What a fascinating man! The more I learn about Professor Jung, the more I like him.

You can find lots of material about Jung on the Interwebs, but these videos are some of my favourite… The BBC interviewed him in 1959 – just listen to the life in his voice, and see the spark in his eyes. I watch him, and can’t help but smile:

“…we know nothing of man…” Carl Gustav Jung

I have already covered the history of MBTI elsewhere on this site – the purpose of this document is to explain the rationale of MBTI according to Isabel Myers Briggs who together with her mother Katherine Briggs was the originator of the MBTI. Isabel’s belief was that many problems could be dealt with more successfully if approached in the light of CJ Jung’s theory of psychological types. The implications of the theory go beyond statistics and can be expressed only in human terms.

Personality Differences

Every individual is unique. Each is the product of heredity and environment. we cannot safely assume that other’s minds work on the same principles as our own. Often others do not reason as we do, often others do not value what we do nor are they interested in what interest us. The theory enables us to expect personality differences in particular people and to cope with the people and the difficulties in a constructive way.

Much seemingly chance variation in human behaviour is not due to chance; it is in fact the logical result of a few basic, observable differences in mental functioning, These differences concern the way people prefer to use their minds, the way they perceive and make judgements.

According to Isabel Myers Briggs Perceiving had to be understood to include the process of becoming aware of things: people: occurances and ideas whereas Judgement was to include the process of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived. Together perception and judgement, which make up a large portion of people’s total mental activity, govern much of their behaviour, because perception by definition – determines what people see in a situation and their judgement determines what they decide to do about it. It is reasonable that basic differences in perception and judgement should result in corresponding differences in behaviour.

MBTI was created with the above as a focus for Isabel Myers Briggs and she went on to align these with Extraversion and introversion, which formed the basis of Jung’s work on psychological types.

Extraversion – Introversion

These words are now in common use and Jung called them the Attitudes. MBTI describe Extraversion ‘E’ as energy that seems to flow out and Introversion ‘I’ as energy drawn from the environment and consolidated within one’s position.

Jung combined these two attitudes with the preferences which he labelled rational, and irrational. The rational were Thinking and Feeling and the irrational, Sensing and Intuition, so called because they were ‘mere perceptions which are not evaluated or interpreted.’ By combining these four with either an Extraverted or introverted attitude Jung arrived at his eight types. He was quick to say that since people were unique there was a different type for every single person in the world however to try and gain some understanding of human behaviour he believed that these combinations were categories that most people would fit in varying degrees.

See this article for further information on Jung.

MBTI

Although the importance of judgement and perception was implicit in Jung’s work it was made explicit by Isabel Myers and Kathering Briggs in the development of the MBTI. With this addition they were able to create sixteen types. Jung had four preferences or functions; Thinking ‘T’ , Feeling ‘F’, Sensing ‘S’, Intuition ‘N’ when he added these to either an extraverted or introverted attitude, four became eight i.e. four extraverted and four introverted types. MBTI took these eight types and added either ‘J’ judging or ‘P’ perception to further divide into the sixteen types used through out the world today

MBTI® Types

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (Myers and McCaulley, 1985) is the most widely used measure of Jungian psychological type. The MBTI is a self-report questionnaire that assesses type preferences on Extraversion-Introversion (E-I), Sensation-Intuition (S-N), Thinking-Feeling (T-F), and also on Judgment-Perception (J-P). The J-P scale defines the person’s preferred manner of dealing with the outer world. Judging reflects a closed, organised, decisive approach, whereas Perceiving is more open, flexible and curious. J-P is not specifically recognised as a separate dimension in Jung’s theory, and it is included in the MBTI mainly as a way of indirectly determining which function is dominant.

MBTI types are described using four letters indicating preferences on each scale. This results in sixteen types. These types, and their classical Jungian equivalents, are shown in the table below. In the Jung types, the function in brackets is the auxiliary. Thus IS(T) refers to an Introverted Sensory Thinker with Sensation dominant, whereas IT(S) is the same type, but with Thinking dominant

Each of these attitudes and preferences are measured on bi-polar scales although both Jung and MBTI are keen to point out that behaviour can move along these scales and is not fixed in blood. People can have an extraverted and an introverted attitude to the world. The majority of people who fall close to the middle of this scale can easily switch between these attitudes. There are of course people who will be more clearly defined as, either or, but even they can use both attitudes from time to time.

Using a combination of these scales MBTI create the sixteen types and these are:-

Descriptions of the MBTI types may be found atMBTI Personality Profiles

The Origins of MBTI

Katherine Cooke married Lyman Briggs in the period of World War 1. She had an interest in typology through studying biography and once she discovered Jung she accepted his system then explored and elaborated on it. Lyman Briggs was a scientist who had a major role in modern aviation and atomic energy. They had one daughter Isabel Briggs whom they educated at home until college age. She graduated first in her class and married Clarence Myers and until the outbreak of world war 2 she was a mother and a homemaker.

She had absorbed her mother’s admiration of Jungian Typology and determined to devise a method of making the theory of practical use, thus the idea of a Type Indicator was born and due to the combination of both her own and her husband’s names it became the Myers Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI as it is known today.

Isabel Myers Briggs was a remarkable woman who was well ahead of her time, as was the MBTI. She believed that many problems might be dealt with more successfully if approached in the light of CG Jung’s theory of psychological types. She also thought the implications of the theory went beyond statistics and could be expressed only in human terms.

Jung would have agreed with her on this. He was a psychiatrist as well as a psychologist. Isobel had no training in psychology or statistics, no academic sponsorship or research grants yet she set about the painstaking task of developing an item pool to underpin the MBTI. She and her mother had information on many people and she wanted to create this item pool to tap the attitudes, feelings, perceptions and behaviours of these different psychological types to start her MBTI research.

Being a singuarly determined woman she taught herself statistics and psychometrics then apprenticed herself to Edward N Hay, who later founded one of the first successful personnel firms in the USA. She knew that she would need many people to undertake her testing and as a result persuaded many school principals in Western Pennsylvania to allow her to test their students. She then tested medical students until she had MBTI results for more than 5000 medical students and 10000 nurses. It seems that if statistics were to be demanded she was going to provide plenty of them.

In 1962 Henry Chauncey, head of educational testing services ETS, sufficiently impressed with the MBTI, wrote to Myers with a proposal for ETS to distribute and test for research purposes. Donald T McKinnon, the distinguished director of the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research at the university of California, added the MBTI to the tests used in assessing creative persons and published supportive findings.

Professor Harold Grant of Michigan State and Auburn universities and Dr Mary McCaulley of the university of Florida also undertook significant research with the MBTI. In 1975 publication of the MBTI was transferred to Consulting Psychological Press and the Centre for Appplications of Psychological Type was organised as a service and research laboratory for the MBTI.

Isabel Myers was indeed a pioneer in her generation and one wonders what she would have made of the technology available to today’s generation. PeopleMaps is on a similar crusade to assess Typology, also based on the work of Carl Jung and recognising the enormous contribution that Isabel Myers Briggs and her MBTI made while using the very latest modern technology to pioneer the method.

Peoplemaps is based on the psychology of Dr C.G. Jung – the Swiss psychologist who assesses that people could be identified by their ‘attitude’ to the outside world, which would either be extravert or introvert – and more often than not, somewhere in the middle of these two attitudes.

The ‘attitudes’ that are measured eg, intraversion V’s extraversion move along a bi-polar scale. These are partnered with a further two bi-polar scales that measure preferences or functions, both rational and irrational, which are thinking/feeling and sensing/intuition. These are combined to complete an individual’s type profile.

If the scale measures 100% and currently a person is using 40% introversion, this means they also use 60% extraversion. It’s worth bearing in mind that the measurement is taken at the time the individual completes the questionnaire; people do move along the scale usually in degrees, which means that their behaviour can change over time.

Jung measured the scales in combination to arrive at a TYPE rather than taking the measurement of personality traits. His view was that it didn’t matter how much introversion etc, a person had, but whether they had an overall preference. The combination of scales leads to a more certain personality type. It can be assumed from the scales that in any one day someone may be exhibiting, depending on their environment and other influences, more or less of a trait – but they are unlikely to change type on a day to day basis.

People are complex The environment and other people working with them could influence behaviour change on a regular basis. Behaviour has reasons, not causes and if we understand the reasons why, in most areas will be more committed.

Psychological type gives a snap shot of the preferred behaviour that comes almost unconsciously to most people. This is the behaviour that they are comfortable with and can sustain for long periods of time. It is positive news that people can be versatile and can change, as the behaviour they are comfortable with will almost certainly not be suitable for every eventuality. People are often asked to “think and act outside the box” – in these situations they need to be confident that they can do this.

We all have the ability to access the range of Jung’s bi-polar scales. If our preferred attitude is for introversion we need to be aware that if extraversion is called for we can use this too. We will be less comfortable using it, as we have had less practice and because of this we will possibly be slower as we need to think about what we do rather than do it on automatic pilot This may be a hidden blessing.

If we normally write with our right hand and injured this hand in an accident, we would be required to earn how to write with the left hand. This would be uncomfortable and slow until we did it often enough for it to become as automatic as using our preferred hand. It is exactly the same with the bi-polar scales – we have the ability to use the range but our preference for one way will make us lazy of learning the other until forced into it.

If we brought this thought with us to team working we would discover that we were a whole lot more adaptable than we originally thought. Not only adaptable but we could put ourselves in the other persons shoes more easily and try them on for size. It would not be quick but it could be done and with some great results ensuing.

Human behaviour is probabilistic not deterministic. Using the profiles may tell us how people will probably respond to their environment. It will also help with the individual’s development, choice of job role and their best fit within the environment. It provides a starting point or compass to get the best out of a most expensive and valuable resource.

The questionnaire is not a test as there can be no right or wrong answer to psychological type. It is an evaluation of the individual’s habitual or typical way of dealing with the world. The greatest benefit in using profiling is surely that of development and team working. It provides a useful aid for recruitment but should only be used as part of an overall process. Twenty five percent of the recruitment process should be underpinned by a psychological profile – the other seventy five percent should be made up of interview, past experience/CV and qualifications.

Jung believed that individuals were all unique. He was against boxing people and used the analogy of a compass as a method of finding his way around people’s differences, helping him to understand and aid the development of their own potential. The psychological profile designed by Peoplemaps was primarily for the purpose of development. The original target market were individuals trying to gain better self understanding, identify what career would give them greatest satisfaction, help them to promote their strengths and work on their weaknesses.

Organisations are looking for exactly the same information about the people they employ. Vast sums of money are spent on development but very little of it is targeted uniquely to an individual’s greatest needs. By providing a profile that acts as a compass identifying how best to understand each individual, employers will be able to target more cost effectively and provide solutions that will help satisfy and retain their employees.

Jung spent his whole life on his development especially on what he called individuation, which he described as the person’s attempt to get in touch with their full potential as a human being. His was a psychology for the second half of life, learning was a life long project and people were capable of changing and developing right up to their last breath.

He placed no value on people remaining consistent – his encouragement was for them to try other shoes. If someone has spent their whole life with a preference for introversion, which was his preference, he thought they would not be fully developed until they worked on their extraversion. For him this was the main advantage of the bi-polar scales; to let people take stock of where they were and then work at developing their less used gifts.

The theory underpinning PeopleMaps comes from the work of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist who believed every individual was unique. His theory focuses on the cognitive aspects of personality i.e. how people think; take on board information to make their decisions and sense of the world.

He created categories of psychological type through a combination of attitudes and preferences measured by bi-polar scales – Extraversion and Introversion he called attitudes, and Thinking and Feeling he described as rational preferences, with Sensing and Intuition being irrational preferences.

Jung’s Categories

Extraverted attitudes plus Introverted attitudes combine with either Thinking or Feeling, and either Sensing or Intuition.

There is great variety of behaviour within these categories depending on which position on each of the bi-polar scales the person’s behaviour is plotted. There are no right or wrong psychological types – the scales flag up our differences. Wouldn’t the world be a dull old place if we were all the same?

The extraversion – introversion scale

We all use both in different intensity at different times, however we will have a preferred way of dealing with the outside world that we use “most of the time”. Extraversion is how we think and act; Introversion is how we think and reflect. These terms are in common usage today and are possibly the easiest of the scales to see in practice. The majority of people will not be extreme, demonstrating a close balance of extraversion and introversion – as such they can be more difficult to read. Those more obvious preferences are easier to read. Most of us can point to an example of someone who acts and thinks out loud most of the time and identify them as an extravert and similarly those who are quieter, because they are reflecting on their thoughts, can be identified as introverts.

The Environment

Introversion
The environment has an impact on our behaviour. If for example one’s preference was for reflection and every member of the group shared this preference, someone would be forced to become more active and extraverted. The person acting the role would be seen as an extravert to the rest of the group, however if their natural preference was for introversion they would be uncomfortable maintaining this for any great length of time – and when the environment changed would revert to their preferred attitude.

Extraversion
The opposite would apply to Extraversion – if everyone was thinking and acting out loud, some of the group would actually be and appear more introverted. People have different tolerance levels: to someone with a preference for extraversion, other more extremely extraverted people could appear too loud and they may naturally seek solace in more reflective behaviour. This would not make them a natural Introvert as they could not maintain this attitude for any great length of time and would be soon found seeking an external stimulus.

PeopleMaps Profile as a Compass

Jung referred to his system as a compass and this is how the profile should be used. We can make these observations about people when they respond to circumstances at different times but we do not know, really know, the person’s natural attitude or preferences – this is where profiling comes in. PeopleMaps captures the individual’s response made to an on-line questionnaire and electronically measures them on the bi-polar scales. This enables the assessment of the person’s natural or most comfortable type. People have a preferred natural type, however they are often versatile and can respond differently to a variety of stimuli, such as the examples given above for extraverted or introverted behaviour.

The Rational Preferences

Thinking
People whose preference is for thinking make objective decisions and are able to put their personal feelings aside to reach a (to their mind) logical, detached analytical conclusion. They obviously do have feelings and will often examine how they feel about the decision at a later stage but their feelings rarely get in the way of making the decision in the first place.

Feeling
People whose preference is for feeling make subjective decisions integrating feelings and facts. They trust their feelings and usually include values in their decision making. They will be reluctant to take decisions if the decision does not feel right. They ask themselves how they and others will feel if they make this decision. All of these considerations have to be undertaken before they are comfortable with the decision.

There is no right or wrong way to make decisions. Both of these methods will have produced good and bad decisions. It could be argued that thinking decisions will be quicker. This will be true but speed won’t appear to be a value if the decision was wrong. Similarly with a feeling decision people may be happier, but not for long if it was the wrong decision made for the wrong reasons.

Irrational Preferences

Sensing
People whose preference is for sensing will want more factual information. They will want to know if they can feel or see something to ascertain that it is real. They want proof – real tangible evidence. They will see themselves as realists. Others may see them as pragmatists.

Intuition
People whose preference is for intuition will depend upon imagination and possibilities. They will be want something to get excited about, not for them the pragmatic view of the world.

Just as with Thinking and Feeling, there is no right and wrong with the irrational preferences. Intuition is about possibilities and potential, however if this is carried too far, the challenge is that the potential does not become any closer.

Sensing could be pragmatic but if the demand for evidence inhibits all possible potential then this could also be counter productive. Just as with all the scales they balance each other.

Within every person there is the ability to use either side of the bi-polar scales, although we will all have preferences for one side more than the other – most of the time. When two people are working together who have different preferences, they can complement each other.

The person with great intuition could benefit from working with the person who is totally practical and pragmatic, as together they could work out a way to harness the creativity and imagination of the intuitive. Using the strength of the pragmatist’s realism, they could bring about many successful conclusions.