Myers Briggs Type Indicator Explained

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator is a questionnaire-based method of determining personality type.  It is used by professionals, organisations and individuals to understand their own, and others’ personalities, and has a range of applications.

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator was developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, expanding on original work by psychologist Carl Gustav Jung first published in 1921.  The Myers Briggs Type Indicator was originally developed to help women during the second world war; this was a time when women were first expected to enter the industrial world, and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator was designed to help them understand the sort of work to which they would be suited, and it has similar applications today. 

By revealing certain personality traits, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator allows for the assessment of the situations where an individual is likely to feel comfortable and effective, the other personality types that an individual is likely to get along well with and the sort of tasks for which an individual has an aptitude.  For these reasons, organisations regularly use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator during the recruitment process (to ensure that the chosen candidate has an aptitude for the job on offer) and when building teams (to ensure that members of the team can interact effectively and efficiently).  Similarly, individuals use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator as a career planning tool, since it helps them to understand the roles in which they would be comfortable and could be expected to perform well.

Outside the workplace, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator is used extensively in life coaching, marriage counselling and personal development.  In fact, any situation where an individual must interact with others is a situation where the findings of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator could prove invaluable. 

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator must be administered by an accredited professional who can help the individual to correctly answer the questions posed and provide analysis and interpretation of the findings.  Furthermore, a professional in this area can then go on to help the individual apply the results to his or her own life and circumstances.

The questionnaire asks the subject to make a series of choices of word pairs and short statements based around four dichotomies, choosing the one which most accurately reflects themselves.  Psychometric techniques are used to interpret these responses, resulting in one of 16 personality types.  Understanding one’s own personality type is the basis on which the Myers Briggs Type Indicator has so many useful applications.  Understanding the personality types of others allows for effective communication and interaction with them, resulting in, for example, harmonious team working or the resolution of difficult personal issues, for example within a marriage.