Personality typing dates back as far as 600 B.C. It can increase understanding of our own and others’ communication and objectives.
Carl Jung presented his ideas in 1921. Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, added to his work in 1962. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is among the most accurate and popular of personality type inventories.
The MBTI assesses an individual’s preferred styles in four major areas. One of two preferences emerges in each. Some 16 four-letter combinations are possible such as ENFP and ISTJ.
Extraverts (50 percent of U.S.) primarily give and get their energy from interactions with others. Introverts center their energy within.
Sensors (67 percent of U.S.) take in the world mainly through their senses in concrete ways, addressing current realities. The opposite is iNtuitive. One letter represents each type. I is Introvert, N is iNtuitive, taking in the world by a “sixth sense,” thinking abstractly about future possibilities and connecting ideas.
Thinkers (67 percent of U.S. men) base decisions on objective logic. Feelers (67 percent of U.S. women) base decisions on their own subjective value systems. As with all styles, thinking and feeling are not mutually exclusive, only preferences.
Judgers (58 percent of U.S.) plan ahead, want order and seek closure. Perceivers are spontaneous, tolerate clutter and keep options open.
Four core types prevail, as with most personality theories. Each of the four basic temperaments includes four specific types for a total of 16.
David Keirsey, in his temperament sorter, applies Plato’s temperament types, with NFs as Idealists (17 percent of U.S.), NTs as Rationalists (15 percent), SJs as Guardians (45 percent), and SPs as Artisans (23 percent).
In the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow (NF), Tin Woodsman (NT), Dorothy (SJ), and Lion (SP) represent those temperaments.
In 4-H terms, they are heart (NF), head (NT), health (SJ), and hands (SP).
Psychologist Mel Silberman says fundamental goals humans seek are connection (NFs’ top priority), competence (NTs’ top priority), control (SJs’ top priority), and some would add action (SPs’ top priority).
How does understanding our own and others’ general objectives offers insight to our interactions?