Just Your Type using Myers-Briggs

Daily Tips from The Marriage Library

Valuable Information:

Just Your Type, Part 1,
using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Report by Jim Stephens

Just Your Type using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Part 1

I have found that there are many thoroughly researched personality profiles available and these can be used as valuable tools to help couples. The most significant value that I see is that they can help a person get beyond thinking that there is something WRONG with another person and that they need FIXING or they need to CHANGE.

People are extremely different. By accepting and appreciating our differences and valuing them, we can become much happier in all of our relationships, especially with those closest to us.

Today is Email Tip # 1 of 2 Emails which will give an overview of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It is

based on the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and Americans Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers.

It is the most popular and widely respected personality assessment instrument in the world, translated into many languages. Many high schools in America are using it.

Here are the four General Principles:

1. Each person is born with one true type. Everyone changes greatly as he/she grows and matures, however the "Type" usually remains fairly consistent.

2. All types are equally valuable. None is better or worse, healthy or sick, intelligent or unintelligent. All have strengths and weaknesses.

3. Every individual is unique. The MB "Type" gives only insights.

4. The MB "Type" is a great tool to better understanding and appreciation of others who may be very different in small or great ways.

The MBTI assesses FOUR DIMENSIONS of Personality Type which are the important aspects of personality. The dimensions represent four scales or continuums, with two ends and a midpoint. Each person has an inborn preference for one side or the other of each of the continuums.

Today I will discuss the first of the four dimensions. Tomorrow I will explain the other three. If you would like to find out more immediately, I have prepared the quiz to find out your type and several additional pages of explanation in a PDF file. Click here.

The book mentioned on the right, Just Your Type, explains each of the 16 Myers-Briggs Types and also goes into great detail about their compatibilty with each other. Each combination has sections for "The Joys" and "The Frustrations".

Here is the first dimension, known as the Extraversion-Introversion scale. This concept is probably familiar to you. This dimension answers the question, "Where do you get your energy?"

Extraverts:

* Prefer being around people.
* Are interested in many things.
* Have lots of friends, associates.
* Jump into things pretty quickly.
* Are usually pretty talkative.
* Are more public and easier to get to know.
* Are enthusiastic and outgoing.
* Represent about 55% of US pop.

Introverts:

* Are comfortable spending time alone.
* Are selective and like to focus on one or a few things.
* Have a few very close friends.
* Think about things before they act.
* Are usually fairly reserved.
* Are more private and harder to read.
* Appear calm and self-contained.
* Represent about 45% of US pop.

You could probably put yourself somewhere along a continuum using these two descriptions or using the Quiz I prepared.

One final reminder, let me repeat point 2 from above: All types are equally valuable. None is better or worse, healthy or sick, intelligent or unintelligent. All have strengths and weaknesses.

See you tomorrow for descriptions of the final 3 dimensions.

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God bless your marriage and family.

Jim Stephens