Find answers to all your questions about the MBTI® and the 16 personalities

How can you master the MBTI® in-depth?  

What is the MBTI®? What can you do with it?  

What are the 16 MBTI® personality types?  

These are just some of the questions you'll find answers to in this article and in our MBTI training.

 

Table of Contents

 

 

 

What is the MBTI®?

The MBTI® is a model for understanding different personality types.

Each of us is born with different ways of perceiving information and making decisions.

These preferences have a significant impact on how we react, communicate, our leadership style, our needs, strengths, and developmental paths. The combination of these preferences leads to 16 distinct personality types.

The MBTI® has led to the development of personality type training, which is arguably the most widely used in the world: MBTI® training.

 

 

The MBTI® is based on Jung's work and his book "Psychological Types," which identifies 16 personality types, their strengths, potential challenges, and how each type can evolve.

 

 

 

What are the applications of the MBTI®?

The MBTI® (short for Myers & Briggs Type Indicator) helps you understand your preferred ways of functioning and those of the people you interact with.  
It helps you build more effective, productive, and enjoyable relationships.  

You can use it to improve:  

  • Your management style
  • Your communication and conflict management
  • Your stress management
  • Your career management
  • The success of your coaching journeys, with what we call differentiated coaching

 

It also lends itself to a variety of other applications:

  • Change management
  • Sports coaching
  • Team cohesion, etc.

 

 

The MBTI® describes your natural preferences. These are not talents or abilities.

 

 

 

How can you discover your MBTI® profile?

Many people search for a "free MBTI test" in the hope of discovering their MBTI® profile.  

Understanding your profile is a richer and less simplistic process.  

You'll discover this in this article on the 16 personality tests.

 

 

Beware of free MBTI® tests. They are not validated and sometimes contain significant errors.

 

 

 

The 16 Personality Types

Each person can evolve within their MBTI® profile. An MBTI® profile is not a fixed set of characteristics found in everyone but a preferential way of functioning.

Myers and Briggs had the idea to represent each of the 16 personality types in a table; we present it to you below. 

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ
ISTP ISFP INFP INTP
ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP
ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ

 

 

What do the different MBTI® letters mean?

The MBTI® identifies 4 pairs of preferences. Each of us has a preference in each pair. So we have 4 preferences.  

Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs (the creators of the MBTI®) had the idea to represent each preference with a letter. This significantly shortens the presentation of your profile. Instead of saying, for example, I have a preference for Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Perception; you can say, I am an INFP.
Much shorter, right?


These preferences are:

Extraversion or Introversion, our source of energy:

  • A person who prefers Extraversion (E) draws their energy from interacting with the external world.
  • A person who prefers Introversion (I) draws their energy from quiet and introspective moments.

 

Sensing or Intuition, our way of perceiving information:

  • Sensing (S) is the function we use when we perceive information in a sensory, sequential manner, focusing on factual and tangible reality (present or past).
  • Intuition (N) is the function we use when we make connections between information, focusing on possibilities, projecting into the future, or linking past, present, and future.

 

Thinking or Feeling, our preference for decision-making:

  • Thinking (T) is the function we use when we make decisions based on logical criteria.
  • Feeling (F) is the function we use when we make decisions based on subjective criteria (alignment with a value system or consideration of the impact of the decision on others).

 

Judging or Perception, an attitude that influences how we organize our lives:

  • Judging (J) seeks structure, predictability, and continuity.
  • Perception (P) prefers adaptability and variability.

 

 

A person who prefers Extraversion (E) + Sensing (S) + Thinking (T) + Judging (J) is an ESTJ.
An INFP represents the MBTI type that prefers Introversion (I) + Intuition (N) + Feeling (F) + Perception (P).

 

 

 

Why use the MBTI®?

In addition to its many applications, there are three additional reasons to choose the MBTI®.

Its universality:

The MBTI® is a very common model that facilitates interactions with many different people. It is used in training, coaching, and team cohesion.

Its ease of use:

The MBTI® is relatively easy to use.

 

Its dynamic nature:

Some professionals rightly criticize the static nature of the MBTI®.  

We use the way of explaining the functioning of the 16 profiles of Carl Jung (the 8-oriented functions) and John Beebe (the John Beebe Archetypes) to have a dynamic approach: how I can evolve over time, how I function under stress, what my professional and personal improvement paths are.

 

 

The MBTI® is a tool that offers many practical applications.

 

 

 

What are the misconceptions about the MBTI®?

We sometimes hear certain misconceptions about the MBTI®.

MBTI® results are not reliable

The MBTI® is a type indicator (MBTI® stands for Myers & Briggs Type Indicator®). It provides an initial idea of a person's profile (what is called the apparent type). It is through dialogue with the coach or participant that they will determine their true profile (their validated profile).

It is therefore entirely normal for someone to conclude that their profile differs from what their responses to the questionnaire seemed to suggest.

In fact, the quality of MBTI® training largely depends on the trainer's ability to ask the right questions to guide participants in discovering their profile.

A little tip? It’s a good way to select a trainer, ask them how they can help someone see if they are, for example, ISTJ or INTJ.

 

MBTI® does not allow for practical applications

As you have seen above, the MBTI® allows for many practical applications.  

I presented them in detail in my first book on the MBTI: "Vous êtes unique, vos interlocuteurs aussi".

 

MBTI® is static and typologizing

People who have this impression often owe it to the presentation of the 16 personality types in a table and to certain descriptions of the types that are sometimes quite "typologizing."

However, the MBTI® is based on Jung's work, which is dynamic (how different functions develop within us, how we can evolve over time – what is called the individuation path, why we can become so different from ourselves under deep stress).  

Since then, John Beebe's work on archetypes has added an even richer and more dynamic dimension.  

Allowing sufficient time during MBTI® training reveals the full dynamic of the individual.

 

MBTI® is complicated and difficult to remember

Human beings are complex; trying to reduce them to simplistic information (like 4 colours) is reductive, caricatural, and offers few practical ways to improve one’s functioning.

Our professional practice has allowed us to understand two essential points:  

  • Using Jung's model (in addition to or instead of the MBTI®) significantly facilitates the understanding and memorization of one's profile, making it a model accessible to everyone.
  • Discovering your profile is not very useful if it is not accompanied by practical tools.

 

 

Relying solely on questionnaire results to determine someone's profile is a professional mistake! Emphasizing practical advice tailored to each participant is what makes training truly valuable and useful for participants.

 

 

 

MBTI® FAQ

What does MBTI® stand for?  

MBTI® stands for "Myers and Briggs Type Indicator®". It is the name of the questionnaire developed by Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs: the word "indicator" means questionnaire. Contrary to what many people believe, MBTI© is not the name of a model, but the name of a questionnaire.

Is the MBTI® a personality test?

NO

The MBTI® is not a test; it is an indicator.

The difference is crucial:

  • A personality test includes a measure of the validity of your responses, which allows you to verify if they are reliable or not.
  • An indicator does not provide any information on the validity of your responses.
  • It is impossible to know, based solely on your MBTI® responses, whether the profile you have identified is truly yours or not.

 

How can I determine my MBTI® profile?

You must take the MBTI® questionnaire AND have a validation interview with a certified MBTI® trainer.

Your response to the MBTI® questionnaire gives what is called your apparent type. After validation with your MBTI® trainer, you will receive what is called your validated type.

 

Can I evolve in my MBTI® profile?

Most people who have told me that they have evolved in their MBTI® profile were referring to the fact that they gave different answers to the MBTI® questionnaire at different times in their lives.

This does not mean they have evolved (since the response to the MBTI® questionnaire only gives your apparent type).  

However, it is possible to evolve in your profile; this is what Jung called "Individuation": becoming a more complete individual, a person who has developed other functions beyond their innate preferences.  

The MBTI® does not provide an easy key to understanding these possible evolutions. However, Jung's approach is very enlightening on this subject.

 

Is the MBTI® based on Jung's work? What are the main differences between the MBTI® and Jung's "Psychological Types"?

Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs wanted to make Jung's approach easier to understand:

  • They simplified the presentation of Jung's concepts.
  • They created an indicator to help people determine their profile.
  • They created the abbreviations corresponding to the different preferences and personality types (INFP, ESTJ, etc.).
  • They omitted the fact that the different functions (Sensing, Intuition, etc.) were either extraverted or introverted.
  • They partially compensated for the loss of richness that resulted by inventing the notions of Judging and Perceiving and by discussing extraverted or introverted people.
  • They represented the different profiles in a table of 16 types.
  • They also omitted the dynamic representation of a person's profile (Dominant Function, Auxiliary, etc.).

In summary, the MBTI® is better known than Jung's psychological types, which is very unfortunate because the latter is much more dynamic: it provides a very simple and rich explanation of a person's development path, their reactions under light or deep stress.  

Jung's Types also offer a simple understanding of applications in the areas of change management, conflict management, etc.

 

Which MBTI® is the nicest? Which MBTI® is the smartest? Which MBTI® type makes the best managers, the best entrepreneurs, etc.?  

These questions don't make much sense.  

Any MBTI® type can produce wonderful or unpleasant individuals.  

Each MBTI® profile has natural talents and often experiences certain difficulties.  

It seems much more useful and productive to accept oneself, build on one's natural strengths, and remain humble and constructive in the face of difficulties to be able to progress.

 

Which MBTI® is the most common?

Overall, there are:

  • About as many Extraverts as Introverts.
  • More Sensing (S) - 60% of the population - than Intuition (N) - 40% of individuals.
  • About as many Thinking as Feeling.
  • About as many Judging as Perceiving (even though I have seen many Perceiving individuals who thought they were Judging or forced themselves to try to be).

Statistics on the distribution of MBTI® types are based solely on the questionnaire (thus on apparent types), so they should be taken with caution.

 

 

Jean-Luc Dupont
MBTI Trainer

DetP Développement professionnel Inc