Myers-Briggs: Four Dimensions, Sixteen “Types”

Myer-Briggs typology (hence Myer-Briggs Type Indicator) was developed by Isabel Briggs Myers in the early 60’s following ideas from Jung.  Whilst his ideas are wide open to challenge, the MBTI model has been widely tested.  It's been shown to demonstrate consistent and replicable results.

MBTI reflects the generally accepted "Big Five" personality traits (see psychometrics page), but in a framework that lets you to put that knowledge into practice.  There is a lot of material on the subject: my own brief summary is below..

MBTI uses four bipolar dimensions to represent personality traits, giving sixteen combinations or personality types in all.  These types reflect how people function in groups, and help value and make use of diversity.  They are:

Extroverts / Introverts (E's & I's) - "Where you get energy from"

Extroverts get energized through contact with people, Introverts are drained by this.  Extroverts tend to 'work out loud' - and may speak first, engage brain later.  Introverts tend to think it through first.

Sensors / Intuitives (N's & S's) - "How you gather information"

Sensors focus on specifics and detail - "what exactly does that mean?", where Intuitives tend to link and connect: "what's this a symptom of?" The two extremes often find it very hard to communicate - Intuitives get bored easily, sensors get frustrated it's not being done properly...!

There are links to Divergent and Convergent thinking - Sensors tending to  be naturally convergent, and Intuitives divergent.  This dimenstion also reflects Kirton's Adaptor / Innovator measure.

Thinkers / Feelers (T's & F's) - "How you make decisions"

Thinkers use "cold hard logic", and objective reality to make decisions - "I'm sorry you have to die, but the plan requires it..."

Feelers base decisions more on personal impacts that arise - they will empathize, and more.  For Feelers, kindness matters more than logic and absolute truth.  Reflects "Agreeableness" in NEO (see link, below).

Judgers / Perceivers (J's & P's) - "How you prefer to order life"

To Judgers, life is something to be organized and managed. They tend to be black-and-white, liking organization, control and planning - and like the clarity that comes from taking a decision.

Perceivers see life as something to be experienced - go with the flow, let's see what comes.  Perceivers like openness, flexibility and spontaneity - but may avoid or defer decisions: new information is just around the corner.

Personality traits can reliably be measured and are fairly stable (although they can change over time, and according to context).  We don't yet fully understand how these traits arise, so whilst it's clear that some patterns are connected, we don't know how.  The closest we get to a definitive list of traits is the "Big 5" model - "Extraversion", "Agreeableness", "Conscientiousness", "Emotional Stability" and "Intellect", which derive from 35 variables identified by Cattel in 1947.

How is this useful?

Basically, knowing someone's style helps you work with them better.  Examples:

In each case, understanding where others are coming from helps us work with them - and value each other, which is where MBTI scores for me.

The mid-point for each dimension probably represents what has been the best long term average for survival: our basic responses will certainly have been subject to evolutionary selection, and so these are likely to center around what has been found to work.  That recognition helps make the model useful by acknowledging that there is no “absolute good”.  The value of responses and approaches depends on context and circumstances, and cannot be put on any absolute scale.  MBTI is more practical in this respect than other approaches, in that recognizes the values of each polarity, e.g. the need to balance the big picture with specific practicalities, the demands of logic with empathy, and so on.  This is what makes it more useful than the more brutal approach of other approaches, which tend to be positive / negative scales (you're intelligent or not, you have emotional intelligence or you don't, and so on.

A good starting point for MBTI types is the book "Type Talk at Work".  Human Metrics Online offer a free on-line that which seems to be fairly close to the full version.  On-line overviews are available at Humanmetrics.com with discussions of each of the 16 types at Typelogic.com, and another introduction to the subject at Personalitypathways.com.   The books Type Talk and Type Talk at Work by Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen are both well readable and practical - I have a copy of the first if you want to look at it.  I'm also told (from my OU contact who knows this stuff) that Please Understand Me 2 by David Keirsey is very good on the subject.