The Myers-Briggs Assessment

John Adams once said, “Thanks be to God that he gave me stubbornness when I know I am right”. John Adams, like myself was introverted, intellectual, thinking, and judging, or an INTJ on the Myers Briggs personality test. Like all INTJs, Adams was stubborn and flouted the ideas of others that he did not agree with. By using my results from the Meyers Briggs personality test, I can examine how I react to certain things and use this to improve my Spirituality, my relationship with God, and ultimately my relationship with others through Christ.

At the beginning, the MBTI was only used in adults (The Myers & Briggs Foundation, 2014). In 1944 the form C of the MBTI instruments was developed, which was used as employment screening. As Myers continued to expand her instrument she applied it to the medical field. In 1951 she tested 5,355 medical students at 45 medical schools, to analyze satisfactory in the field, such reports were presented at the American Psychological Association conference in 1964 (The Myers & Briggs Foundation, 2014).

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) “is an introspective self-report questionnaire designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions” (13). It is one of several personality assessments that is popular among modern mental health experts throughout the world. Currently, it is estimated that the MBTI is “taken by more than two million people per year and is translated into 16 languages (10). “The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people 's lives” (4).

Why do NFL teams conduct training camps annually? Fundamentally, they are testing each player’s level of knowledge of the team’s playbook. This assists the coaches in deciding who to keep or cut, but more importantly, it allows the executives to assess each athlete’s character. Likewise, the Myers-Briggs Test has everyone answer a myriad of questions to figure out their specific personality. I received the designation of introverted, sensing, feeling, and judging or “ISFJ.” Simply, I am someone who avoids receiving attention, builds deep, personal friendships, and judges people harshly for their mistakes. Additionally, this test was extremely informative because it helped me identify possible future jobs and explained how I can further excel within social relationships.

Who are you? Many fortune cookies, horoscopes, and other whimsical devices attempt to tell us our personalities, or our combination of traits and behaviors that make up who we are. However, psychologists today deviate from those unsubstantiated methods and have concocted various personality tests that give us a better understanding of who we are. One such test is called the Myers-Briggs personality test. Based on theories by Carl Jung, but primarily created by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, the test gives people a standardized survey of questions to answer. Standardized, meaning the test is given and scored in the exact same way every time to give unbiased and accurate results. It scores people in four pairs of characteristics, so there is a total of 16 possible personality types. Each pair of characteristics are opposites and a person can fall anywhere between the extreme end of one opposite to the extreme end of the other. The pairs are extroverted and introverted, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, finally judging and perceiving. A person can have strong, moderate or weak tendencies towards a preference. (Rathus, 2010, p. 420) There is some criticism of the Myers-Briggs test however, not everyone fits into the categories. People may answer according to socially acceptable norms instead of their honest answers. Not all of the theories were proven, Carl Jung made many observations and deductions but they weren’t formally

Learning how to socialize in big groups and thinking before acting can take you further in life rather than the other way around.The purpose of the Myers-Briggs test is to indicate your personality type by using four scales. The four scales are 1. extroversion/introversion 2.sensate/intuitive, 3. thinking/feeling 4. judging/ perceiving. According to the test, I scored higher of extroversion like than introversion. I also I scored higher in thinking rather than feeling. In other words, using my head other than my heart. Being an extrovert comes with having high energy and the love of being around large crowds. Which I can say fits my personality perfectly. Also, I think about situations in the long run before automatically acting off my immediate

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 MBTI questionnaire was created by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers. Their collaborative work to develop this measurement of personality was inspired by to the writings/work of Carl Jung (more specifically his book entitled Psychological Type). This mother and daughter’s shared fascination and interest in type theory led them “to create the MBTI in the early 1940s as a test to be used for personnel selection. Myers believed that different occupations favored different personality orientations, and that Jung’s theory provided a theoretical link between personality and job performance” (Pittenger, 1993). It is important to note that it was Myers “belief” that

Having worked in corporate, I have completed a vast number of professional assessments over the years, including the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Strong Interest Inventory Assessments, DISC Profile Assessment, Gallup Strengths Finder and even the more comprehensive executive leadership assessments. In corporate, these are generally performed prior to a promotion or during integration of a merger or acquisition. Initially, my thinking was, these were worthless time wasters; so I put very little stock in any of the broad array of assessments, to which I felt subjected. Surely, proper evaluation had to be more than a game of twenty questions. Across the years, I have saved my results in a small moving box as we have relocated nationally and internationally. I gained a deeper understanding of, belief in and reliance upon the power of assessments. In the last three years, I have sifted through my individual results with a fine toothed comb looking for similarities, consistencies and an underlying foundation on which to strategize the next phase of my life based upon my foundational principles. Interestingly enough, my results across the board, have not changed throughout more than 20 years of completing these assessments. As a result, there were no surprises seeing the result of the MindTools (2015) Leadership Skills Assessment..

The results of my Myers-Briggs Personality type test were as follows: extrovert, intuition, thinking and judging. As I read what each category meant, I could see those characteristics within myself. I love to be around people, socializing or just people watching. I prefer things to be planned and to think of solutions outside the box. I also look at the big picture of things before making a plan of action. The following two stories display my thought process in different areas and the affects it had in my life or how I dealt with the situations.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator test gave me the personality type “ENFJ.” ENFJ stands for “Extraverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Judging. While reading the information about my personality type, I understood a lot of what it was saying to me. Basically, I was being told that I am someone who cares deeply for other people. I have always been like that. I think it has something to do with how I was raised. Like some people, I was raised in the church, meaning I went to church, often, as a child. Every Sunday, my dad would drag me to church and make me sit and listen to the preacher preach. Even though I despised it, I feel like it has helped me to become the person I am today.

The world would be a lot better of a place if everyone got along and knew how to communicate effectively with one another. There are several different personalities at any given workplace. “According to typological theory, each of us is born with a predisposition for certain personality preferences” (Kroeger pg11 para4). The Myers-Briggs Personality assessment is the most effective way to determine one’s personality type. The test uses different markers to determine how one is stimulated and exerts energy, gather information, make decisions, and living structure. At the completion of the test one will get personality type that is comprised of four letters. The test was developed based off of Carl Jung and Isabel Briggs-Myers’ psychological research on personalities and later dissected into Otto Kroeger’s book, “Type Talk at Work.” This book gives one the tools to determine what one’s personality is and then goes into great detail about one’s strengths and weaknesses and how it applies to to real life situations. My personality description is ENFP; Extravert, iNtuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving. The following are details regarding and ENFP personality type examining a holistic view including personal and work place interactions. Everything is based on insights gained from real world experiences and interactions.

The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) enables an individual to gain a deeper insight into their inherent personality traits. For some people, they have had prior knowledge or underlying assumptions about their personality, but this test provides clearer information about each of their identifiable traits. According to the MBTI in Human-metric personality test, my scores were 22% (E) extroverted thinking more than introverted, 9% (N) intuitive as oppose to sensing, 16% (T) thinking more than feeling, and 12% (J) judging as compared to perceiving. Thus, my personality type is ENFJ. The ENFJ personality group is described as a minority group that consists of natural-born leaders, and people filled with passion, and charisma for example, Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey; they are notable members of this group, also known as the protagonists (16personalities, 2016). The protagonists apprehend pride in providing guidance for others to improve individually and to improve the community at large (16personalities, 2016). The protagonists find it naturally easy to communicate with others and excel at communicating with other people in person (16personalities, 2016).

If you’re a human who’s ever been bored, you’ve probably taken a Buzzfeed quiz. If not, you’re not missing much. Buzzfeed is well-known for its strange personality quizzes that range from “Which Disney princess are you?” to “Will your choice of bread reveal how lonely you are?” But let’s be real. Do these tests actually tell you anything? Most likely, the results are similar to a weekly horoscope--just vague enough to apply to almost anyone. However, if there was a quiz that could analyze your personality and make well-researched predictions about your future, would you take it?

For each of us, knowing our personality type and temperament allows us to leverage our strengths and to recognize areas of weakness. This can also be extended to our interactions with others, so that we attempt to recognize the personality and temperaments of those around us, i.e. Typewatching, in order to facilitate more efficient and effective communication. In so doing, we can become better employees, managers, spouses, children, and, ultimately, for the Christian, more like Christ. The Myers-Briggs Personality Test can provide a general overview of one’s personality type as a starting point to positively influence organizational behavior.