What is the Myers Briggs personality test?

History

It can be extraordinarily difficult to “find yourself” in our hypermodern 21st century world, which is why there has been a huge increase in things like personality quizzes such as the Myers Briggs personality test. The Myers Briggs indicator test is meant to be one of the most legitimate ways to track your own personality, a bit like a more serious version of the Harry Potter Houses quiz.

We know our personality at Winzum: fun, cheerful, loyal and interesting… But what about yours? We explored the world of personality quizzes a little in this article here [Personality quizzes: Do they work?], however we thought it was about time for a deeper look into the most famous example of a personality quiz – the Myers Briggs personality test.

An overview of the Myers Briggs personality test

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (or MBTI for short) is the official name of the Myers Brigg personality test, a questionnaire devised by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers in the early 20th century. It took elements from the famous psychologist Carl Jung, and sought to help people find out who they were and also what they enjoyed.

There are 16 main personalities that make up the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, making this one of the most broad personality quizzes out there. Here are the 16:

  1. The Healer
  2. The Mastermind
  3. The Counsellor
  4. The Architect
  5. The Champion
  6. The Commander
  7. The Visionary
  8. The Teacher
  9. The Protector
  10. The Composer
  11. The Inspector
  12. The Craftsperson
  13. The Provider
  14. The Performer
  15. The Supervisor
  16. The Dynamo

The history of the Myers Briggs personality test

As we mentioned before, the Myers Briggs personality test was created in the early 20th century by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, with the initial idea that it would help women entering the workplace during the WWII period. The personality quiz was published for the first time in 1944, attracting a fair amount of academic attention in the years that followed.

With the arrival of the Internet in the 20th century the Myers Briggs personality indicator became a lot more accessible to the wider public, and its popularity therefore skyrocketed.

What is the Myers Briggs personality test used for?

The Myers Briggs personality test was initially created in the hope that it would help women find a wartime job that would suit their overall personality, and it is still often used today for job seekers trying to find out exactly what they would be good at and enjoy.

Aside from this the Myers Briggs personality test is also a great example of a quiz for friends, as it can be funny to compare your results with your mates, especially if they happen to be bang on!

How accurate is the Myers Briggs personality test?

The concept of personality is ultimately a tricky one, especially if you are trying to pin someone down as just one personality. Most people have various different personalities depending on their moods, something that can easily distort the results of the Myers Briggs personality test.

At the end of the day you can never truly tell exactly how accurate the Myers Briggs personality test is, it will be different for each person.

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