Is The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) a Great Personality Tool?

Have you ever wondered why some people in life are just so easy to get along with? Or, have you shuddered when some people just continuously rub you the wrong way? Everyone has such a unique personality, don't they?

Over the last several years, I've been very intrigued by the MBTI (Myer's Brigg's Type Indicator). Please note that the MBTI is just simply a tool! Meaning, it’s not as concrete as rocket science. At its best, it may be qualifiable as pseudoscience.

People's personalities are intriguing when considering or interacting with other people. There are clear patterns in the preferences on these four continuums, although they’ve added a fifth continuum in more recent years.

The first continuum has to do with extraversion versus introversion. Most people are pretty familiar with this continuum. It’s always interesting to see where each person falls on this continuum. Many people may be just close to the middle mark on this continuum. The question you have to ask yourself with this one is how are you most energized? Are you energized by interacting with people or not? Extroverts are going to say that they are energized by being around people.

What I’ve noticed is that a lot of extroverts, who have sensing (S) as their second letter, are more satisfied with lighter conversations. They seem to appreciate lower commitment levels within those interactions with people. They also like diversity in the types of experiences with those people. I see ES types as being very action oriented.

Now, someone who is extroverted with their second letter being intuition (N), they do feel energized by making connections with other people however, they need deeper conversations to anchor them. What is interesting about extroverts, who are intuitive types as well is that they actually may prefer being in smaller groups, with deeper more meaningful conversations. These types of people shouldn’t necessarily be confused as being introverts, it’s just they need more substance to the connections that they are experiencing.

You need to ask yourself when determining if you’re more sensing or more intuitive is how you tend to perceive what’s in front of you. A fun activity to do when determining this specific preference is putting a painting in front of several different people and then having them describe or write down a paragraph of what they see in the painting. If somebody describes the painting in a very literal, with their five senses, then chances are most likely they are going to fall into the sensing category. If the person describes some of the underlying possible symbolism of the paintings conveying, then most likely this person is more of an intuitive type.

I do believe that there are likely a lot more intuitive types that tend to be writers. I would not be surprised if there are a higher amount of intuitive types that are drawn to poetry and writing fiction especially.

The third continuum has to do with feeling versus thinking. This continuum has to do with how people tend to make their decisions in life. Do we make decisions based on the value system that we have, or, do we make decisions based on the logical rationale the we have developed? I have a lot more insights into how to determine if you are more of a feeling type versus a thinking type, but I don't want to get too far into the weeds on this in this specific piece.

The fourth continuum has to do with how we prefer to structure our lives. I work in higher education, and what I’ve learned about the field of education is that there are a lot of Judging types (J), that work in academia.

Perceiving types tend to sometimes get a bad reputation for being disorganized but really, they have some important aspects that they bring to the table when considering openness and unique problem solving. I have found that a lot of perceiving types (P) actually resist taking these types of personality tests to begin with because they hate being pigeonholed. Please note, this type of personality test really doesn’t pigeonhole you necessarily. There are so many different flavors and shades of personalities.

For example, if I were to put ten different INFJ's in the same room, there’s going to be a lot of differences between them. I do find it interesting that there has been quite a bit of research on brain scans of the different personality types though. Dr. Dario Nardi's research has provided some fascinating results on certain parts of the brain in how they light up differently depending on your MBTI type. I have yet to read his book entitled "Our Brains in Color," but it looks like a great read on this topic!

If you take the free version of this test, then you can do so via the following link:

I recommend that you try not to answer too many neutral, middle-of-the-road-questions, as that does sometimes skew final results. This tool is really helpful when getting you thinking about why you are the way you are and why other people may be the way that they are!

Typically, conflict happens because people are on opposite sides of the continuum in one or more of the four continuums. The fifth continuum I know a lot less about because it’s not really been around quite as long but the personalities website has a lot of helpful information on the fifth letter dichotomy which is turbulent versus assertive.

Anyone who is young and searching for career options should take this test in order to think about common careers that people with your personality type tend to excel in. I’d love to hear from you in the comments below about what your MBTI type is.

If you are interested in my other writing on specific MBTI types, then feel free to check out the links below: