Buzz
Have you ever heard someone mention their Myers-Briggs personality type and wondered what yours might be? The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) system analyzes four key aspects of your personality, then assigns you to one of 16 possible personality types. The MBTI test is quite simple to complete, and some versions provide immediate results. If you're curious to discover which personality type you belong to according to Myers-Briggs, we're here to guide you. This article will provide all the information you need on how the personality test works, how to take the test, and how to interpret the results.
Steps
Determine using dichotomous pairs
Decide whether you're introverted or extroverted. This tendency doesn't relate much to your social interaction level (often associated with this trait) but rather focuses on your approach to action. When facing a problem, do you look inward or outward first?
- Extroverts feel energized by social activities. They typically enjoy the lively atmosphere of parties. While they can still appreciate solitude, they might feel bored in quiet environments for too long.
- Introverts feel recharged by solitude. Although they can enjoy socializing (even in groups), spending time alone or with a close person helps them recharge. They prefer calm, peaceful settings.
Did you know? Shyness isn’t always an indicator of whether someone is introverted or extroverted. There are extroverts who are shy and introverts who are lively. If you're unsure, think about what energizes you and what drains you (even when you're enjoying yourself).
Consider how you gather information. Do you perceive things through your senses or intuition? While those who lean toward sensing analyze the individual trees, those who lean toward intuition see the whole forest. Sensing types often ask "what," while intuitive types typically ask "why."
- Sensing types prefer details and concrete facts. Their focus is on current events. They might often say, 'I won’t believe it until I see it.' They tend not to trust hunches or guesses that aren’t based on observation or fact. They're also better at breaking down details and are highly aware of their own needs.
- Intuitive types favor abstract theories and ideas. They tend to have a more vivid imagination and enjoy thinking about possibilities in the future. Their thoughts revolve around laws, connections, and flashes of insight. They might daydream and be distracted by practical matters (like forgetting to eat lunch while deeply immersed in a project).
Consider how you make decisions. Once you've gathered information, whether through your senses or your feelings, how do you make your decisions? This is often classified into 'feelings' (focusing on emotions and people’s happiness) and 'thinking' (focusing on logic and facts).
- The feeling group tends to look at problems from the perspective of everyone involved, aiming for the most balanced and harmonious solution (i.e., everyone’s consensus). Conflicts can be very stressful for them.
- The thinking group seeks the most logical and definitive solution and might compare it to a set of rules or assumptions.
Advice: Keep in mind that both of these groups can be balanced and reasonable. Feeling types can understand logic, and thinking types can analyze the emotions of others within their logic. Both groups can experience strong emotions and make decisions that aren’t the wisest. Both are valuable.
Think about how you relate to the outside world. Do you tend to interact with others in a flexible manner or based on principles?
- The principled group tends to be decisive and organized. They enjoy finding solutions and are willing to explain the reasons behind their decisions. They are often the ones who make plans with lists of tasks and enjoy finishing work ahead of schedule.
- The flexible group is often more hesitant when making decisions, preferring to leave things open-ended and continue observing. They take their time when making important choices. They like to 'take notes' on things in case they find a reason to change their minds.
Use 4 pairs of dichotomies (letters) to determine the abbreviation describing your personality type. This is a combination of 4 letters, such as INTJ or ENFP.
- The first letter can be I (representing introverted) or E (representing extroverted).
- The second letter can be S (representing sensing) or N (representing intuitive).
- The third letter can be T (representing thinking) or F (representing feeling).
- The fourth letter can be J (representing judging) or P (representing perceiving).
Take a quiz
Try taking one or two free online quizzes. Search for "free MBTI test" in the search bar – you’ll find plenty of quizzes you can try. Go through all the questions, and you'll get your result.
- If you're close to the boundary between one or more categories, you may get different results depending on how the test is phrased or your mood that day.
- Remember to answer based on how you typically act, not how you (or others) think you should feel or act.
Find the official MBTI test if you want more detail. If you’re unsure about the quality of the online quizzes, you can take the MBTI test from experts, such as a psychologist or even a career counselor. Over 10,000 companies, 2,500 universities and colleges, and 200 government offices in the United States use this test to understand their employees and students.
Find your personality profile. Online personality profiles can help you understand your nature, strengths, and areas where you have potential for growth. They can help you understand what 'sensing' or 'perceiving' really means. These personality types are often named things like 'The Giver,' or 'The Teacher,' etc.
- The full personality profile represents your personality type across several environments – work, personal relationships, family, and other areas. While personality profiles can't cover every aspect, and not every aspect will apply perfectly, the insights can still be useful.
Apply the test results
Put your personality group to use in real life. Once you understand which personality group you belong to, you can start learning how to live harmoniously with the world around you. If you're an INTJ working in sales, you might want to reconsider your career path! There are many practical applications for this test in everyday life.
- Education: How do you absorb and process events and concepts?
- Relationships: What personality traits are you looking for in a partner? Which traits are most compatible with yours?
- Personal development: What positive areas do you have potential to grow in? What weaknesses could you improve upon?
Understand that all personality types are equally valuable. No personality type is superior to another. The MBTI test is designed to identify your natural tendencies, not your abilities. When identifying your personality type, you should focus on what you tend to do rather than what you think you should do. Recognizing your tendencies is an effective tool for personal development.
- The MBTI addresses what should be prioritized, not your skills. For example, feeling types can be very intelligent, judging types aren’t always rigid, and thinking types can have strong emotions too.
Ask others about their personality types. Discussing personality groups is interesting, and through these conversations, you can learn many new things about the people you know. This test is quite popular, with millions of people using it every year. Ask others if they've taken the test. It can benefit your relationships, as both parties gain a better understanding of one another.
- You can learn from people who are very different from you, as well as from those who share similarities with you.
Avoid bias. Don’t assume you know someone’s personality type based on their appearance or actions on a given day. Even if you know their personality type, don’t use it to assign negative traits or justify bad behavior. You can use personality knowledge to understand and interact with someone appropriately, but don’t use it to limit them.
- Don’t rely on demographics such as gender or disability to make assumptions about personality. For example, not all men are logical, and not everyone with autism is introverted.
- Avoid making negative comments about someone’s personality type. If you’re frustrated with their behavior, describe it as bad behavior rather than an inevitable bad personality. For instance, thinking types can and should learn to respect others’ emotions, and flexible types need to fulfill their responsibilities.
- Don’t believe that the weaknesses associated with a personality type are set in stone. You can learn and grow.
Remember that a personality test cannot define your entire life. It only considers a few aspects of your perspective on the world and the things you prefer. There are still many facets of your personality that aren't covered by the test. The test results are not meant to limit you but to provide additional information.
- The diversity in human personalities far exceeds the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types. These letters only capture some of your traits, not all of them.
- Your personality results are not always fixed. Sometimes you may receive different results depending on the test you take and your mood at the time. Also, many people find their personalities evolve over time.
Advice
- In the MBTI community, people rarely use the binary pairs. Instead, you should look into functional patterns, such as INTP = Ti-Ne-Si-Fe.
- If you find it difficult to determine your natural tendencies, try to imagine what you would have chosen as a child, perhaps before the age of 12. The idea is to discover your natural inclinations before you learned to behave or react in different ways, essentially 'nurturing' learned behaviors over your 'innate nature.'
Warning
- Don't use your personality type as an excuse for irresponsible or unkind behavior. Being part of the flexible group is not an excuse to avoid participating in group projects, and don’t use being a thinking or introverted type to justify rudeness to others. Always try to behave kindly and respectfully.
