What Is the Myers Briggs Personality Test

The Myers Briggs personality test is a set of psychometric questions taken by someone, with the results designed to classify their personality.

The questions were first created by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs back in the 1920’s. They were based on theories documented by Carl Gustav Jung in his book called Psychological Types.

With an additional 50 years of development, the current Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is reportedly used by over 2 million people a year to test their personality type.

Through using the MBTI a person can access a wide range of values. Some of the following include:

• Organization development
• Management and leadership training
• Team building
• Self-understanding and developments
• Diversity and multicultural training
• Academic counseling
• Relationship counseling
• Education and curriculum development
• The 8 Briggs Myers Preferences

There are 8 preferences that make up the personality types in the Briggs Myers Type Indicator model (MBTI).

Everyone has different preferences. It doesn’t always mean they are one or the other, just that they prefer one over the other.

So it’s not to look at the results as a right or wrong. More so as an indication to what someone preferences. Assembling these preferences gives us the 4 letter classification in the MBTI.

Understanding the 8 Different Preferences

• Extraversion (E)
• Sensing (S)
• Thinking (T)
• Judgment (J)
• Introversion (I)
• Intuition (N)
• Feeling (F)
• Perception (P)

It’s worth mentioning that these functions do not necessarily mean what you would expect from the dictionary explanation. So you need to familiarize yourself with the intended meanings.

The MBTI model doesn’t measure aptitude either. It looks at the variables and chooses one preference over another. For example, someone scoring higher as an extrovert aren’t necessarily an introvert.

It just means they have a preference to being an extrovert.

Understanding the 16 Types of Personalities

There are a total of 16 different personality types. These are all abbreviated by the four letters that make up the types of preference.

For example:

ESTJ personality types have the abbreviations, extraversion (E), sensing (S), thinking (T), judgment (J)
INFP personality types have the abbreviations, introversion (I), intuition (N), feeling (F), perception (P)

This is applied to all of the 16 personality types. Enabling you to decode the four letter abbreviations.

Click on any of the abbreviations below to be taken to an in-depth explanation of the personality type.

ISTJ – Planner Inspector

ISFJ – Protector Supporter

INFJ – Foreseer Developer

INTJ – Conceptualizer Director

ISTP – Analyzer Operator

ISFP – Composer Producer

INFP – Harmonizer Clarifier

INTP – Designer Theorizer

ESTP – Promoter Executor

ESFP – Motivator Presenter

ENFP – Discoverer Advocate

ENTP – Explorer Inventor

ESTJ – Implementer Supervisor

ESFJ – Facilitator Caretaker

ENFJ – Envisioner Mentor

ENTJ – Strategist Mobilizer

What Is My Personality Type?

Taking the Myers Briggs test will give you an answer as to where you fall within the personality scale. The results provide a powerful and insightful result into a persons personality.

You can take the personality test for free here.

Is the Myers Briggs Test Accurate?

I think it’s important to remember than the test only gives you an indication of where a person leans personality wise. With some people it will be eerily accurate of course. But with others it will be less so.

To make the most out of the results, you should keep the following in mind:

• There are no right or wrong types.
• Each person is unique.
• It’s up to you to interpret your results and personality type.
• The type only touches the surface, there is much more depth to a person.