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What's the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®? Will the MBTI® reveal my deep, dark, personal secrets? Why is it so important that it's a self-reporting instrument? Can I lie and cheat on my answers? Does the MBTI measure skills and abilities? Are some types better than others? Can knowing about type lead to prejudice? Will knowing about psychological type help me at work? My boss wants me to take the MBTI, but I don't want to. What should I do? What's the difference between the MBTI and all the other personality "tests" out there? Why do the questionnaires cost so much? There are lots of free ones! What's the Strong Interest Inventory®? How is the Strong different from the Myers-Briggs®? Which Strong is the best? There are so many versions. What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator? The MBTI is a self-reporting personality inventory, designed to help individuals understand themselves. It helps people comprehend their natural preferences, motivations, and potential areas for growth. It aids in understanding others, particularly those with different types. Top The MBTI was developed by the mother/daughter team of Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers over many years, starting in the 1940s. The theory is based on the work of Carl Jung, who wrote a book called "Psychological Types" in 1923. Top Nothing. It's a sorter, and sorts people into 16 types based on how they fall on four scales. Top Will the MBTI reveal my deep, dark, personal secrets? No, nothing of the sort. The MBTI asks you how you act in everyday situations. It's a sorter, not a psychological test aimed at revealing your innermost thoughts. Basically, it shows how you take in information and make decisions. Top Why is it so important that it's a self-reporting instrument? Because you decide if the results fit you. No one knows you better. If you disagree with your results, you are correct and the sorter is wrong. That's not what happens on an IQ test, for example. There's one correct answer. On this sorter, all answers are correct. Top Can I lie and cheat on my answers? Well, you can certainly lie, but there's no way to cheat, because there's no score to reach. The only thing you'd accomplish is to get invalid results for yourself. There is the risk that people will answer the questions the way they WANT to be or think they SHOULD be, versus how they really are. Again, that will only make your results sound like someone other than you. Top The four scales are Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. The sorter indicates which end of the four scales you prefer, leading to your four letter type. Top The Extraversion/Introversion scale describes how people get their energy, the Sensing/Intuition scale shows how people take in information about the world around them, the Thinking/Feeling scale indicates how people make decisions, and the Judging/Perceiving scale describes the lifestyle preferences people have. Top Does the MBTI measure skills and abilities? No. It indicates preferences and reveals nothing about skills or abilities. The classic example is signing your name. Each of us has a preferred hand for writing. We can use the other hand, but it feels odd, awkward, and uncomfortable. The same is true on the four scales. We prefer one end of each scale over the other. Like our hands, we use both sides every day. Yet one hand is our dominant hand. The MBTI helps us discover more about our dominant preferences. Top In the basic form, there are 16 types. However, each of the four scales has five subscales, resulting in over a million possible combinations. You need to take the MBTI Step II to see your subscale results. Top Are some types better than others? Absolutely not. There are no good or bad types. Each has its strengths and potential weaknesses. Each type will react differently to stress, work, love, and life in general. In some situations, certain types will have an advantage. In others situations, those same types could be a liability. Put another way, almost any strength taken too far can become a weakness. For example, the ability to concentrate can be quite useful. However, if you can concentrate too well, you might end up ignoring important people or information in your environment. Top Can knowing about type lead to prejudice? Yes, it's a real danger. As people learn more about type, the risk increases that they will pigeonhole people into boxes. People are complex. Type is a good starting point for learning about folks who are different from you. After a while, one could start to believe those with different types are incapable of acting differently. Type is not a law. People have free will and can choose to act differently at any time. Some people fall into the trap of believing their type is the best, and that other types are inferior. If a person were to believe this, he or she could treat others in a prejudicial manner. Top Will knowing about psychological type help me at work? Absolutely, especially if you use it to understand those people most different from yourself. It can make teamwork and conflict avoidance much easier. Again, I will warn you about stereotyping people on the basis of their results. If used to improve understanding, personality type can be a real shortcut. Top My boss wants me to take the MBTI, but I don't want to. What should I do? This is an unethical use of the MBTI. One of the basic tenets is that anyone taking the sorter must do so voluntarily, without coercion. You also have the right to see your results. I'd refuse to take it in your position. Check with your Human Resources person, if you have one. If not, see a labor lawyer. Top I know my personality type. Now I want to know my spouse's, but he or she refuses to take the MBTI. What can I do? Get over it. No one should be forced into taking the instrument. It's unethical to coerce someone into taking the MBTI. If you really learn a lot about psychological type, you can likely figure out your spouse without forcing him or her to take the questionnaire. Top What's the difference between the MBTI and all the other personality "tests" out there? The biggest difference is the amount of research that has gone into the questions and scoring the results. That gives the MBTI great reliability and scientific validity. Others have created instruments that are supposed to reveal the same information. Yet serious researchers will use either the MBTI or the NEO-PI. Anyone can use the same four letter type categories. The MBTI has been researched and refined for almost 60 years, in thousands of studies. You can get useful results from other instruments. For those who are not sure about where they fall on a scale, the MBTI Step II gives the clearest indication of your preferences. Top Why do the questionnaires cost so much? There are lots of free ones! That's true, there are free personality "tests." The MBTI is a licensed product you must buy from the publisher. Despite what you might read on the Internet, there are no free Myers-Briggs tests anywhere. So if you see "free Myers-Briggs," it's an imitation someone created, and possibly a copyright infringement. The second factor is the phone consultation you'll receive. If you believe you have enough information to help yourself, then take the free ones. I've tried many of them myself. I've yet to see one that gives the in-depth and accurate information that the Step II provides. You also get what you pay for. This site is for those who want to be able to ask questions and get advice about their results, rather than merely getting a printout of some fun stuff. Top The title stands for Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation--Behavior. That's quite a mouthful, so the acronym makes more sense. The FIRO-B is used to uncover the ways you behave towards others & how you want them to behave towards you. There are three scales: Inclusion, or how much contact you like and want from others, Control, which is how much power or dominance you want and expect, and Affection, which is the amount of closeness, warmth and sensitivity you want and prefer. Each of the three scales has two parts: the expressed behavior, which is what you do, and the wanted behavior, which is what you want others to do. The FIRO-B is frequently used for team building, management development, and couples counseling. The questionnaire has 54 items and takes about 15 minutes to complete. It's particularly effective for leadership development in combination with the MBTI. Top What's the Strong Interest Inventory? The Strong is an interest inventory that compares your likes and dislikes with people who are working in various professions. The Strong began in the 1920s as an attempt to match military recruits with jobs that fit their interests. The idea was, you're likely to be a better cook if you like cooking. Rather than interviewing everyone, people could take the test and make the process much faster and more efficient. The same method is used today - matching people and jobs. The idea is you will likely enjoy work where your interests are similar to people already working in various fields. The people who were surveyed to create the Strong have been working in their careers at least 3 years, are satisfied with their work, and do work that is typical of that profession. Top How is the Strong different from the Myers-Briggs?
The Strong compares your interests to people who are working in various professions. The Myers-Briggs sorts your preferences for decision making, taking in energy, gathering information, and lifestyle to show how you prefer to live your life. While they are based on different theories, there is some correlation between the two sorters. For example, many people who prefer Judging also score high on Conventional on the Strong, while Intuitives tend to prefer Artistic pursuits. Be sure to read sample reports of both types to see the differences more clearly. Top I took the Strong in high school or college. Should I take it again? Absolutely. Your interests are likely to continue changing throughout your lifetime. Even people who are approaching retirement can benefit from uncovering interests they can use in their next life phase. Your interests could be quite different at 40 than at 20. The Strong can often verify what you suspected all along - that there are things you're interested in professionally that you hadn't considered in previous years. You can take the Strong any time you've made a major change in your life, such as marriage, divorce, new family members, job loss, midlife "transition," retirement, etc. The insights you gain can make your changes much easier to understand and even to enjoy them. Top Which Strong is the best? There are so many versions. My favorite is the combined Strong/MBTI Career Report. Basically, you take the Strong Interest Inventory, then your results are adjusted for your Myers-Briggs type. In my view, it combines the best of both tests to give you a more accurate, personal picture of where your career interests lie. The Strong Professional is good for people who are only interested in careers that require a college degree or higher. The Entrepreneur report is a must for anyone who is considering starting his or her own business. You could save yourself a lot of aggravation, time, energy, and money if you were to discover it's really not for you before you start. Likewise, you might uncover areas of self-employment that don't interest you. In such cases, you could find a partner to fill in those areas where you are weakest. Knowing all this before you get started will surely make the job easier. Top The Strong doesn't list the job I'm interested in. Why are there so few professions listed on the report? That's correct, the number of professions is limited. Obviously, a report could include hundreds of jobs. There are a few challenges with that approach. First, some jobs are rather infrequent. Second, as the number of listings increases, the amount of confusion generated grows along with it. Third, the Strong shows you patterns of interests according to Holland's theory of occupational codes. Using that information, you could look up additional jobs that match your two or three letter code. In short, you'll have many possible job paths to select from, using the information from your Strong. You'll notice each Strong report concludes with a listing of books for more information. You can read up and get a great deal more information about your career options. Top |