Myers-Briggs Typology

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The Myers-Briggs Typology (more commonly known as MBTI) is a descendant of Jung's Typology that is well-known in the United States and other western countries. The first Myers-Briggs type test (which later came to be called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) was created 65 years ago, in 1942. Socionics, by comparison, would appear in more or less finished form about 40 years later.

1 Relation to socionics
2 Myers-Briggs Typology and Jung's Typology
3 Myers-Briggs Typology and Keirsey
4 Criticism
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Relation to socionics

Socionics developed independently of the Myers-Briggs Typology, since Augusta had very little access to the works of foreign authors. Early on, she made some conceptual developments that differed significantly from the approach of Myers and Briggs - namely, she introduced the concept of information aspects, increased the number of functions to eight, and focused from the very beginning on studying the interaction of types, which has been an afterthought in Myers-Briggs type theory.

In "borderline" type cases (i.e. where the individual displays prominent traits that are not generally associated with his type), these theoretical differences may make socionists prone to assign different typings than MBTI specialists. For example, socionists from the International Institute of Socionics (Kiev, Ukraine) have confirmed in personal correspondence that if an individual appears to display typical traits of a certain socionic type, but his relationships and interactions with others fit in the framework of another type, they will give preference to the type that accurately explains their interactions. In the Myers-Briggs system, these things would not be considered. This means that socionics' understanding of psychic functions tends to be adapted to interpersonal interaction, whereas functions in Myers-Briggs Typology are adapted to observable and generally more obvious behavior. This can consistently produce different typings in borderline cases.

Furthermore, those who administer the MBTI must conform to an ethical code that gives the test-taker the last word in their type diagnosis. In theory, specialists are trained to look for a "best fit" type, whereas socionists look for finality in type diagnosis. In practice, the "finality" of many socionists is no different from an MBTI "best fit."

An ongoing discussion with regards to socionics and MBTI is the issue of the "J/P switch".

[edit] Basic Comparisons with Socionics

Unlike the Model A in Socionics, the Myers-Briggs Typology uses a model called the Jungian functional preference ordering, which is made up by four functions, named Dominant, Auxiliary, Tertiary, and Inferior respectively. These carry a crude resemblance to the Ego and Super-Ego functions of Socionics.

[edit] Extroverted Types

For instance, a MBTI ENFP has these preferences in his model:

Dominant: Extraverted Intuition
Auxiliary: Introverted Feeling
Tertiary: Extraverted Thinking
Inferior: Introverted Sensing

While a Socionics ENFp has similar functions for the Dominant and Auxiliary preferences in his ego block, the latter two functions differ from the Socionics model.

However, the MBTI model for introverted types is slightly different.

[edit] Introverted Types

A MBTI INFP has these preferences in his model:

Dominant: Introverted Feeling
Auxiliary: Extroverted Intuition
Tertiary: Introverted Sensing
Inferior: Extraverted Thinking

If we consider the Dominant and Auxiliary functions the "ego block" of MBTI, the MBTI model of the INFP and the Socionics model of INFp will parallel each other functionally in the ego if the 'p' in INFp is changed to a 'j'. Hence, the issue of the "J/P switch" arises in these situations.

[edit] Myers-Briggs Typology and Jung's Typology

Compared to Jung's Typology, the Myers-Briggs system has gone down the dichotomial route, with understanding of psychic functions (now called "cognitive" or "mental" functions) taking a second seat. Building tests based on dichotomies is much easier than testing the positions of various functions. Compared to Jung's Typology, the MBTI system has developed more "external" descriptions of the workings of psychic mechanisms. Jung's descriptions are very introspective and perhaps difficult for many people to understand.

[edit] Myers-Briggs Typology and Keirsey

David W. Keirsey mapped four 'Temperaments' to the existing Myers-Briggs system groupings SP, SJ, NF and NT, often resulting in confusion of the two theories. The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is not directly associated with the official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and some practicioners and authors treat the two as separate, but similar typologies. Socionist Dmitri Lytov corresponded extensively with Keirsey's son, who wrote:

There is a difference between the Myers-Briggs material and Keirsey Temperament, although we know that many don't see or understand the differences. Mixing the two is not to my father's liking. To my father, he does not want to assist, or seem to assist, in promoting any material that he does not believe presents an accurate picture of temperament, which Myers-Briggs material and its derivatives have problems in this regard. [1]

Isabel Myers' type descriptions and David Keirsey character descriptions have several differences between them. One of the primary differences between the two models is that Myers was primarily focused on how people think and feel whereas Keirsey is focused more on how people behave. Keirsey notes that one can not directly observe that people think or feel. A second important difference is that the Myers used a linear four-factor model in her descriptions whereas Keirsey uses a systems field theory model in his descriptions. A third important difference is the emphasis Keirsey and Myers place on certain dichotomies or preferences. Keirsey believes that whether someone is observant or is introspective is a much more important distinction than whether someone is expressive (somewhat correlated to extraversion) or attentive (somewhat correlated to introversion). On the other hand, Jung, and hence Myers, placed the most emphasis on whether or not someone is extraverted or introverted. A fourth difference is the difference between 'function attitudes' in Myers-Briggs and temperament types in Keirsey’s models.

[edit] Criticism

The MBTI is subject to similar criticism as socionics. Despite decades of research, the MBTI has not produced any objective, measurable phenomena. Functions and dichotomy preferences are complex, qualitative phenomena that manifest themselves in the way people do things, whereas psychological traits such as the Big Five are more easily measurable, but do not reveal any hidden qualities or potential in people.

Although the MBTI assumes that people belong to one pole of each dichotomy, in reality test scores are generally found around the center of a continuous scale, which means that answers that are supposed to correlate with trait X (sensing or introversion, or whatever) are not correlated with each other. This suggests that either discrete types do not exist, or that the MBTI does a poor job of measuring them. Results are often given as percentages, which reinforces the idea that one can be, for instance, 40% N and 60% S. Although it is not part of official MBTI theory, test takers take the results at face value. If a personality theory uses percentages, it not only abandons the requirement of consistency, but severely limits the theory's predictive power.

As a testing instrument, the reliability of the MBTI methodology is lacking, since many people who retake the test get a new type. Skeptics claim that the MBTI lacks falsifiability, and hence causes confirmation bias in the interpretation of results; the terminology of the MBTI is so vague that it allows any kind of person to fit any personality type (see Forer effect). Some socionists circumvent this issue by avoiding tests as much as possible; however, the same basic issues remain.

[edit] See also

Comparison of Jung-based typologies

[edit] External links

[edit] Information resources

The Official Site
Skeptic's Dictionary MBTI entry
Wikipedia article
Humanmetrics online test
TypeLogic MBTI type profiles
The Personality Page: Descriptions Also contains personal development advice

[edit] Lists of MBTI types of famous people

It is interesting to compare how MBTI practitioners type famous people as compared to socionists; the correlation is poor, as demonstrated in the Russian benchmark list of 2006.