![myers briggs type indicator myers briggs type indicator](https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xJKTyfFfaCQ/Wxo4zVhC3-I/AAAAAAAAhE4/GJ21rfvlc8swd_Iq-tJqJL5VKqqx989mgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/picture-731831.jpg)
It told me I’m an INTJ, which is only one letter off from INFJ. It's about looking for people with similar minds.īefore coming to the INFJ meetup, I took an MBTI test too. Except in this case, it's not about going out with neighbors who also like to play golf or go to the beach. In a sense, they're here for the same reason people go to any meetup: to find people with common interests and attitudes. Instead, they consider philosophy and personal issues. One person speaks at a time, and comfortable silences break up the conversation. The fact that I know this might be coloring my perception, but these traits all seem to come out at the meetup. According to David Keirsey’s Please Understand Me, a book about the Myers-Briggs types, INFJs are quiet, private people who like discussions and care intensely about helping others. The young adults in the shopping mall are all the INFJ type-introverted (I), intuitive (N), feeling (F), and judging (J). Or, as Jerry Seinfeld put it in an episode of Seinfeld, “Now I know what I've been looking for all these years.myself! I've been waiting for me to come along, and now I've swept myself off my feet!” Because the best kinds of friends are the ones who are just like you. Thanks to the popularity of online community-building sites like, MBTI personality groups, such as the one in the shopping mall, have actually materialized, allowing test-takers to meet up with other members of their type.
![myers briggs type indicator myers briggs type indicator](https://i2.wp.com/bexleytorch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Meyers-Briggs-Visual.png)
While there's plenty to criticize about the MBTI, it's easy to imagine that, if you put a group of people with the same personality type in a room together, you'll see a lot of similarities. It's about looking for people with similar minds. It's not about going out with neighbors who also like to play golf or go to the beach. According to CPP, a company that administrates the MBTI, college and universities worldwide use the test, as do 89 of the Fortune 100 companies. There are blogs that sort Disney characters into MBTI types and YouTube sketch videos that compare types. Instead, many people use types as a schema for understanding the world. Given all this controversy, you might think people would treat the test as just a curiosity, or at least take it with a grain of salt. (Some versions of the test do include what percentage you score for each category though.) For instance, no one is completely introverted or completely extroverted. Research shows “that as many as three-quarters of test takers achieve a different personality type when tested again,” Annie Murphy Paul writes in The Cult of Personality Testing.Īdditionally, the test relies on all-or-none categories, even when spectrums might be more accurate. Moreover, people often get different results when they retake it. Grant points out that the test ignores important personality features, such as the ability to stay calm under stress. “For the MBTI, the evidence says not very, no, no, and not really.” “In social science, we use four standards: Are the categories reliable, valid, independent, and comprehensive?” Grant posted on LinkedIn. University of Pennsylvania professor of psychology Adam Grant says it doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny. However, others consider the test to be worthless. Since the ‘70s, researchers have published their findings on MBTI in a peer-reviewed Journal of Psychological Type. Some psychologists and many test-takers believe these types say a lot about how people think and interact. The test uses four dichotomies to divide people:
![myers briggs type indicator myers briggs type indicator](https://i0.wp.com/www.careercontinuum.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/myersbriggs4.jpg)
In an age of “What Disney princess are you?” quizzes, MBTI is a personality test that, while still reductive, actually indicates something about personality. Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers drew from influential psychologist Carl Jung's theories to invent the MBTI personality test in 1942. In this crowd of 20-something New Yorkers, the clubber is, truly, an oddball.
![myers briggs type indicator myers briggs type indicator](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mbtiteambuilding-131105105838-phpapp01/95/slide-41-1024.jpg)
Which explains why they’re meeting in an empty food court: It’s perfect for a group of people who like quietude. They all tested as the same type (one that tends to be introverted), joined an online group for others who got the same result, and decided to meet up. “Get out of the circle,” a woman whispers.Įveryone in this group took the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a personality test. “I actually really like clubbing,” shares one guy. The stores are all closed for the weekend, and other than a man stopping in the lobby to read his phone, this group is the only sign of activity. A group of young adults shyly meet for the first time on the second floor of an empty Manhattan shopping mall.