18 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Carl Jung (Figure) was a Swiss psychiatrist and protégé of Freud, who later split off from Freud and developed his own theory, which he called analytical psychology. The focus of analytical psychology is on working to balance opposing forces of conscious and unconscious thought and experience within one’s personality. According to Jung, this work is a continuous learning process—mainly occurring in the second half of life—of becoming aware of unconscious elements and integrating them into consciousness.

Jung’s split from Freud was based on two major disagreements. First, Jung, like Adler and Erikson, did not accept that sexual drive was the primary motivator in a person’s mental life. Second, although Jung agreed with Freud’s concept of a personal unconscious, he thought it to be incomplete. In addition to the personal unconscious, Jung focused on the collective unconscious.

The collective unconscious is a universal version of the personal unconscious, holding mental patterns, or memory traces, which are common to all of us (Jung, 1928). These ancestral memories, which Jung called archetypes, are represented by universal themes in various cultures, as expressed through literature, art, and dreams (Jung). Jung said that these themes reflect common experiences of people the world over, such as facing death, becoming independent, and striving for mastery. Jung (1964) believed that through biology, each person is handed down the same themes and that the same types of symbols—such as the hero, the maiden, the sage, and the trickster—are present in the folklore and fairy tales of every culture. In Jung’s view, the task of integrating these unconscious archetypal aspects of the self is part of the self-realization process in the second half of life. With this orientation toward self-realization, Jung parted ways with Freud’s belief that personality is determined solely by past events and anticipated the humanistic movement with its emphasis on self-actualization and orientation toward the future.

Jung also proposed two attitudes or approaches toward life: extroversion and introversion (Jung, 1923) (See table). These ideas are considered Jung’s most important contributions to the field of personality psychology, as almost all models of personality now include these concepts. If you are an extrovert, then you are a person who is energized by being outgoing and socially oriented: You derive your energy from being around others. If you are an introvert, then you are a person who may be quiet and reserved, or you may be social, but your energy is derived from your inner psychic activity. Jung believed a balance between extroversion and introversion best served the goal of self-realization.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality assessment that was developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers based on the framework of personality theory by Carl C. Jung. The MBTI is a personality assessment that measures the psychological preferences that influence how people perceive the world and make decisions. This assessment is widely used across the world and has been translated into two dozen-plus languages. Many companies use the MBTI with their staff to help employees learn more about themselves and how they can strengthen their department team efforts and increase overall productivity for the company. Many colleges and universities use the MBTI to help with career exploration.Jung’s view of extroverted and introverted types serves as the basis of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This questionnaire describes a person’s degree of introversion versus extroversion, thinking versus feeling, intuition versus sensation, and judging versus perceiving.

The MBTI will help you gain a better understanding of your preferences and work environments that best fit you. The MBTI does not measure abilities, skills, values or interests. It assesses your personality preferences. The MBTI instrument indicates preferences on four pairs of opposites called dichotomies.

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Personality Theory: The 4 Dichotomies

• Extroversion-Introversion (EI): how you get your energy and where you prefer to focus your attention
• Sensing-Intuition (SN): how you take in information about the world around you
• Thinking-Feeling (TF): how you like to make decisions
• Judging-Perceiving (JP): how you prefer to organize your life

These four preferences make up your type, which results in 16 rich, complex, highly differentiated whole types. You will have an opportunity in class to self-identify your preferences and this will be your “Self-estimated” type. Your instructor will give you more information on taking the MBTI personality assessment.

Once the assessment is completed, your instructor will generate a career report and distribute your results to you. The results of this assessment will be your “Reported” type. After learning more about the MBTI and reviewing your self-estimated type and your reported type, you will confirm your “Best-fit” type. This will be addressed in more detail in class.

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