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Myers Briggs Type Indicator

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If citing, please use this reference:

King, S. P., & Mason, B. A. (in press). Myers Briggs Type Indicator. In B. J. Carducci (Ed.),
Wiley-Blackwell encyclopedia of personality and individual differences: Vol. II. Research
methods and assessment techniques. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Abstract: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®), published by CPP, Inc., is a forced-
choice instrument designed to examine preferences in how respondents see the world and make
decisions. Scores are based on four preference dichotomies (Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-
Intuition, Thinking-Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving), originally derived from Carl Jung’s theory
of psychological types by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers. Currently available
in four versions and 20 languages, it is extremely popular in organizational and counseling
settings, yet has been criticized for its adherence to type theory and perceived lack of
psychometric support.

Main text:

Overview

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) is an instrument published by CPP, Inc. designed to
determine a respondent’s preferences in how they see the world and make decisions, based on
four pairings stemming from Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types.
It was created by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers with the purpose of
making Jung’s theory relevant and understandable in people’s everyday lives. The instrument
aims to identify preferences in respondents’ patterns of answers that can then be classified into
one of 16 personality types.
Despite widespread use in a variety of organizational settings, the MBTI’s psychometric
properties have been subject to criticism from academic researchers.

History

Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers published the Briggs Myers Type Indicator
Handbook in 1944 as an effort to help women entering the war-time industrial workforce find
jobs suitable for their personalities. Briggs, despite lacking academic affiliation, theorized her
own personality typologies that she adapted to fit Jung’s after reading his book Psychological
Types.
Katherine Briggs’ daughter, Isabel Myers, developed her own interest in personality
types that galvanized with the onset of World War II. Myers had little formal training in
psychology or psychometrics, and apprenticed under Edward Hay, a personnel officer in
Philadelphia. In 1962, the Educational Testing Service published the MBTI (renamed in 1956)
for research purposes only. Mary McCaulley (University of Florida) updated the MBTI Manual
for its 1985 publication after Myers died in 1980. Myers transferred MBTI publication rights to
CPP in 1975, and with McCaulley, founded CAPT as a research laboratory.
 Currently, three entities promote the MBTI. CPP is the publisher of the MBTI. CAPT is a
not-for-profit research and training center providing numerous resources, including the peer-
reviewed Journal of Psychological Type. The Myers & Briggs Foundation provides guidance in
accurate and ethical use of the MBTI instrument, and awards biennial “Isabel Briggs Myers
Memorial Research Awards”. Myers’ son, Peter Myers, and his wife, Katharine Downing Myers,
currently hold the copyright to the MBTI, which will be passed to the Myers & Briggs
Foundation upon their deaths.
According to a 2013 article in the Seattle Times, the MBTI is the most popular
personality test in the world, with 2 million people taking it annually, frequently at the request of
employers, vocational counselors, or career coaches. Its users include more than 10,000
companies, 2,500 universities and colleges, and 200 government agencies. As of 2015, 89
Fortune 100 companies had used it within their organizations.

Purpose, Preferences, & Personality Types

The MBTI is designed to determine respondents’ preferences in four opposite pairs known as
“dichotomies”. Each dichotomy is a division of two mutually exclusive groups, in this case, type
preferences, typically referred to with a letter abbreviation: Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I),
Sensing (S) – Intuition (N), Thinking (T) – Feeling (F), and Judging (J) – Perceiving (P). Based
on these preferences patterns, the instrument categorizes a person into one of 16 personality
types, where each type is a combination of the four dichotomies, e.g., INTJ.
The Extraversion/Introversion dichotomy categorizes respondents’ preferences in how
they focus attention, with “extraverted” people preferring to focus on the external world, and
“intraverted” people preferring to focus on the internal world. Briggs and Myers conceptualized
this pairing similarly to Jung’s attitude-based description of introversion and extraversion as
based in the relationship between energy, action, and reflection, with extraverts gaining energy
from action and losing energy from reflection, and introverts losing energy through action and
gaining through reflection.
The Sensing/Intuition dichotomy categorizes respondents’ preferences in how they
absorb information, with people in the “sensing” category taking in information in an orderly,
step-by-step fashion, relying on their five senses, while those in the “intuition” category taking in
information holistically, seeing it in a wider context. Jung described this set of functions as
“perceiving” functions, since they involve how people gather information as they perceive the
world.
The Thinking-Feeling dichotomy categorizes respondents based on how they make
decisions after taking in information, with people in the “thinking” category preferring to be as
objective and rational as possible, and people in the “feeling” category preferring to rely on
empathy and inserting themselves into a situation. Jung described this set of functions as
“judging” functions. After gathering information through either sensing or intuiting, one uses
either thinking or feeling to make a decision. Thinkers attempt to detach themselves from the
situation and think about it logically and rationally, while feelers attempt to see the situation
from each side’s eyes and make a decision resulting in the best fit for all parties involved.
According to Jung, each person uses one of the above four functions more predominantly
than the rest, and the four functions operate together with attitudes of extraversion or
introversion, in that each function can be expressed in either an extraverted or introverted way.
Briggs and Myers added to these a classification of what function (judging or perceiving)
respondents prefer as a lifestyle.
The Judging/Perceiving dichotomy categorizes respondents in terms of how they deal
with the world, with people in the “Judging” category preferring to decide on a course of action
and carry it out, and people in the “Perceiving” category preferring to continue to take in
information before taking action. Judgers prefer making decisions and acting on them in an
orderly fashion, and perceivers prefer to collect all possible information before acting, and
remain open to different courses of action.
Thus, when combining one’s attitude (E/I), perceiving function (S/N), judging function
(T/F), and lifestyle preference (J/P), sixteen different personality types are possible: ENTP,
ENTJ, ENFP, ENFJ, ESTP, ESTJ, ESFP, ESFJ, INTP, INTJ, INFP, INFJ, ISTP, ISTJ, ISFP, and
ISFJ. Briggs and Myers have further theorized that interactions between preferences, what they
call “type dynamics,” normally develop in such a way that one “dominant” function (S/N/T/F)
appears early in life, one “auxiliary” function during adolescence, and one “tertiary” function
during midlife, with an “inferior” function (the opposing preference of the dominant) being
present in one’s unconscious. Which functions assume which roles depends on a person’s
lifestyle preference (J/P) and attitude preference (E/I).

Formats

According to the Myers & Briggs Foundation, four versions of the MBTI are currently in use: a
self-scorable Form M, a standard Form M (administered as “MBTI Step I™” by its publisher
CPP), Form Q (administered as MBTI Step II™ by CPP), and MBTI Step III™. In any form, the
MBTI consists, at a minimum, of a number of forced-choice items asking respondents to choose
which of two items they feel best describes them. All forms provide respondents with their 4-
letter personality type, but the MBTI Step II™ is designed to provide a more nuanced assessment
of a respondent’s personality, and the MBTI Step III™ is intended solely for use in one-on-one
counseling or coaching sessions.
The MBTI Step I consists of 93 items and typically takes about 20 minutes to complete.
Scoring the test provides respondents with their 4-letter personality type. To administer the test,
potential users are required to become an MBTI Certified Practitioner by completing a 4-day
MBTI Certification Program, or by providing verification of credentials, including a master’s
degree or state certification in a psychology-related field. This instrument and manual have been
translated into 20 different languages.
The MBTI Step II consists of 144 items and typically takes about 35 minutes to complete.
Scoring the test provides respondents with their four-letter personality type, along with more
personalized description of their preferences through the use of facets of each type. CPP
recommends this version of the instrument for coaching, action planning, and team building. It
can be administered by individuals completing the MBTI Certification Program.
The MBTI Step III consists of 222 items and is intended for use in coaching or
counseling sessions between a client and a practitioner. It provides respondents with their 4-letter
personality type, although in the context of a report written to the client in “non-type” language,
designed for exploration through dialog with a counselor. The Center for Applications of
Psychological Type (CAPT®) requires prospective practitioners of the MBTI Step III to
complete their MBTI® Step III Certification Program, in addition to meeting the qualifications
of administering the Step I and Step II tests.
 Criticisms

Despite its popularity, the MBTI has been subject to criticism from academic psychologists and
psychometricians, who attribute its widespread use to aggressive marketing by CPP. Much of the
criticism stems from academic research starting in the late 1970’s (see 2005 review by David
Pittenger in Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research) revolving around the
MBTI’s emphasis on dichotomous (as opposed to continuous) scales, test-retest reliability,
predictive ability for career success, factor analytic structure, convergent validity, and
discounting of situational influences on behaviors or cognitions.
Trait theorists disagree with the MBTI’s foundation in type theory, the belief that people
can be classified dichotomously (e.g., a person prefers either extraversion or introversion)
instead of viewing personality constructs as a continuous scale between two poles. If people
were truly able to be classified dichotomously, then distributions of scores should be bimodal on
each preference dimension; but, trait scores’ distributions tend to show most scores clustering
near a midpoint. Thus, opponents argue that assuming statistically significant personality
differences exist between individuals may not be true for respondents whose scores place them
near the midpoint of a preference dimension. Also, several studies have shown test-retest
reliability for the 16 MBTI types to be lower than desired.
A common model the MBTI has been compared to in convergent validity examinations is
the five-factor model (FFM) of personality. Scores from extraversion, openness, agreeableness,
and conscientiousness have been shown to have positive correlations with MBTI scores in
extraversion (although Jung’s definition is somewhat different than modern conceptualizations),
intuition, feeling, and judging. The fifth component, neuroticism, has appeared to not overlap
with any MBTI preference type – something FFM proponents have criticized, although the
MBTI Step III instrument attempts to include this dimension.
The Myers & Briggs Foundation appears to counter the accusation of over-reliance on
type in their website’s ethical guidelines for administering the MBTI: “Explain how people can
and do act in ways contrary to their preferences because of personal history, education, training
and experience – and sometimes too because of pressure from family, relationships, job
environment, or culture.” Other guidelines, such as “Present psychological type as describing
healthy personality differences, not psychological disorders or fixed traits” and “The
administrator should not counsel a person to, or away from, a particular career, personal
relationship or activity based solely upon type information,” seem to address criticisms relating
to the stability of types, and using the instrument to predict job performance, respectively.
MBTI supporters point to numerous studies supporting the MBTI’s utility, validity, and
reliability, yet most of those studies have appeared in the Journal of Psychological Type, which,
while peer-reviewed, is funded by CAPT. Articles supporting the MBTI’s validity in prominent
scholarly journals are scarce, although Robert and Mary Capraro published a largely positive
meta-analysis of its reliability in 2002 in Educational and Psychological Measurement.

References

Capraro, R., & Capraro, M. M. (2002). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator score reliability across
studies: A meta-analytic reliability generalizability study. Educational and Psychological
Measurement, 62, 590-602.
 Center for Applications of Psychological Type, Inc. (2015). About the MBTI® Instrument.
Retrieved from www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/mbti-overview.htm
CPP, Inc. (2009). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®. Retrieved from
https://www.cpp.com/products/mbti/index.aspx
Cunningham, L. (2013, April 13). Myers-Briggs personality test embraced by employers, not all
psychologists. The Seattle Times. Retrieved from
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/myers-briggs-personality-test-embraced-by-
employers-not-all-psychologists/
Pittenger, D. J. (2005). Cautionary comments regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 57, 210-221. doi:10.1037/1065-
9293.57.3.210
The Myers & Briggs Foundation. (2015). Ethical use of the MBTI® Instrument. Retrieved from
www.myersbriggs.org

Further Readings

Myers, I. B., & Myers, P. B. (1995). Gifts differing: Understanding personality type. Mountain
View, CA: Davies-Black Publishing.

Contributor Bios

Scott P. King (Ph.D., Loyola University Chicago, 2010) is an associate professor of psychology
at Shenandoah University. His research specialties include generational dynamics, measurement
validity, psychology pedagogy, and the intersection of social media and personality. His most
recent publication, “The Workplace Intergenerational Climate Scale (WICS): A Self-Report
Instrument Measuring Ageism in the Workplace” appeared in Journal of Organizational
Behavior in 2016.

Brittany A. Mason (B.S., Shenandoah University, 2014) is a current graduate student in the
Applied Behavior Analysis program at Shenandoah University.

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