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Effectiveness of Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment Questioned

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most popular psychological personality assessment tools in existence today.

The basis of the test includes four main sets of attributes: Extraversion-Introversion; Sensing-Intuition; Thinking-Feeling; and Judgment-Perception. The theory is that you predominantly are or do one or the other: extraverted or introverted; sense or intuit; think or feel; and judge or perceive.

While I believe there may be some value in this sort of evaluation, particularly in helping to determine social inclination, for example, two things must be kept in mind:

  1. This is a self-assessment test, which means that it may not accurately reflect the true personality of the subject—especially when they are under pressure to match a desirable set of personality traits, as in a job interview, and they figure out the intent of the questions while taking the test.
  2. Many people aren’t on either extreme of the four personality areas outlined above, so the test may erroneously reflect their true personality even if they fill it out objectively—and they may get totally different results each time they take it since the test labels you as either-or and nothing in-between.

Interesting related article: http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=989078

In order to get an accurate read on personality, I strongly suggest that you apply a wide range of evaluations, including some or all of the following: various psychological testing methods; feedback from multiple objective sources; and my favorite, because it’s impossible to fake the test results, handwriting analysis along with comprehensive astrology and numerology.

Copyright © 2010 Scott Petullo

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