Understand your natural preferences, motivations and areas of potential growth. Use the tests results to plan your career growth.
Find out your MBTI personality type!
Ransdell Associates offers eight variations of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from the basic MBTI Profile Form-M, which makes a good starting point for learning about your personality type, to the MBTI Step II Administration, which explores the next level of type by identifying and investigating 20 additional facets in the 4 dichotomies. There are literally a million combinations with the MBTI Type II Indicator!
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- Begin the adventure! “Personality Tests” Check out all the variations of the MBTI.
What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?
The MBTI is a self-reporting personality inventory, designed to help individuals understand themselves. It helps people understand their natural preferences, motivations, and potential areas for growth. It aids in understanding others, particularly those with different types.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is instrument is the most widely used personality inventory in the world. Isabel Myers’ unique application of Carl Jung’s theory of psychological type has stood the test of time for over 50 years. Over two million people take the test each year and gain valuable insight about themselves and the people they interact with.
The MBTI instrument determines preferences on four scales: Extroversion-Introversion (EI), Sensing-Intuition (SN), Thinking-Feeling (TF), and Judging-Perceiving JP). The various combinations of these preferences result in 16 personality types. If you are at least 14 years old you can take the test.
The MBTI instrument has always reflected the latest developments in type theory, and research from more than 4,000 studies shows that the test has broad useful application in the general population. Psychologist Carl Jung developed the theory behind Psychological Type. The four dimensions of personality type (EI, SN, TF, and JP) and the research supporting the measurement of the sixteen types are the lifework of Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs.
The MBTI was developed specifically to advance Carl Jung’s theory of type into applications that the general population could practically use. Carl Jung the great Swiss psychologist, developed one of the most comprehensive theories to explain human personality. The common belief during the early to middle 20th century regarding people’s behavior was that it was random.
Jung, however saw patterns of behavior. What he called “psychological types” are patterns in the way people prefer to perceive and make judgments. In Jung’s theory, all conscious mental activity can be classified into four mental processes or functions which are two perception processes (sensing and intuition) and two judgment processes (thinking and feeling). What is part of our moment to moment consciousness comes either through the senses or through intuition. To remain in consciousness, perceptions must be used. They are used in the manner of sorting, weighing, analyzing, and evaluating, by the judgment processes thinking and feeling.
The Four Personality Traits or Dichotomies
The instrument itself addresses an individual’s preference for four personality traits. The first acknowledges the individual’s preference for extroversion or introversion. This dichotomy indicates how we view the world and whether we are energized by others and their surroundings or prefer to address the inner world of ideas and concepts.
The second dichotomy considers how we take in data or information. This can be either through the concrete method of sensing or the more abstract method of intuition. Differences between individuals in this area can create significant problems regarding how reality is viewed and consequently how individuals view each other.
The third dichotomy is the only one that is affected by our gender. It indicates how information is used in making decisions. The more logical and objective method is referred to as the thinking function and is preferred by 60% of males. The more value related and subjective method is referred to as feeling and is preferred by 60% of women. These differences can create significant communication difficulties at home and at work and understanding this function can greatly enhance the functioning of an organization or family unit.
Finally, the judging/perceiving attitudes indicate how we organize and operate in the outside world. This dichotomy is usually the easiest one to spot if you are type watching. The judging type will be systematic and decisive, while the perceiving type will be random and open-ended. Differences in the way we conduct our outer lives can be quite perplexing to those of the opposite attitude and need to be understood.
