How do I Understand MBTI Type?

Take a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Assessment and learn about your personality type.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of many personality tests that can help you determine the type of job that is right for you and how you interact best with others. Finding a certified professional to help you analyze your results is essential. Many tests are available for free online, but these may not give the proper results, and no one will be able to help explain the conclusions. All MBTI types can find success in any job field; the assessment is meant to help guide you to a life and career that will make you happiest.

Things You'll Need

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test

Instructions

1. Take a certified Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test with a certified instructor to explain the results. Courses offered through your job or other leadership training courses might focus on MBTI results.

2. Avoid putting yourself in a box when you learn the results. No matter what the test tells you, do not think that you now can or cannot do certain tasks or treat people in certain ways. The assessment is meant to inform you of the ways you naturally relate to different situations. This way, when one of these situations arises, you will know how to tweak your natural reactions to better fit the situation.

3. Understand that some types are favored in different societies. Knowing which of these types is viewed favorably can help you to advance in a job. Generally, being an extrovert, sensor, thinker and judger is what looks best to an employer. This does not mean people who are not this type cannot succeed; it instead means they will need to change their work habits at times. Generally it is good to interact with co-workers, make decisions based on facts and figures and plan ahead.

MBTI Types

1. Feeling energetic after a conversation with a group of people might be a sign that you are an extrovert (E). If you feel exhausted after group interactions, you might be an introvert (I). People get their energy from either outside or inside sources. Being shy does not necessarily make you an introvert, nor does acting in front of a crowd make you an extrovert. Extroverts feel deprived when they do not get access to interactions with people while introverts require a certain amount of time alone.

2. Look at an apple to help determine whether you fall into the sensing (S) or intuition (N) group for the MBTI. A sensor would describe an apple as being red and medium-sized. An intuitor might notice that the apple no longer has a stem and guess as to how the apple would taste. Intuitors use their imagination to generate details while sensors like hard facts and only notice what is in front of them.

3. Consider a traveling baseball team that can only take 20 of its 25 players to the next game. When given this scenario, a thinker (T) would probably decide to take players based on their ability or how likely they are to help the team win. A feeler (F) would figure out a way to bring all the players. Thinkers operate by analyzing situations based on data. They understand that conflict is a part of any relationship. Feelers consider how their decisions will affect others. They do not like conflict.

4. Think about how you generally clean a house. A judger (J) probably focuses on one room to clean and then moves onto the next room.A perceiver (P) might start in one room, then notice something dirty elsewhere and move their efforts to a different part of the home. Judgers like to plan, while perceivers like to multi-task and are comfortable planning more spontaneously.

References

• MBTI® Basics
• Myers-Briggs Courses
• Type-Temperament Theory: Origins and Caveats