Assessments

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories originated by Carl Gustav Jung, as published in his 1921 book Psychological Types (English edition, 1923).

The Myers-Briggs typology model regards personality type as similar to left or right handedness: individuals are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of thinking and acting. The MBTI sorts some of these psychological differences into four opposite pairs, or "dichotomies," with a resulting 16 possible psychological types.

• Introversion (I) vs. Extraversion (E): How a person gains energy (from within or through interaction with others).
• Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N): How a person gathers information (practical and factual or abstract and conceptual).
• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F): How a person makes decisions (logically and objectively or based on personal values).
• Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P): How a person interacts with the outside world (structured and organized or flexible and spontaneous).

The test consists of a series of questions that measure preferences on these areas. Based on your answers, you receive a four-letter type like "INTJ" or "ESFP". The MBTI is commonly used in career counseling, team development, and personal growth.

None of these types is "better" or "worse"; however, Briggs and Myers theorized that individuals naturally prefer one overall combination of type differences.

In the same way that writing with the left hand is hard work for a right-hander, so people tend to find using their opposite psychological preferences more difficult, even if they can become more proficient (and therefore behaviorally flexible) with practice and development.