spectratg
Senior Member
- Location
- Adamstown, MD
I’m new to Senior Forum. Don’t know if this topic has been discussed before or not.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by a mother daughter team during and after World War II. It was further refined to the version used today by 1962. After answering questions, people are placed in one of 16 groups. The results indicate psychological preferences and how people perceive the world and make decisions. MBTI has its detractors, and has been criticized as pseudoscience by some academic researchers. One of my daughters is an HR manager, and she tells me that there are more modern psychological testing in use today by companies.
I would note that MBTI critics may not fully appreciate that it does not represent a binary choice between two selections for a given category, for example extraversion version introversion (E/I). Rather, it is a gradated scale, where people will score somewhere along the line between the two extremes. I would also add that other factors certainly come into play in how our basic MBTI personality types are exercised. Obviously, this includes gender as well as each person’s own unique experiences in life, traumatic or otherwise. My wife passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly, seven years ago. That event had a profound effect on me in one of the category groups, a subject for a future posting.
Here is my experience. In 1985, at age 40, I was appointed to a temporary supervisory position of an organizational unit at a U.S. Navy R&D facility. (The following year, after competition with several other candidates, I did get the job on a permanent basis.) As part of my supervisory qualification process, I was required to take a number of classes including one that used MBTI as part of the team-building process.
When I was provided the results and given the description of my personality type, I was flabbergasted. It was like, “wait this is me exactly, how did I live my whole life without knowing about this?!” I must tell you that it was an epiphany! I still consider that first MBTI test as a major event in my life. I like to think that it improved me as a person, that I was better able to understand the mind set of other people but also helped to give me a lot more perspective about myself and my decision-making process.
An example. In the 1950’s there were a lot of other boys that I played with. Most of them would chat away with abandon at times. By the time I had formulated my thought about something that had been said, they would be on to some other silly topic. You see I am somewhat between a moderate and extreme introvert. These guys were doing their thinking and talking at the same time, which was utterly perplexing to me.
Another example. Around 1990 or so, my wife and I were busily raising our four young daughters. At a school function, we were with two other parents, a man and a woman, both of whom were quite extraverted (talkative). My wife (who was slightly to the extravert side) stood and listened to these two folks gab away. But after a while something interesting happened—one of the people was now doing most of the talking. My wife and I later decided that it was kind of a contest, and that the woman had won—she was the more extreme extravert!
Anyone else interested in continuing with discussion of this topic?
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by a mother daughter team during and after World War II. It was further refined to the version used today by 1962. After answering questions, people are placed in one of 16 groups. The results indicate psychological preferences and how people perceive the world and make decisions. MBTI has its detractors, and has been criticized as pseudoscience by some academic researchers. One of my daughters is an HR manager, and she tells me that there are more modern psychological testing in use today by companies.
I would note that MBTI critics may not fully appreciate that it does not represent a binary choice between two selections for a given category, for example extraversion version introversion (E/I). Rather, it is a gradated scale, where people will score somewhere along the line between the two extremes. I would also add that other factors certainly come into play in how our basic MBTI personality types are exercised. Obviously, this includes gender as well as each person’s own unique experiences in life, traumatic or otherwise. My wife passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly, seven years ago. That event had a profound effect on me in one of the category groups, a subject for a future posting.
Here is my experience. In 1985, at age 40, I was appointed to a temporary supervisory position of an organizational unit at a U.S. Navy R&D facility. (The following year, after competition with several other candidates, I did get the job on a permanent basis.) As part of my supervisory qualification process, I was required to take a number of classes including one that used MBTI as part of the team-building process.
When I was provided the results and given the description of my personality type, I was flabbergasted. It was like, “wait this is me exactly, how did I live my whole life without knowing about this?!” I must tell you that it was an epiphany! I still consider that first MBTI test as a major event in my life. I like to think that it improved me as a person, that I was better able to understand the mind set of other people but also helped to give me a lot more perspective about myself and my decision-making process.
An example. In the 1950’s there were a lot of other boys that I played with. Most of them would chat away with abandon at times. By the time I had formulated my thought about something that had been said, they would be on to some other silly topic. You see I am somewhat between a moderate and extreme introvert. These guys were doing their thinking and talking at the same time, which was utterly perplexing to me.
Another example. Around 1990 or so, my wife and I were busily raising our four young daughters. At a school function, we were with two other parents, a man and a woman, both of whom were quite extraverted (talkative). My wife (who was slightly to the extravert side) stood and listened to these two folks gab away. But after a while something interesting happened—one of the people was now doing most of the talking. My wife and I later decided that it was kind of a contest, and that the woman had won—she was the more extreme extravert!
Anyone else interested in continuing with discussion of this topic?
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