Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

1943

Katharine Cook Briggs (1875–1968), Isabel Briggs Myers (1897–1980)

In 1923, when Katharine Briggs—already an astute observer of people—read the English translation of Carl Jung’s book Psychological Types, she found a language for her observation that people differ in important ways in how they perceive the world.

The two basic human characteristics that Jung described were introversion and extroversion. For Jung, these terms described basic orientations to the world. An introvert is a person who is oriented to the internal world of his or her own thoughts and feelings, while an extrovert is oriented toward the external world of other people and objects. Katharine and her daughter, Isabel, used these Jungian types as a starting point. By 1943, they had the rudimentary form of a personality test that became known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Further testing and refinements were made, and the MBTI was made publicly available in 1959.

Myers and Briggs posit sixteen basic personality types based on four dichotomies: introversion (I) versus extroversion (E), intuition (N) versus sensing (S), feeling (F) versus thinking (T), and perception (P) versus judging (J). Each of these indicators expresses a preference for the way we understand our world. For example, we perceive the world either through sensing or intuition. If sensing is dominant, then we want concrete data from our senses, as in the 1950s TV show Dragnet: “Just the facts, ma’am.” If intuition is dominant, a person will rely on theory and seek to find patterns in the world. Our decision-making functions are thinking and feeling, which use the information from sensing or intuition to make choices. If we prefer the feeling function, we will probably make decisions that create or keep interpersonal harmony, while those who prefer thinking are more likely to use logic and rationality to arrive at a decision.

The MBTI has proven to be a reliable instrument that people can use to understand themselves and others. It has been used in many settings, from the offices of major international corporations to religious groups to educational institutions.

SEE ALSO Psychological Tests (1890), Jungian Psychology (1913), Projective Tests (1921), Archetypes (1934), Thematic Apperception Test (1935), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (1940)

Jolly Toper by Dutch Golden Age painter Judith Leyster, 1629. The merry drinker in this work is likely to have a more extroverted, “feeling” orientation that enjoys the company of others.