Evaluation of Myers-Briggs
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is used extensively by educators, counselors, and other professionals. Based on Jung’s theory of psychological types, the psychodynamic model of the MBTI is useful for self-understanding and life-long development. MBTI type descriptions characterize 16 types at their best; provide positive, self-affirming goals; and note blind spots and problems to avoid. The MBTI problem-solving model is a useful tool in the counseling process. Finally, counselors who understand the MBTI find it useful for individualizing counseling approaches and strategies to the type preferences of their clients.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
General Information
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. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)® developed out of the interests of Katherine Cook Briggs (1875–1968) and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers (1897–1979) in human personality difference.They both read Jung’s Psychological Types shortly after its initial publication in English in 1923 and were prompted, at the outset of the World War II, to try to operationalize the typology that he set out. Their goal was to help people develop a better understanding of themselves and use this knowledge to steer themselves towards more suitable vocations and for understanding their interpersonal interactions. Briggs and Myers thought that the construction of an objective psychometric indicator might, among other things, prove useful in addressing certain pressing military personnel decisions faced at that time in the United States.They also believed that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be most comfortable and effective (Briggs and Myers. 1980, 1995).
The initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was first published by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1962. The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences.Early forms of the MBTI testing procedure were thus developed in the period 1942 – 44, but it wasn’t until after the war that more systematic research involving medical students, nursing students and other sample occupations was conducted using the MBTI®. Although isolated researchers and clinicians showed some interest in the MBTI as it continued to evolve during the 1960s, it was not until Consulting Psychologists Press included the Indicator in its publication list in 1975 that the approach became widely available and major commercial success ensued.As a result, it is now the most widely used personality inventory in the world. The MBTI Complete (R) can be purchased from its publisher, CPP (formerly Consulting Psychologists Press). Prices vary according to quantity ordered, e. g. 1 – 10 cost $53. 95 each. Scoring Templates cost between $88. 50 and $93. 50. Several websites offer online versions of the test.
Among the underlying assumptions of the MBTI is that everyone has preferences. If given the choice between two things, you will always be able to pick one that you prefer. The assumption behind the MBTI is that these preferences do not change; they may have developed differently and masked due to environmental forces, but essentially, they will remain the same.
Test Description
The Myers-Briggs typology model regards personality type as similar to left or right handedness: individuals are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of thinking and acting. The MBTI asks the candidate to answer a series of ‘forced-choice’ questions, where one choice identifies you as belonging to one of four paired traits.The basic test takes twenty minutes, and at the end the examinee receives a precise, multi-dimensional summary of his or her personality. The MBTI test classifies people into types based on 4 bi-polar dimensions; Extraversion-Introversion (E-I) Distinguishes a preference for focusing attention on, and drawing energy from, the outer world of people and things versus the inner world of ideas and impressions.
Sensing-INtuition (S-N) Distinguishes a preference for gathering data directly through the senses as facts, details, and precedents (Sensing) versus indirectly as relationships, patterns, and possibilities (INtuition).Thinking-Feeling (T-F) Distinguishes a preference for deciding via objective, impersonal logic (Thinking) versus subjective, person-centered values (Feeling). Judging-Perceiving (J-P) Distinguishes an outward preference for having things planned and organized (Judging) versus a flexible style based more on staying open to options than deciding (Perceiving). As a result, there are 16 possible psychological types, often 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 N to distinguish it from Introversion).For instance: ESTJ is an abbreviation used in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator publications to refer to one of the sixteen personality types and refers to Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. None of these types is better or worse; however, Briggs and Myers theorized that individuals naturally prefer one overall combination of type differences. 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 purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people’s lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment. In developing the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, their aim was to make the insights of type theory accessible to individuals and groups. The indicator is frequently used in the areas of school counseling, career counseling, team building, professional development, marketing Marketing Marketing is an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities are informed or persuaded that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others, leadership training Leadership Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”… executive coaching, life coaching, personal development, marriage counseling, and workers’ compensation claims Workers’ compensation Workers compensation is a form of insurance that provides compensation medical care for employees who are injured in the course of employment, in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee’s right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence.
The current North American English version of the MBTI Step I includes 93 forced-choice questions (there are 88 in the European English version).Forced-choice means that the individual has to choose only one of two possible answers to each question. The choices are a mixture of word pairs and short statements. Choices are not literal opposites but chosen to reflect opposite preferences on the same dichotomy. Participants may skip questions if they feel they are unable to choose.
There are four administration options for the instrument: Template Scoring is a paper and pencil version of the MBTI Form M assessment that participants complete and the certified practitioner hand scores before an MBTI session, using printed scoring templates. Online SkillsOne is CPP’s online instrument administration website located at www. skillsone. com. Certified practitioners can establish an account and then are able to administer the MBTI to both individuals and groups. SelfScorable is a paper and pencil version of the MBTI Form M assessment that participants complete and then score themselves during a workshop/coaching session. And lastly, MBTI Complete, the online “self-serve” version of the test that anyone can use to take the MBTI®, walk through an onscreen debriefing process, and then get individual results. Because the debriefing process is built into the system, anyone can take the MBTI Complete.
Technical Evaluation
The MBTI instrument meets and exceeds the standards for psychological instruments in terms of its reliability. Facts about the MBTI instrument reliability:
Reliability (when scores are treated as continuous scores, as in most other psychological instruments) is as good as or better than other personality instruments.
On retest, people come out with three to four type preferences the same 75% to 90% of the time. When a person changes type on retest, it is usually on one of the dichotomous pairs (e. g. , E-I or S-N), and in a dichotomy where the preference clarity was low.
The reliabilities are quite good across most age and ethnic groups. (The T-F pair tends to have the lowest reliability of the four scales. )
For some groups reliability can be low, and caution needs to be exercised in using the MBTI instrument with these groups, e. g. , children, underachieving students. When the MBTI instrument is used with groups that are reported to have been demonstrably lower, the results can be used as a jumping-off point for discussion. Many studies over the years have proven the validity of the MBTI instrument in three categories:
- the validity of the four separate preference scales;
- the validity of the four preference pairs as dichotomies; and
- the validity of whole types or particular combinations of preferences.
Many of these studies are discussed in the MBTI® Manual.
Practical Evaluation
Some of the many positive aspects of the MBTI are:
- It is easy to use, score, and explain.
- It is short and quick to complete.
- Clients enjoy it and find the results helpful.
- It works (there is extensive evidence of its validity).
- It provides a powerful conceptual framework, allowing practitioners to deepen their knowledge and apply it to many different situations.
- It promotes a constructive approach to the differences between individuals.
- It is widely used, so there is plenty of comparative data available.
There is a large body of associated resource material – books, booklets, manuals, videos and workshop materials – available. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) is the most widely used organizational development tool in the world. Its ease of use, high statistical validity and reliability make it one of the most respected personality instruments in existence.
Summary Evaluation And Critique
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument has numerous benefits, including its long history of use and its record of validity and reliability.It’s main benefit is its breadth of application. You can use it in almost any situation and it’s buttressed by a comprehensive and robust theory of personality.
Work on the development of the MBTI continues to this day, with scales within the test being constantly reevaluated and refined. The best reason to choose the MBTI instrument is that hundreds of studies over the past 40 years have proven the instrument to be both valid and reliable.In other words, it measures what it says it does (validity) and produces the same results when given more than once (reliability).
References
- Myers, Isabel Briggs with Peter B. Myers (1980, 1995). Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing
- Myers, Katharine D. (1987), “Katharine C. Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers: The Women Behind the MBTI®” JPT Vol. 13.
- Lawrence, Gordon (1986), “Issues in the Development of the MBTI®” in JPT Vol. 12 MBTI® Manual (Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. , 1998).
