A lot of businesses ask their employees to take Clifton Strength-Finder tests or Myers-Briggs Personality-Type tests. My husband was required to take one when he was an engineer. My son also took one while he was in college.
Strength-finding and personality-typing are tools that help in the areas of growth and self-development. By learning strengths and personality types, you can discover more about yourself and others. Employers and supervisors can better understand how to utilize their employees, too. Even writers can benefit, because they can learn how to create well-rounded and life-like characters. The philosophy sounded good, but I still was unsure. I thought of it in some ways like Astrology.
From Wikipedia, here is a definition of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Concept:
As the MBTI Manual states, the indicator “is designed to implement a theory; therefore the theory must be understood to understand the MBTI”.[7]:1
Fundamental to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the theory of psychological type as originally developed by Carl Jung.[1]:xiii Jung proposed the existence of two dichotomous pairs of cognitive functions:
The “rational” (judging) functions: thinking and feeling
The “irrational” (perceiving) functions: sensing and intuition
Jung believed that for every person each of the functions are expressed primarily in either an introverted or extraverted form.[1]:17 From Jung’s original concepts, Briggs and Myers developed their own theory of psychological type, described below, on which the MBTI is based.
My daughter Samantha, who is studying to become a clinical psychologist, is very knowledgeable about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Today, at brunch we had a fascinating discussion about personality types. Later in the day she told me what my four letter type was (based on what she knows about me), and sent me a link to an online description of that type: .
After reading it, I went to her room and smiled. I told her that now, when people ask me about myself, I can read to them the description. It was that accurate. We talked about my mother who passed away three years before my daughter was born. Samantha asked me some questions about her, and then said she thought she knew what her personality-type was. We went to the computer and looked up the description. She nailed it again.
I’m now thinking there is something to these tools, and I will continue exploring them. Samantha told me about another personality indicator that she studies. It’s called Enneagram. Here’s a link in case anyone is interested in learning more: 