How accurate is MBTI? (5 reasons)
This blog post aims to answer the question, “How accurate is MBTI?” and explore what MBTI is and its uses and applications in order to help understand the answer.
How accurate is MBTI?
The MBTI is one of the most accurate personality assessments available. The MBTI has a 90 per cent accuracy rating and a 90 per cent average test-retest correlation, according to the Myers-Briggs Company’s website.
The MBTI can be said to be considerably accurate because of the following 5 reasons –
- The MBTI helps individuals understand personality differences.
- The MBTI helps individuals understand themselves and their strengths and weaknesses.
- The MBTI helps categorise people for ease of classification.
- The MBTI is used in hiring and training.
- The MBTI helps improve relationships.
These 5 reasons why the MBTI can be said to be considerably accurate will be discussed in further detail below after understanding the MBTI and its features in-depth.
What is MBTI?
The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) is a self-assessment tool that helps people figure out their personality type, strengths, and preferences. Isabel Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs created the test based on their research into Carl Jung’s personality types hypothesis.
The MBTI personality test is now one of the most extensively utilised psychological tests in the world.
Both Myers and Briggs were attracted by Jung’s notion of psychological types and saw how it might be used in the actual world. They began investigating and constructing an indicator to aid in the understanding of individual characteristics during World War II.
Myers and Briggs felt that by helping individuals understand themselves, they might help them choose vocations that were best suited to their personality types and live healthier, happier lives.
During the 1940s, Myers devised the initial pen-and-pencil version of the inventory, and the two ladies began testing it on friends and family. Over the following two decades, they worked on perfecting the instrument.
People are classified into one of 16 personality types based on their responses to the inventory’s questions. The MBTI’s purpose is to help people better understand and explore their own personalities, including their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, potential job choices, and compatibility with others.
There is no such thing as a “best” or “better” personality type. It’s not a technique for detecting malfunction or abnormalities. Its sole purpose is to assist you in learning more about yourself. There are four separate scales in the questionnaire.
Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I)
The extraversion-introversion dichotomy was initially explored by Jung as a means to describe how people respond to and interact with the world around them in his theory of personality types. While most people are familiar with these phrases, the way they are used in the MBTI differs from how they are commonly used.
Extraverts (also known as extroverts) are “outward-turning” persons who are more action-oriented, prefer regular social engagement, and feel rejuvenated after spending time with others. Introverts are “inward-turning,” meaning they are focused on their thoughts, like deep and meaningful social relationships, and feel rejuvenated after spending time alone.
To some degree, we all display extraversion and introversion, but most of us have a strong preference for one or the other.
Sensing (S) – Intuition (N)
This scale considers how people receive information from their surroundings. Everyone, much like extraverts and introverts, spends time detecting and intuiting depending on the scenario.
People tend to be dominant in one area or the other, according to the MBTI. People who enjoy sensation are more likely to pay attention to reality, especially what they may learn through their own senses.
They appreciate acquiring hands-on experience and prefer to focus on facts and details. Patterns and sensations are more important to those who value intuition. They like pondering possibilities, picturing the future, and debating complex concepts.
Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)
This scale examines how people make judgments based on data obtained through their sensing or intuition processes. Facts and objective data are more important to those who prefer to think.
When making a choice, they are usually consistent, rational, and impersonal. Those who want to feel are more inclined to think about people and emotions when making decisions.
Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)
The last scale takes into account how people cope with the outside environment. Structure and strong conclusions are preferred by those who incline toward judgement.
Perceiving people are more open, flexible, and adaptive than perceiving people. The other scales interact with these two inclinations. Remember that everyone spends some time on extraverted activities.
When you’re taking in new information (sensing and intuiting) or making judgments, the judging-perceiving scale might help you figure out if you’re an extravert (thinking and feeling).
The four-letter code for each category is then listed as follows –
- ISTJ – The Inspector
- ISTP – The Crafter
- ISFJ – The Protector
- ISFP – The Artist
- INFJ – The Advocate
- INFP – The Mediator
- INTJ – The Architect
- INTP – The Thinker
- ESTP – The Persuader
- ESTJ – The Director
- ESFP – The Performer
- ESFJ – The Caregiver
- ENFP – The Champion
- ENFJ – The Giver
- ENTP – The Debater
- ENTJ – The Commander
Taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator may provide you a lot of information about your personality, which is perhaps why it’s grown so popular. Even if you don’t complete the official questionnaire, you’re likely to identify some of these traits in yourself.
It’s crucial to remember, according to the Myers & Briggs Foundation, that all types are equal and that each one has worth.
What are these 5 reasons for MBTI’s considerable accuracy?
The MBTI helps individuals understand personality differences.
The MBTI personality test was created to help individuals understand personality differences in general.
According to Michael Ashton, a psychology professor at Brock University in Ontario, many personality psychologists see the MBTI as a relatively accurate measure of several essential personality characteristics, but it has some significant drawbacks.
The MBTI helps individuals understand themselves and their strengths and weaknesses.
While there are no “better” or “worse” personality types, the MBTI test may help people understand their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they differ from others.
People are drawn to MBTI assessments because they want to learn more about themselves and others. The four qualities that the MBTI types are formed from are all valuable for defining people’s personalities.
Even if the MBTI findings don’t fully match your intuition about yourself or are simply incorrect, they might nevertheless give useful information. This is something that many people who have taken the MBTI have noticed.
The MBTI personality types never appeared to completely define a person. Instead, the test’s genuine worth appeared to be in the effort to “bridge the gap between what the test results tell us and what we know to be true about ourselves.”
In this way, the MBTI may serve as a springboard for self-discovery by providing people with a tool and a vocabulary with which to reflect on themselves and others.
The MBTI helps categorise people for ease of classification.
Many personality tests seek to categorise people into two, three, or 16 groups, but this has never worked out.
Even in the instance of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which is both the most popular and the most frequently refuted personality test in the world, non-experts and psychologists have opposing views on the tool’s use.
The MBTI is used in hiring and training.
According to The Myers Briggs Company, a California-based organisation that administers the MBTI, some 1.5 million individuals take the exam online each year, and more than 88 per cent of Fortune 500 firms, as well as hundreds of institutions, utilise it in hiring and training.
In the workplace and in organisational settings, MBTI is frequently employed. Different personalities are drawn to various professions.
However, there are many distinct varieties present in each given employment or workplace. Although this variety of personalities is positive and interesting, it may also cause misunderstandings and conflicts at work.
Having a better understanding of the type and using it in the workplace may lead to better teams, more effective communication, and happier staff members and clients.
The MBTI helps improve relationships.
Relationship type disparities can lead to development or conflict. There aren’t any better or more fruitful combinations of kinds in partnerships, though.
As likely to get along well as a pair that only has one or two preferences is two people who share all four preferences.
Knowledge of type theory and using it in relationships may improve communication, provide individuals a better understanding of how they handle conflict, and give them skills for a range of circumstances, such as making choices and doing things successfully as a couple.
Conclusion –
This blog post attempted to answer the question, “How accurate is MBTI?” and reviewed what MBTI is and its uses and applications to help determine how accurate MBTI is. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or comments you may have.
References –
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Stromberg, J. & Caswell, E. Why the Myers-Briggs test is totally meaningless. (2015, October 8). Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless
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How scientifically valid is the Myers Briggs personality test? Reddit. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1p2cki/how_scientifically_valid_is_the_myers_briggs/
Is the Myers Briggs Test Accurate? (You’d be surprised). (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.fingerprintforsuccess.com/blog/is-the-myers-briggs-test-accurate
Delgado, C. The Problem With the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. (2021, December 21). Retrieved from https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-problem-with-the-myers-briggs-personality-test
Reliability and Validity. The Myers & Briggs Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/reliability-and-validity.htm
MacCarthy, L. Why Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type Is Meaningless. (2020, June 29). Retrieved from https://www.psycom.net/myers-briggs-personality-type
