Personality Types and Work

(Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)

Katharine Cook Briggs and daughter Isabel Briggs Myers
o Constructed the MBTI
o Extrapolated their MBTI theory from Jung's writings in his book Psychological Types [It is
based on the typological theory proposed by Carl Jung, who had speculated that there
are four principal psychological functions by which humans experience the world
sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking and that one of these four functions is
dominant for a person most of the time.]
o Assumption of MBTI: "The underlying assumption of the MBTI is that we all have specific
preferences in the way we construe our experiences, and these preferences underlie
our interests, needs, values, and motivation."
Cognitive Functions
o Jung proposed the existence of two dichotomous pairs of cognitive functions: The
"rational" (judging) functions: thinking and feeling
o Rational (Judging) Functions: Thinking and Feeling
o Irrational (Perceiving) Functions: Sensation and Intuition
o Jung believed that for every person each of the functions are expressed primarily in
either an introverted or extraverted form.
Type
o Jung's typological model regards psychological type as similar to left or right
handedness: people are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of
perceiving and deciding.
o The MBTI sorts some of these psychological differences into four opposite pairs, or
"dichotomies", with a resulting 16 possible psychological types. None of these types are
"better" or "worse"; however, Briggs and Myers theorized that people innately "prefer"
one overall combination of type differences.
Attitude (Extraversion and Introversion)
o The preferences for extraversion and introversion are often called "attitudes". Briggs
and Myers recognized that each of the cognitive functions can operate in the external
world of behavior, action, people, and things ("extraverted attitude") or the internal
world of ideas and reflection ("introverted attitude").
o People who prefer:
Extraversion draw energy from action: they tend to act, then reflect, then act
further. If they are inactive, their motivation tends to decline. To rebuild their
energy, extraverts need breaks from time spent in reflection.
Introversion "expend" energy through action: they prefer to reflect, then act,
then reflect again. To rebuild their energy, introverts need quiet time alone,
away from activity.
Functions (Sensing/Intuition and Thinking/Feeling)
o Sensing and intuition are the information-gathering (perceiving) functions. They
describe how new information is understood and interpreted.
o Sensing are more likely to trust information that is in the present, tangible, and
concrete: that is, information that can be understood by the five senses. They tend to
 distrust hunches, which seem to come "out of nowhere". They prefer to look for details
and facts. For them, the meaning is in the data.
o Intuition tend to trust information that is less dependent upon the senses, that can be
associated with other. They may be more interested in future possibilities. For them, the
meaning is in the underlying theory and principles which are manifested in the data.
Decision-making (Judging) Functions (Thinking and Feeling)
o Thinking: The thinking and feeling functions are both used to make rational decisions,
based on the data received from their information-gathering functions (sensing or
intuition. Those who prefer thinking tend to decide things from a more detached
standpoint, measuring the decision by what seems reasonable, logical, causal,
consistent, and matching a given set of rules.
o Feeling: Those who prefer feeling tend to come to decisions by associating or
empathizing with the situation, looking at it 'from the inside' and weighing the situation
to achieve, on balance, the greatest harmony, consensus and fit, considering the needs
of the people involved. Thinkers usually have trouble interacting with people who are
inconsistent or illogical, and tend to give very direct feedback to others. They are
concerned with the truth and view it as more important.
Lifestyle Preference (Judging and Perception)
o Judging planned approach in meeting the deadline in a scheduled way
o Perceiving spontaneous approach to meeting the deadline with a rush of activity
Application
o The MBTI is frequently used in the areas of pedagogy, career counseling, team building,
group dynamics, professional development, marketing, family business, leadership
training, executive coaching, life coaching, personal development and marriage
counseling.
o Used by 89 of Fortune 100 companies to maximize individual and team effectiveness
from entry to executive levels.
o Team developmenthelps ease communication among team members, identify team
strengths and weaknesses, and create action plans for improved performance
o Leadership developmentdeepens leaders understanding of their personality type
and the types of those they are leading to help them manage better, give more
meaningful feedback, and improve individual and team performance
o Conflict managementimproves skills in identifying sources of conflict and intervening
early to prevent underperformance, disruption, and disengagement
o Career transition and planninghelps guide individuals on career choice, development,
and management