The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
One of the best-known and most widely used personality inventories that can also be used to describe learning styles is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI.2 Whereas the VARK measures your preferences for using your senses to learn and the Kolb Inventory focuses on learning abilities, the MBTI investigates basic personality characteristics and how they relate to human interaction and learning. The MBTI was created by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs. The inventory identifies and measures psychological types as developed in the personality theory of Carl Gustav Jung, the great twentieth-century psychoanalyst. The MBTI is given to several million people around the world each year. Employers often use this test to give employees insight into how they perceive the world, make decisions, and get along with other people. Many first-year seminar or college success courses also include a focus on the MBTI because it provides a good way to begin a dialogue about human interaction and how personality types affect learning.
All the psychological types described by the MBTI are normal and healthy. There is no good or bad or right or wrong; people are simply different. When you complete the MBTI, your score represents your “psychological type,” or the combination of your preferences on four different scales. These scales measure how you take in information and how you then make decisions or come to conclusions about that information. Each preference has a one-letter abbreviation. The four letters together make up your type. Although this book doesn’t include the actual survey, you will find a description of the basic MBTI types below. Based on these scales, you can be any combination of these eight types.
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Discerning the Extraverts from the Introverts in Your Life
Read the following descriptions of extraverts and introverts. Make a list of your friends and family members, and indicate with an “E” or an “I” which are extraverts and which are introverts. How about you? Which type describes you best? Would you like to be different from the way you are? Reflect on these questions in a journal entry.
Extraversion (E) versus Introversion (I): The Inner or Outer World The E-I preference indicates whether you direct your energy and attention primarily toward the outer world of people, events, and things or the inner world of thoughts, feelings, and reflections. Personality characteristics of extraverts and introverts are summarized here:
| Extraverts | Introverts |
| Outgoing, gregarious, talkative (may talk too much) | Shy, reflective; careful listeners |
| People of action (may act before they think) | Consider actions deeply (may think too long before acting or neglect to act at all) |
| Energized by people and activity | Refreshed by quiet and privacy |
| Good communicators and leaders | Less likely to voice their opinions; often viewed as unaware of people and situations around them |
Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N): Facts or Ideas The S-N preference indicates how you perceive the world and take in information: directly, through your five senses, or indirectly, by using your intuition. Personality characteristics of sensing and intuitive types are summarized here:
| Sensing Types | Intuitive Types |
| Interested above all in the facts, what they can be sure of; dislike unnecessary complication; prefer practicing skills they already know | Fascinated by concepts and big ideas; prefer learning new skills over those already mastered |
| Relatively traditional and conventional | Original, creative, and nontraditional |
| Practical, factual, realistic, and down-to-earth | Innovative but sometimes impractical; need inspiration and meaning; prefer to look to the future rather than at the present |
| Accurate, precise, and effective with routine and details; sometimes miss the “forest” for the “trees” | May exaggerate facts unknowingly; dislike routine and details; work in bursts of energy |
Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F): Logic or Values The T-F preference indicates how you prefer to make your decisions: through logical, rational analysis or through your subjective values, likes, and dislikes. Personality characteristics of thinking types and feeling types are summarized here:
| Thinking Types | Feeling Types |
| Logical, rational, analytical, and critical | Warm, empathetic, and sympathetic |
| Relatively impersonal and objective in making decisions, less swayed by feelings and emotions; sometimes surprised and puzzled by others’ feelings | Need and value harmony; often distressed or distracted by argument and conflict; reluctant to tackle unpleasant interpersonal tasks |
| Need and value fairness; can deal with interpersonal disharmony | Need and value kindness and harmony |
| Fair, logical, and just; firm and assertive | Facilitate cooperation and goodwill in others; sometimes unable to be assertive when appropriate |
| May seem cold, insensitive, and overly blunt and hurtful in their criticisms | Occasionally illogical, emotionally demanding, and unaffected by objective reason and evidence |
Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P): Organization or Adaptability The J-P preference indicates how you characteristically approach the outside world: by making decisions and judgments or by observing and perceiving instead. Personality characteristics of judging and perceiving types are summarized here:
| Judging Types | Perceiving Types |
| Orderly, organized, punctual, and tidy | Spontaneous and flexible |
| In control of their own world and sphere of influence | Adapt to their world rather than try to control it; comfortable dealing with changes and unexpected developments |
| Quick decision makers; like to make and follow plans | Slow to make decisions; prefer a wait-and-see approach |
| Sometimes judgmental and prone to jump to conclusions or make decisions without enough information; have trouble changing plans | Tendency toward serious procrastination and juggling too many things at once without finishing anything; sometimes messy and disorganized |
To learn more about these personality types and to access a questionnaire to find out more about your type, visit the Myers & Briggs Foundation at myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/take-the-mbti-instrument. Remember that while some Myers-Briggs personality types may be particularly advantageous in certain situations, no one type is inherently superior to another. Be alert to both the positive and negative effects your type might have on your success in college.