16 Types
In previous entries of this series we discussed Extroversion and Introversion, Sensing and Intuition, Thinking and Feeling, and finally Judging and Perceiving. In this post, we bring those for preferences together to find your type.
Those four preferences are all you need to decide your Myers-Briggs type. If you are more introverted pick ‘I’. If you prefer Sensing pick ‘S’. If you feel (ahem) you are a Thinker pick ‘T’. If you decide you are a Judger pick ‘J’, if uncertain pick ‘P’ (ha ha!). Add it all together and you would be (in this case) an ISTJ or ISTP. That is the simply and quick way to type yourself (or somebody else).
You can try a more involved test online. The test asks 72 questions and will return your type.[1]
It is important to note some things:
- Type may point to the reasons for communication difficulties or other misunderstandings.
- The map is not the territory. Knowing a person’s type only gives indications as to how they might be. Most people do not perfectly match type descriptions
- The various preferences (E versus I, S versus N, etc.) do not simply add together. They interact with each other to create the whole type.
- Type is not a prison. Phrases like “you can’t expect an XXXX to do that” are just excuses. Type points to preferences and motivations, it does not prevent you living a full and useful life. It does not mean you can never be polite, disciplined, creative, etc.
- It would be very rash to make decisions regarding employment (to offer or take), romance, education, etc. based solely on type.
- Without changing basic preferences, people adapt to different situations: individuals may present as a different type as they adopt to current need (e.g., a Feeling, Perceiving manager may present a Thinking, Judging face as required by his current role).
- Under pressure, such as stress or tiredness, people may even appear as an opposite type (the “evil twin” effect).
The simplest way to find out about a particular type is to perform a search using the four-letter code. Such a search will return many entries. However, because I am such a nice guy, I provide links to the Typelogic entry for each of the 16 types.
| Sensors | iNtuitives | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extroverts | ESTJ | ESFJ | ENTJ | ENFJ |
| ESTP | ESFP | ENTP | ENFP | |
| Introverts | ISTJ | ISFJ | INTJ | INFJ |
| ISTP | ISFP | INTP | INFP |
Notes:
As of the posting date, Typealyzer has my blogging style as INTJ (The Scientists). Typealyzer is wrong.
However, on various Internet discussion boards, INTJ predominates. While INTJs represent a small portion of the general population (perhaps two percent) they can make up the majority of posters at such sites (by simple poll). Indeed all intuitive types feature in far greater numbers than they do in the general population.
[1] This test and others like it are not strictly a Myers-Briggs test. The proper name for that test is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. CPP Inc. holds copyright of the test. No version of that test is available online. This test, and others, like it may use terms like Jungian assessment. While their results should be similar to a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment, they are not the same thing. For convenience I, like many others, use the term Myers-Briggs to include all similar assessments. Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers based their theories on C. G. Jung’s Psychological Types, which is why derivative tests use the description Jungian. However, the theories of Briggs and Myers differ from Jung’s original ideas.
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