MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality inventory designed to make Carl Jung's theory of psychological types practical and useful in people's lives. It deals with what are considered natural personal preferences, not pathologies.

MBTI has been used effectively with individuals, groups and organisations throughout the world. There are a wide range of applications, including careers, communication, conflict resolution, counselling, management and leadership, relationships, teaching and learning, teamwork, personal and spiritual development etc.

There are various MBTI Forms. They all present a series of forced-choice questions, in phrase and word pair format. Each question, or item, relates to a preference one of 4 sets of psychological opposites:

• Extraversion-Introversion
• Sensing-Intuition
• Thinking-Feeling
• Judgement-Perception

The 4 scales on the MBTI represent these opposites. They do not claim to say everything about these opposites.

The MBTI is a sorting mechanism for psychological preferences, not a measure of skills or abilities. Scores on the MBTI are like votes for one side or another, where each option is considered good, or valuable. People completing the MBTI can leave out questions where they like neither or all of the options presented. Isabel Myers didn't want you to give false data about preferences.

Clarity of preference on a scale relates to a level of confidence that the result is correct for the person completing it. Scores are therefore not related to any notion of development, or lack of development.