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By Melody Hufman Ph.D.

I believe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most powerful assessments that you could ever study to understand human behavior. I find the concepts of the MBTI to be vital in understanding yourself and your interpersonal relationships. I have never seen a scientific theory that I believe is more effective in changing your perception and understanding of other people. This psychological test can help you build relationships with others.

This theory is based on the fact that all personalities can be described in terms of four dimensions: Introversion/extroversion, intuition/sensing, feeling/thinking, and judging/perceiving. Don’t let those terms fool you; they are not defined the way you would first assume them to be.

To decide if you are an introvert or an extrovert, you need to determine where you receive your energy. Are you more energized by internal or external sources? An extrovert goes to a party and at 2 am wants to go out to breakfast with his friends. An introvert goes to the same party and wants to go home after 15 minutes because he is tired. The introvert likes people, but just needs time to recuperate from being with them. He needs time to be alone to rejuvenate his energy. An extrovert is drained when he does not have others to energize him.

Seventy-five percent of all people are sensors – that means that they receive information about their world through their five senses: hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. Sensors are practical and realistic. Twenty-five percent of the population are intuitives. Intuitives simply do not see the world the same. They do not rely on their senses to get information about the world. Concepts come to them as a whole and not one at a time. The strange thing about intuitives is that although they cannot tell you how they got their information, they are usually right. Granted sometimes they are totally wrong, but most of the time they are absolutely right.

We all can think objectively and feel emotions. But according to the MBTI, some of us prefer to evaluate information objectively and others of us prefer to analyze it with our emotions. The unfortunate part about this phenomenon is often Thinkers believe Feelers are fuzzy thinkers and Feelers believe Thinkers are cold hearted. Both of these interpretations are false. Thinkers look only at the objective data to make their decisions and Feelers consider their feelings as well as the feelings of others when making decisions. That does not mean that Thinkers do not have emotions. As a matter of fact, I believe Thinkers often have very deep emotions. They just do not make decisions based on them. Feelers are also capable of making a logical decision. But they believe it is critical to consider more than the facts. They believe you must consider how your decision will affect the feelings of others. To them, considering emotions makes a better decision. These two styles evaluate information differently.

The last dimension of this theory addresses judgers and perceivers. Now these two words can be greatly misunderstood. A judger is not one who judges, but rather one who is comfortable when the decision is made. Judgers prefer to live organized lives in which all the decisions are made quickly. Perceivers on the other hand are not more perceptive, but they do like to live life spontaneously. They require a lot of data to make their decisions. They rely on their ability to adapt to any situation. They are a little uncomfortable when the decision is made because it limits their options.

All of our personalities are based on these four dimensions: introversion/extroversion, intuitive/sensing, feeling/thinking, and judging/perceiving. With those thoughts in mind, read the text. Spend some time thinking about your type and how that impacts your relationships with other people.

Some of you are saying that you use different dimensions of type at different times. That is probably true. However, you have a preference for one specific style. If you are responding from the framework of a different style, you probably do not make decisions as well as you do within your own style. In other words, an ISTJ can act as an ENFP, but he probably won’t do it as well. The theory is not limiting, but rather liberating. It helps you gain important insights into yourself and others so that you can build relationships.

Melody Hufman Ph.D.

Which animal are you?

Do you think your personality is well described by this animal?

Can you identify this personality Style?

ISFJ