Typology Myers - Briggs Test MBTI

Myers-Briggs typology is a personality typology that arose on the basis of Jung's typology in the 40s of the 20th century and was widely spread in the USA and Europe. On the basis of this typology, the system of psychological testing was created - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (English) Russian. (MBTI) Academic psychology is wary of this approach, accepting it with numerous reservations, since not all the initial assumptions of the theory were then confirmed after the accumulation of empirical data ^[⇨] .

The prevalence of the Myers-Briggs and MBTI typology

The Myers-Briggs type identifier is widely used in business, in particular, in a number of large Western companies ^[1] . In the US, up to 70% of high school graduates undergo the definition of personality type using the MBTI for the purposes of choosing their future profession ^[2] . Every year more than 2 million people fill out the MBTI questionnaire. The MBTI questionnaire is translated into 30 languages ​​(including Russian) and is used throughout the world. The main application areas of Myers-Briggs typology ^{[3] are} :

• self-knowledge and personal growth;
• career growth and vocational guidance;
• development of organizations;
• management and leadership training;
• problem solving;
• family counseling;
• education and curriculum development;
• scientific work;
• interpersonal interaction training.

Myers-Briggs typology history

The Myers-Briggs typology was originally developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Kathryn Briggs based on the work Psychological Types of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. Katherine Briggs' first publications date back to the late 1920s. The first version of the Myers-Briggs test (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI) appeared in 1942, the first version of the manual on the use of typology in 1944. In 1956, the test was published by the Educational Testing Service ( ETS ), Princeton, New Jersey. In 1969, Isabel Briggs Myers, together with the head of the Medical Center at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Mary McCallie, established a typological laboratory. In 1972, this laboratory was transformed into the Center for Applications of the Psychological Type (CAPT) ^[4] .

The center conducts research activities and trains specialists in the application of MBTI. The MBTI test and the Myers-Briggs typology began to gain wide popularity after the marketing rights (in 1975) were obtained by Consulting Psychologists Press , which took up its promotion. In the same year (1975), under the auspices of the CAPT, the first conference on the Myers-Briggs typology was held, which is now held every 2 years ^[5] . In 1979, the Association of the Psychological Type (APT) was established, representing the interests of the MBTI, as well as training non-psychologists to work with this test. In no small degree of popularity of the Myers-Briggs typology among the masses was promoted by the publication in 1984 of the popular book by D. Keirsey and M. Bates. Much of the research on the Myers-Briggs typology is published in The Journal of Psychological Type ^[6] .

Basics of typology: scales and types

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is designed to identify one of the 16 personality types. It includes 8 scales combined in pairs. The purpose of the typology and tests is to help the person in determining his individual preferences by determining which poles of the scales correspond to him more .

1. Scale E — I - orientation of consciousness:

E ( E xtraversion, extraversion) - orientation of consciousness outward, to objects,
I ( I ntroversion, introversion) - orientation of the consciousness inward, towards the subject;

2. S — N scale - a way of orientation in a situation:

S ( S ensing, common sense) - orientation to specific information,
N (i N tuition, intuition) - orientation to the generalized information;

3. Scale T — F - the basis of decision making:

T ( T hinking, thinking) - rational weighting of alternatives;
F ( F eeling, feeling) - making decisions on an emotional basis;

4. The J — P scale is a method of preparing solutions:

J ( J udging, judgment) - preference to plan and organize information in advance,
P ( P erception, perception) - preference to act without detailed preliminary preparation, focusing more on the circumstances.

The combination of scales gives the designation of one of the 16 types, for example: ENTP, ISFJ, etc.

D. Keirsey, developing the ideas of Myers and Briggs, identifies four groups of subtypes, calling them temperaments : NT, NF, SJ, SP.

In practice, various functional combinations of preferences are also used:

• Career orientation: ST, NT, SF, NF.
• Use of information: ES, EN, IS, IN.
• Reaction to changes: EJ, IJ, EP, IP.
• Leadership and Submission: TJ, FJ, TP, FP.

Type Diagnostics by Myers-Briggs System

The basic method is a survey using the Myers-Briggs questionnaire with its subsequent verification. The MBTI type, according to the official definition, is the result of the questionnaire, but the accuracy of the type determination is guaranteed only by subsequent consultation of a certified specialist.

There are various forms of questionnaires on the MBTI questionnaire:

• MBTI Step I - contains 93 questions, aimed at identifying the type of person.
• MBTI Step II - contains 144 questions, allows you to get a portrait of individual differences within the type.
• MBTI Step III - aimed at analyzing the dynamics of type development, information on the use of this form in Russia is missing.

On the basis of the Myers-Briggs model, other tests and questionnaires have emerged:

• The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (Test of Keirsey) - the questionnaire contains 73 questions, its results do not always coincide with the results of the Myers-Briggs questionnaire.
• MMTIC (Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children) - a questionnaire used in the States for questioning children and adolescents.
• TOP-Unit is the Russian diagnostic method (105 questions), the developers of which applied the factor approach to the study of the Myers-Briggs model scales. The result of the test is a comprehensive analysis of the personality with an indication of the presence of correlations with personality types according to MBTI.

Adapted versions of questionnaires used on the territory of the former USSR - the Myers-Briggs questionnaire in the adaptation of Yu. B. Hippenreiter; Keirsey questionnaire in the adaptation of the authors - B. V. Ovchinnikov, K. V. Pavlov, I. M. Vladimirova, E. P. Ilyin and other versions.

The visual type definition is a technique promoted by P. Tiger and B. Barron-Tiger, who offer their own criteria for the visual manifestation of individual Jung features, as well as introduce an additional derived scale. Their methodology has not gained distribution among supporters of the Myers-Briggs typology.

Myers-Briggs typology in scientific disciplines

Over the past 20 years, a large number of empirical studies have been carried out to refine the MBTI test methods (T. Carskadon); on the search for the psychophysiological correlates of Jung's dichotomies (J. Newman); The features of the interaction of representatives of different types by Myers-Briggs (J. Butt & M. Heiss, A. Avila) and others were also investigated.

In general, in scientific disciplines, the Myers-Briggs typology serves as an independent subject for the study of specialists (B. Ovchinnikov, E. F. Abelskaya, Tammy L. Bess and Robert J. Harvey, etc.) and as a diagnostic method used for research in various fields, such as management psychology and organizational development, psychological aspects of pedagogy and learning (theory of learning styles or cognitive styles), medical psychology, etc. (Harvey J. Brightman; George HH, Perino T., Filbeck G; P. Hatfield and Ph. Horvath; V. Stevens et al.). ^{[ source not specified 281 days ]}

Functional model

Myers-Briggs typology and Jung typologies use different functional models of the type.

The fundamental differences in the models of the type of these typologies exist for introverted types. Introversion types in the Myers-Briggs typology have dominant and auxiliary functions like those of the Jung types with a different meaning rational / irrational (decisive / perceptive). For example, the introverted type with dominant thinking (this is a rational / decisive function) in Jung is rational, and in the Myers-Briggs typology, it is irrational / perceiving; on the example of specific types: the INTP type in the Myers-Briggs typology has the first 2 functions as the JUNG type INTJ (introverted cognitive with auxiliary intuition), and vice versa. In Jung, only types with a dominant rational function are called rational, and only types with a dominant irrational function are called irrational, and this does not depend on the type of extraversion / introversion type ^[7] .

Also, some followers of Myers-Briggs (Joe Butt, Marina Heiss) observe a difference in the functional model with regard to the extraversion-introversion parameter of the 3rd function. For Jung, the extraversion-introversion parameter of the 3rd function differs from that of the dominant function, while for some Myers-Briggs followers it is the same.

Although the Myers-Briggs typology assumes the existence of 8 mental functions, most of its supporters follow the 4-functional model (the reformed 4-functional Jung model - for Jung the “correctness” of the 2nd and 3rd functions was not indicated), and only a few - 8 -functional.

Criticism of the MBTI questionnaire and typology in general

The high validity of the MBTI questionnaire is questioned. It turned out that some scales “do not work” at the clinical level of diagnosis: this is evidenced not only by the accumulated empirical data of professional psychologists, but also by the results of the study of E. F. Abelskaya (author of the latest adapted versions of MBTI [Form F]): “ As shown by <...> factor analysis, the items of the methodology form four factors, two of which are clearly interpreted according to theoretical constructs (TF and EI), and two are mixed and indicate the conceptual similarity of the constructs S and J, N and P ” ^{[ 8]} (a . With a foreign research 1989). If for research problems of a sociological nature, such results are quite satisfactory, then for individual diagnostics it is not, since such “inaccuracies” determine a high probability of error in determining the type of a particular person.

Thus, factor analysis of MBTI revealed 6 clusters instead of the expected 4 (according to the scale-dichotomies) ^[9] . Despite the fact that Jung's dichotomies are independent, in the MBTI test some of them are significantly correlated (JP and SN) ^[10] . Such deficiencies in validity determine a significant probability of error in determining the type of a particular person. Other studies also revealed inconsistencies in MBTI results and theories, which can be attributed to its low validity. The study of the relationship between the types defined by the MBTI and the number of their representatives in different professions did not reveal such pronounced connections (Myers and McCaulley) ^[11] , despite the fact that, based on the theory of types, such a connection must exist. Similarly, the Military Research Institute (Army Research Institute, USA), after conducting MBTI research on behalf of the US Army, concluded that it was unsuitable for vocational guidance ^[12] . Also, a committee specially created by the National Academy of Sciences of the United States summarized the results of 20 studies of the validity of the MBTI test and concluded that its TF and SN scales show low validity, on the basis of which the test was considered unsuitable for vocational guidance ^[13] . A test retest (repeated) test of test results using an MBTI with an interval of 8 weeks shows a fairly high reliability at a level of 0.7–0.8 and higher ^{[14] [15]} .

The typological approach presupposes the presence of bright “types”, that is, a bimodal distribution of answers on a dichotomous scale, while in studies the distribution of responses tends to be normal with the center in balance for all 4 binary signs (thinking-feeling, extraversion-introversion, etc. .) Thus, a large number of people will be classified into substantially different types with a slight difference in the values ​​measured by the test. This situation also increases the likelihood of measurement error ^{[16] [17]} .

It should be noted that there are two approaches to the diagnosis of personality: "factorial" and "typological". Each of them has both its advantages and limitations (for more details on the two approaches, see ^[18] ), and it solves fundamentally different problems. In general, with the typological approach, a natural “coarsening” of the individual psychological characteristics of a particular person occurs.

In a review of the Russian translation of the book by I. Myers-Briggs and P. Myers, “MBTI: Type Definition,” A. G. Shmelev points out that the Myers-Briggs theory of typology contains the following “stretches” that were not later confirmed when typing empirical data ^{[19 ]} :

• The number of psychological types and the factors distinguishing them turns out to be much more than in this scheme. For example, none of the factors of MBTI correlates with the level of a person’s mastering of moral and social regulators of behavior, that is, for example, with such a criterion that is quite important in the selection of personnel as a predisposition to corporate loyalty as opposed to the desire to rob a company.
• People who are described by “pure” MBTI-types are much smaller than “mixed” types. A typical situation is when, for example, according to the answers a person with a probability of 0.6 belongs to one type, 0.5 to another, and 0.4 to a third. Dropping information about the second and third possible type leads to coarsening and loss of accuracy of the predictions of the scheme.
• When answering test questions, people tend to cheat, especially if important things for them, such as entering a university or hiring, depend on it. This reduces the value of MBTI for staff selection.
• Jung's theory, which is the basis of the MBTI, is now considered archaic and pre-experimental, and does not correspond to the set of experimental tests that revealed objective differences in the cognitive styles of different people. Even the differences that, logically, should correlate with the corresponding factors of the MBTI, do not always demonstrate this in the experiment.
• The theory of types denies the superiority of the parametric description over the typological description, which contradicts the data accumulated in psychometry. Simply put, a parametric description is an indication of the measured position of the human psyche in a multidimensional parameter space, and a typological description is only an indication of which of the areas a person finds himself in — according to some signs — that coarsen the diagram.