences
• Live life as IS
• Make few factual errors, good at precise work
• Prefer to follow an agenda, the routine
• Seek predictability
• See difficulties as problems that need solutions
• Want to know what IS
• More realistic about how long a job will take
• Good sense of direction, good eye witnesses
Intuitive
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Go with their 6th sense – their gut
Look at the big picture
Look toward the future
Rely on possibilities, ideas, and connections
Like change and to rearrange life
Create own directions
Can read between the lines
Prefer adding new skills
Like solving new problems
Intuitive
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Like complex problems
Like general concepts, not specifics
Can depart from the agenda
Dislike the same thing over and over again
– Impatient with routines
Emphasize the theoretical
Jump to conclusions
Want to know what could BE
See difficulties as opportunities for further
exploration
S/N Scale
Exercise
Thinking/Feeling Scale
How you make a decision?
Where you go first to make a decision?
Thinking
• Use logical analysis to make a decision
– Look at the logic of situation
• Decision is clear and easier to make
• Focus on things, truth, and principals
– Focus is not on people when making decisions
• Want objective material to study
• Question first
• Know when reason is needed
• Can control emotions when making a decision
Thinking
• Believe treating everyone as equal is fair
• May overlook people in favor of getting tasks
completed
• Can come across as brief, business-like and
impersonal
• May seem hard-headed
• Can get along without harmony
• May hurt others feelings without knowing it
• Will eventually go over to feeling side to consider
other options
Feeling
• Base decisions on human values, needs, and feelings
• Remain personally involved when making decisions
• Focus on people and harmony
– Want things to be pleasant
• Support others
– Know when support is needed
• Accept first, then question
• Harder to make decisions
Feeling
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Overlook tasks in favor of people
Tend to be sympathetic
Believe treating everyone as individual is fair
Want to relate to material they are learning about
Relate well to most people
Have to go over to Thinking side otherwise would
never make a decision
T/F
Examples
Judging/Perceiving
Scale
How we get along in life?
How we get through our day?
Judging
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Bad name for it – does not mean judgmental
Like to organize the world
Like to be settled, planned out, ordered
Like watches, routines, deadlines
Value dependability
Can’t play until work is done
– Harder to start, but then focus on completing
task
Judging
• Finish BEFORE the deadline
• Do their best work when they follow a plan
– Hard to deviate from the plan
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Focus on goals, results, achievements
Prefer no surprises
Want only the essentials of job
Make decisions quickly
Quickly commit to plans or decisions
Perceiving
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More spontaneous, whatever attitude
Curious, flexible, adaptable, tolerant
Value change
Easy to start things – hard to finish
Like things to be open, flexible
Like interruptions and changes in plans
Welcomes new insight on a person, situation or
thing
Perceiving
• Finish AT the deadline
• Want to know all about a new job – not just
essentials
• Put decisions and tasks off
– Postpones unpleasant tasks
• Believe they have the right to change their mind or
plans
• Keep things open-ended, no plans
• Trouble making decisions
J/P
Examples
Percentages of U.S. Population
ISTJ
ISFJ
INFJ
INTJ
ISTP
ISFP
INFP
INTP
ESTP
ESFP
ENFP
ENTP
ESTJ
ESFJ
ENFJ
ENTJ
11.6%
5.4%
4.3%
8.7%
13.8%
8.8%
8.5%
12.3%
1.5%
4.4%
8.1%
2.5%
2.1%
3.3%
3.2%
1.8%
Wrap Up
• Questions?
• Do What You Are - book
• Online Resources:
– My Personality Info:
http://www.mypersonality.info/personality-types/
– TypeLogic: http://typelogic.com/
– The Personality Page: http://www.personalitypage.com/