Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Co-Managing Editor
During World War II, many veterans and citizens alike found themselves displaced. Lost in a world that no longer held any meaning to them as they bordered between generativity and stagnation. Many of these individuals included those who were suffering from PTSD, unemployment, or the loss of a loved one.
This prompted many experimental psychologists to attempt to discover and create different ways to explain and heal the pain of those who had suffered in some way from the war. Thus, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI) was born.
Created and developed by Isabel Briggs Myers during the 1940s and officially published in the 1960s, this personality type indicator served as a way to place and grant a sense of identity to those who felt displaced.
While psychologists had long experimented with the concept of grouping individuals by personality type, the MBTI was the first to do it at a mass scale and it was SCARY accurate. Soon after its release, the test became incredibly popular and was soon used by psychologists and professors across the world looking to “type” those around them.
Even today, the MBTI is used by almost every single company in the world to type and examine the workstyles of potential and current employees. But what exactly is the MBTI? And how has it become so popular not just among companies, but regular day individuals as well?
First, the MBTI is composed of 16 unique personalities all composed of 4 letters (or 5 in the new version). Each letter indicates one tendency of an important personality trait, and these letters are mixed and matched into different distinctive combinations.
The first letter is E for extraverted and I for introverted. Much like the name sounds, this letter represents our tendency to engage and interact with the people around us. Extraverts normally get energy from and thoroughly enjoy social interactions, while introverts prefer fewer but more meaningful ones.
The next letter is S for observant and N for intuitive. Despite how they may sound, both of these words can be slightly misleading in what they indicate about a person. While observant people certainly have a tendency to observe the world, people with this trait tend to take things far more at face value rather than thinking beyond them. They are more rational, making decisions based on what is, rather than what could be.
On the other hand, intuitive people are the exact opposite. Those with the intuitive trait tend to be some of the most creative and idealistic people in the world. They hone in on secret meanings and distant possibilities, stretching their imagination in every which way possible. When it comes to making decisions, no one else is better at seeing the hidden potential in things.
Next, is arguably the most important personality trait out of the 4 that being T for thinking and F for feeling. Those who identify more with the thinking trait tend to be highly rational people who prefer to think through things before making decisions. They rarely let their emotions control them and prefer to make judgments based on cold hard facts rather than what’s in their heart.
People with the F trait tend to be the polar opposite, making almost all their decisions based on their emotional intuition and how they are feeling in the moment. Those with the F trait tend to feel a tremendous amount of empathy for those around them, always actually aware of their and others’ feelings.
The last main trait is J for judging vs. P for prospecting. These traits mostly closely relate to personal work style with judging individuals being highly organized and planned out and prospecting individuals being more spontaneous and “go with the flow.”
However, this trait does not merely apply to workstyle, but general temperament and tendency as well. People with the J trait tend to be obsessed with problems both big and small while those with the P trait tend to be more easy going and lighthearted.
Additionally, there is a fifth letter which was added recently indicating T for turbulent and A for assertive. Similar to J and P, turbulent individuals tend to be self conscious, sensitive to stress, and success driven while A-types normally refuse to worry about anything.
While I certainly can’t explain each type in one article, the MBTI website not only has a test with your name on it, it possesses an in-depth analysis of each of the 16 unique personality types.
As a prideful INFP-T myself, I highly recommend that you spend 10 minutes taking the test. Not only is it incredibly accurate, it will help you become more introspective and understand your nature and WHY you do things more often.
Nevertheless, as useful as the test is, it is important to remember that you as an individual are not defined by one specific personality type. Each human being is innately different in their own unique way, and no matter what a computer tells you, there will never be anyone who will ever understand you better than YOURSELF.
MBTI Types Link: https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types
MBTI Test Link: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
Photo Credit: Mininyx Doodle/Shutterstock