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In defense of the Myers-Briggs type indicator

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Introduction

Psychology, the scientific discipline of the study of human and animal behavior, is a young science. Before the late 19th century, the study of the “mind” was a discipline practiced as a philosophical or spiritual endeavor. Because psychology is a new science, we should expect continued evolution of psychological theory, as well as the adjustment and revision of existing theories.

A brief history of psychology

In 1879, the German physiologist Wilhelm Wundt used the laboratory environment to conduct psychological experiments. He is known as the “father of experimental psychology”, also known as structuralism.

William James, an American scientist, psychologist, and philosopher, introduced the concept that the practice of psychological theory must be practical. That is, use psychological theory to bring tangible benefits to people.

Sigmund Freud introduced psychoanalytic techniques to discover the first causes of behavior. One of Freud’s protégés was the psychiatrist Carl Young, who later broke with Freud and developed his own theory of analytical psychology. Carl Jung was the first to declare the psychological makeup of a person religious by nature. He defined the process of a person becoming whole as “Individuation.” Individuation is the process of balancing the opposites, that is, the unconscious with the conscious, but maintaining a measure of separation. In fact, the central concept of analytic psychology is individuation.

Jung then postulated the reality of two distinct groups of psychological functions: the “rational” functions of judging, feeling, and thinking, and the “irrational” functions of perception, intuition, and feeling.

Jung then stated that dichotomies are projected in an extrovert or introvert way.

An analogy of these dichotomies is seen in the expression of being right-handed or left-handed. You develop it early in life or are born with it.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

From Jung’s original concepts, Myers and Briggs developed their own psychological type theory, on which the MBTI is based.

They worked at the MBTI during WWII as a tool to help women in the war industry focus on the quality of work they would be most satisfied with. The first test became MBTI in 1962.

Isabel Briggs Myers’ mother, Katherine Briggs, began researching personality traits in 1917. She saw personality differences between members of the same family. She identified the connection between Jung’s theory and her own. Then Katherine Briggs’ four personality types were combined with Is, EP, ETJ, and EFJ.

Daughter Isabel advanced her mother’s work, which she took over completely when her mother retired.

The MBTI has been used for more than 50 years as a tool to bring tangible benefits to people. It is a measure of personality preferences. That is, how the relative strength of a person’s personality preferences is used to psychologically navigate the world.

An enduring use of the MBTI is in the field of career guidance. The MBTI Career Report helps people focus on job fields with which other people of the same personality type have reported a high degree of satisfaction. As such, The MBTI Career Report is a statistically valid testing instrument.

It can be used as a starting point for your career search and one of the many tools that career and guidance counselors, life coaches, and corporate managers can use to help others achieve greater job satisfaction.

Criticisms of the MBTI focus on two disputed points. (1) Over the decades, the MBTI has sometimes been used inappropriately, as a psychotherapeutic tool or as a forced testing instrument within the business environment. (2) Contradictory studies question the validity of the MBTI as a predictor of job satisfaction.

The MBTI should not be used as an end and be everything to understand personality preferences. The same can be said for any test instrument in the field of psychology. Human behavior is a manifestation of a complex web of intangible but identifiable biological imperatives, psychological drives, and motivations based on values, ethics, morality, and spirituality. The use of the MBTI must be kept in perspective and applied within the framework of such complexity.

For many, job satisfaction can be an ideal, a goal that is never fully achieved. Many factors can affect job satisfaction beyond working in a job that is complementary to a person’s personality preferences, including the relative health of a person’s interpersonal relationships and the person’s age. A job that is attractive to a 20-year-old may be less satisfying to a 40-year-old.

conclusion

Using the Myers-Briggs type indicator as a predictor of job satisfaction is one of the tools a person can use to gain perspective on what career may be fulfilling. Likewise, the MBTI is a useful and interesting tool to help understand how one navigates psychologically through life. Ideally, the use of the MBTI should be combined with other tools and guidance to help a person identify fulfilling careers.

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