Personality Tests: Tools in Psychology
LeighAnn Hancock
Kaplan University
PS330: Personality Development
Professor Stephen Huber
December 5, 2012

Personality Tests: Tools in Psychology
Personality Tests: Tools in Psychology

I. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, developed to make C.G. Jung’s personality type theory understandable and applicable to person’s everyday life. The MBTI is a psychometric instrument designed to sort people into groups of personality types. Jungian theory posits that there are different functions and attitudes of consciousness. Perception is the means by which one becomes aware of people, things, events, and concepts; judgment is the means of coming to conclusions about how to handle the information thus gathered (C.J. Jung’s Theory of Types, 2012). Applications have been made across a broad spectrum of human experience, including in areas such as counseling and psychotherapy; education, learning styles, and cognitive styles; career counseling; management and leadership in business organizations and the military services; and health-related issues. A. The MBTI has a unique and interesting history. Unlike most personality inventories, it was initially designed to facilitate research interests, and only later adapted for general use.
1. “The MBTI is a self-report questionnaire that assesses type preferences on Extraversion-Introversion (E-I), Sensation-Intuition (S-N), Thinking-Feeling (T-F), and also on Judgment-Perception (J-P)” (C.J. Jung’s Theory of Types, 2012). 2. “MBTI types are described using four letters indicating preferences on each scale. This results in sixteen types” (C.J. Jung’s Theory of Types, 2012).
B. With administration to more than two million people annually in the United States alone, the MBTI has become the most widely used and reliable personality assessment in the