Understanding personality and the Myers-Briggs type indicator may be one of the first steps you can take to understanding the self and others.
Understanding yourself better means understanding the reasons why you do the things you do and why you are the way you are.
Knowing why others do the things they do will also help you to better gauge your reactions. This can be extremely beneficial in almost all areas of your life: work, social, romantic etc.
In this article I focus on the following:
- What is personality and the psychology behind it
- I’ll also focus on a specific personality test: Myers-Briggs and where it came from
- How accurate the MBTI personality test is
- The validity of the MBTI personality test
What is Personality?
According to Howard, Friedman, Miriam and Schustack (2012, 2) personality is a subfield of psychology. Personality is therefore not studied in terms of things like non-psychological concepts like souls, spirits, electromagnetism etc.
Instead, personality is studied in terms of real people with the focus on thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Howard et al. defines personality psychology as, “the scientific study of the psychological forces that make people uniquely themselves”. These psychologists claim that personality has 8 key aspects:
Unconscious Aspects
These are not moment-to-moment awareness. An example is saying or doing to others as replicated by our parents. We don’t always recognize that we are motivated by our desire to resemble our parents.
Ego Forces
The ego forces provide us with a sense of identity or self. This means striving to maintain a sense of consistency or mastery in our behavior.
Biological Being
This is our genes, physicality and our physiological and temperamental nature.
We are Conditioned and Shaped
These are our natural environment. Our experiences and environments surrounding us that shapes and conditions us.
Cognitive Dimension
This is how we make sense of the world around us. It includes thinking and interpreting the world around us.
Traits, Skills and Predisposition
This is our specific abilities and inclinations.
Spiritual Dimension
We also have a spiritual dimension. This ennobles us to think and wonder about the meaning of our existence.
Interactions
Finally, this is our nature being in constant interaction between the self and our particular environment. How we interact with our surroundings.
Personality Testing
We’ve only touched the surface regarding personalities and personality theories. There’s a lot more to the theory of personality and personality testing. For this article we’ll only be focusing on the Myers-Briggs test.
For a test to be reliable we expect that taking the test multiple times would yield the same outcome each time. An example is, getting on a scale throughout the day. We expect that our weight would be more or less the same each time.
We also need the test to be valid. The validity of a test is to what extent the test measures what it’s supposed to measure.
Construct validity is the extent to which a test measures a theoretical construct. This is the most important aspect of validity. It’s to see if the assessment can predict behaviors and reactions implied by the construct.
These are the two main things to having a test “approved”. The test must test what it’s supposed to test and it must be reliable – the outcome must always be the same over time.
However, I believe personalities are dynamic. Thus, taking the same test 10 years later may or may not yield the same outcome. For instance, in your 20s you may be introverted and score high on introversion. But in your 30s your circumstances taught you that being social is something you actually enjoy. Therefore, you’ll score lower on introversion and higher on extroversion.
Let’s get into one of the more famous personality tests still being used today: Myers-Briggs type indicator test.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator History
Where did the Myers-Briggs test come from? Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, had ideas similar to that of Carl Jung. They were inspired to research personality type theories.
The inspiration came from Briggs who met Clarence Myers. He was to be the husband of Briggs’ daughter, Isabel. Briggs noticed that her way of seeing the world was so different from that of Myers. She found it intriguing, so much so that she started a literature review to understand different temperaments.
In 1923 Briggs read Jung’s Psychological Types and noticed similarities with her own ideas. Briggs found his work so useful that she and her daughter wanted to make his ideas more accessible to a wider audience.
So, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was born. The test was first published in 1962 after spending 20 years developing the questions and validating the instrument and theory.
One thing should be taken into account: this was during WWII which had a major influence on the development of the project. I believe that it also inspired much of the reasons why Briggs wanted to bring the project to life.
How Valid is the Myers-Briggs Test?
There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the MBTI test. Some believe in the workings of Myers and Briggs whereas others think of it as a horoscope. The good news is that there are people who believe their horoscopes to be accurate.
The MBTI test is divided into four categories:
Based on the answers given on the test (2-choice questions), each test-taker is assigned a trait (or traits) that fits into each of the four categories. This then makes up your personality out of the 16 possible personality types.
What Are The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Limitations?
One of the limitations are the 16 categories. By relying solely on the binaries, the MBTI provides an oversimplified view of personality. However, humans don’t fit into categories since we are complicated beings. Rather, we fit on a continuum.
The test also overlooks emotional stability vs. reactivity. This is a predictor of individual and group patterns of though, action and feeling. It’s easy to see why this can be a problem when trying to establish what your personality is.
Another problem is that the categories are incomplete. The Q&A of the test overlooks certain acts that accompany certain characteristics. By only answering 3 or 4 questions on a certain scale cannot be enough to establish a specific trait.
Some studies also indicated that 50% of test-takers are classified differently when taking the test a second time. This is a problem since the test-retest period was only 5 weeks. It’s a clear demonstration that the test is ineffective especially at predicting job success.
Looking at some of the limitations to the test it’s clear that the test really cannot be a reliable tool in some aspects. However, it’s still a major part of our society. It’s still being used in schools to give kids an indication of what they may want to become depending on the test results. The MBTI is, despite its shortcomings, still being used as a top tool in recruiting and other HR practices.
Are Myers-Briggs Tests Accurate?
Another great question regularly searched. From the above information this is what I can deduce:
- The test is as accurate as you need it to be on the day of the test depending on how you feel.
- Any of the 8 key aspects of personality can play a major role on your answers on the day of the test.
The test, like most other personality tests, have its limitations. It may not be reliable which also hinders its validity.
However, it should not be shunned and forgotten about. People love try making sense of themselves and the world around them. Although the test is not accurate or reliable, it gives them some sense of who they are.
The test is effective in that it gives an attractive element to each personality type. It gives us a bunch of positive traits on our personalities making us feel better about ourselves. Who would take a personality test anyway if it only gave us negative feedback about ourselves?
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