Myers Briggs Personality Types, Your Best Fit Type, and an introduction
to the 16 Personality Types - Part 1
Understanding your Personality Type & the MBTI
Characteristics & Profiles of the 16 Personality Types
By Ross Reinhold, with Danielle Poirier
Sometimes a person who has been introduced to Myers-Briggs MBTI ® Personality Type may feel drawn to several as potential "best fit."
There are many ways to explore solving this dilemma. One is to look at which of the four preference options you think or feel is borderline. (For example, you may be uncertain if you prefer "Thinking" or "Feeling.") Looking at one borderline preference produces 2 different type possibilities (example: INTP vs INFP).
The prescription for this method is: review descriptions of these two alternative types (example: comparing INTP vs INFP type descriptions) to see which seems a more comfortable home. Taking this even further would be to talk to folks from those two groups, to see if either camp seems to be a better fit.
Charles Martin (at www.capt.org) author of The Sixteen Types at a Glance offers thumbnail MBTI type descriptions. Click here to bring them up in a separate window to review. |
Another method of verifying your BEST FIT MYERS BRIGGS TYPE is to look at temperament descriptions. Sometimes the two type alternatives are drawn from 2 different temperaments and thus comparing temperament differences is instructive. Handbooks by authors Berens and Nardi can be helpful. [ . . . One word of caution. The four basic Kiersey Temperament categories are the most helpful. The Kiersey descriptions of 16 types (using the MBTI type code designations) - as found in the book "Please Understand Me" - are not recommended. They do not necessarily follow the accepted type model . . . nor are they as well researched . . . so they are as likely to muddy the water for you as help.]
A third method, and one I've found most helpful, of narrowing the search for BEST FIT MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE is advocated by consultant Danielle Poirier. This involves first noting the dominant function of the alternative types you are considering. If they are different form one another, the dominant type descriptions by Poirier offered below may help you decide among them.
Personality and type can involve complex constellations of characteristics that overlay and hide one's core makeup. The classic Jungian type model places the dominant function closer to this core of being. Thus descriptions of type characteristics that emphasize the role of the dominant function can produce more clear cut distinctions between alternatives (the one exception being if you happen to be "on the fence" between the two types that share a common dominant function in its attitude. For example: INTJ vs INFJ).
Here's how Poirier clusters and describes the 16 Personality Types:
 The Four Introverted Personality Types
 The Four Extraverted Personality Types
© Danielle Poirier, Rebel Eagle Productions  www.RebelEagle.com
® MBTI, Myers-Briggs, Meyers Briggs, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust in the United States and other countries (aka meyer briggs or myers briggs). |
Dominant Introverted Intuition
Dominant Introverted Sensing
Dominant Introverted Thinking
Dominant Introverted Feeling
