Remaining Lifelines

What is the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator?

• The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a self-report inventory designed to identify a person's personality type, strengths, and preferences. It was developed by Isabel Myers and her mother, Katherine Briggs, based on their work with Carl Jung's theory of personality types.
• The MBTI inventory is one of the world's most widely used psychological instruments. It was created with the belief that understanding one's personality type could help in selecting occupations best suited to their personality types, leading to healthier, happier lives.
• The MBTI identifies 16 personality types based on four scales: Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I), Sensing (S) – Intuition (N), Thinking (T) – Feeling (F), and Judging (J) – Perceiving (P). Each type is then listed by its four-letter code, for example, ISTJ, ESTP, etc.
• The MBTI is not a tool designed to look for dysfunction or abnormality. Instead, its goal is simply to help you learn more about yourself. There are no right or wrong answers, and one type is not better than any other type.
• The MBTI is not really a "test." Unlike many other psychological evaluations, your results are not compared against any norms. The instrument's goal is to simply offer further information about your unique personality.
• The MBTI meets accepted standards of reliability and validity according to the Myers & Briggs Foundation. However, some research suggests that many people get differing results when they later retake the test, and the test is not a good predictor of success in different careers.
• The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is relatively easy to use, and it has become one of the most popular psychological instruments currently in use today. Approximately two million U.S. adults complete the inventory each year.
• The real MBTI must be administered by a trained and qualified practitioner, including a follow-up of the results. Today, the questionnaire can be administered online via the instrument publisher, CPP, Inc., and includes receiving a professional interpretation of your results.

What are the trending topics around personality?

Personality is a fascinating topic. Some sub-topics are old news. For example, you may, at some point, have wondered why some 18-year-olds seem more mature than some fifty-year-olds when age is supposed to confer emotional stability. Or perhaps you've pondered why cats and dogs are seemingly from different planets or whether being the eldest child has condemned you to a life of stubbornness and perfectionism.

These days, the higher-ups are using personality tests to establish whether employees in a post-COVID world are better off working from home or at the office. But should Myers Briggs, Color Code, and DiSC be taken seriously, and are they nuanced enough for the job? It's a multibillion-dollar question—two billion dollars, to be precise, because that's the value of the corporate personality-testing industry. Then there's the question of whether the pandemic itself has changed peoples' personalities. There's so much more to learn, especially about the plasticity of the personality, so continued research is welcome.

Our personality quizzes are set up a little differently than your basic trivia quiz, but you’ve probably seen their kind around. Rather than having to choose the right answer from a list of multiple choice options, in this case, there is no “right answer”! (Two plus two will always be four, but every Golden Girls character is equally awesome.)

So, stop stressing. Just click on the answer that suits you best, and enjoy the ride. These quizzes are just for fun but who knows – you might just learn something about yourself along the way!