The Myers-Briggs personality test

[Chimera]

Friend o' mine just sent me a link to a version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, http://www.kisa.ca/personality/
and was rather excited that we were one letter apart. (Me=ISTP, him=INTP)

Anyhoo, anyone have any info on how scientifically regarded these tests are? Do people use them to make important decisions? Is being an INTP like being an Aquarius?

[Bronze Dog]

The Skeptic's Dictionary has something (http://skepdic.com/myersb.html) to say about it.

[bruto]

It seems to me that too many of the questions require you to analyze yourself to some degree before answering, so that you really don't learn anything new from the results, though you might gain some insight from trying to face the questions honestly. I doubt very much if the test would do a better job than you could do by being presented with the 4 categories and being asked "which do you think you are?"

Once you have the results, you have a handy formula with which to describe yourself, but I don't see much practical use to that either, unless you're unhappy with the way you are, in which case you probably didn't need a questionnaire to figure out why.

[rdaneel]

I've often wondered what companies that give these types of tests for employment think they're accomplishing.
Do they really believe that the prospective empleyees are actually giving honest answers about themselves, rather than picking which answers will most likely get them hired?
I don't remember any of the ones I did being that hard to figure out what they wanted to hear.

[roger]

Perhaps they are trying to weed out the ones too stupid to cheat on the test? :)

[Seismosaurus]

I despise tests like these beacuse they never structure the answers to cover all possibiliities. For instance :

"When I walk in the forest, I love to smell the woods and the feel the breeze on my face.
While I walk in the forest, I love to think about all kinds of things and ideas.
I'm really in between."

I wouldn't be caught walking in a forest unless something of great value depended on it. And if I were, my thoughts would be along the lines of "Why do forests have to be so unpleasant?" "How soon can I get out of the forest?" "Why can't we concrete over the forest?"

FWIW, I came out as "INTP".

[rdaneel]

Originally posted by roger
Perhaps they are trying to weed out the ones too stupid to cheat on the test? :) Actually, that had occured to me too. An "intelligence" test rather than a "personality" test, but I kind of dismissed it since that's not the kind of subtle thinking I've come to associate with human resource departments. :D

[Chimera]

Seismosaurus wrote:I despise tests like these beacuse they never structure the answers to cover all possibiliities.
I have the same problem...the question "I like to follow a practical approach" vs. "I like to figure things out on my own" seems meaningless because one could do both, or neither, or switch between the two depending upon circumstance.

[rdaneel]

Originally posted by J-No
I have the same problem...the question "I like to follow a practical approach" vs. "I like to figure things out on my own" seems meaningless because one could do both, or neither, or switch between the two depending upon circumstance. Agreed, they try to force you into one box or the other even though neither box seems realistic.
And I seem to recall that some of these tests discard some of the questions from scoring. If so, what's the point? I don't see how they're going to influence how I answer the questions that will be scored. The test results are going to be the same with or without those questions.

[Ducky]

Originally posted by rdaneel
Agreed, they try to force you into one box or the other even though neither box seems realistic.
And I seem to recall that some of these tests discard some of the questions from scoring. If so, what's the point? I don't see how they're going to influence how I answer the questions that will be scored. The test results are going to be the same with or without those questions.

Given that there was no controlled studies developing this, and that it's all based on observations by the myers and briggs ladies that were never critically examined, I'm not surprised there's holes in which "type" someone is.

Incidentally, these observations of personality type were derived from Jung's thoughts, which he later dismissed from what I understand.

[crimresearch]

Originally posted by J-No
Friend o' mine just sent me a link to a version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, http://www.kisa.ca/personality/
and was rather excited that we were one letter apart. (Me=ISTP, him=INTP)

Anyhoo, anyone have any info on how scientifically regarded these tests are? Do people use them to make important decisions? Is being an INTP like being an Aquarius?

Well, you know how those evil psychiatrists are plotting to take over the world, like Tom says...
all of these diagnostic instruments are just part of their diabolical partnership with the rest of the medical establishment to keep people enlsaved...
:rolleyes:

Seriously, the problem in a nutshell (From the SkepDic)

"Technically, the instrument is not supposed to be used to spew out personality profiles and pigeonhole people, but the temptation to do so seems irresistible."

[Yahweh]

Yahweh's results:
Your personality type is ISTP.

Introverted (I) 86% Extraverted (E) 14%
Sensing (S) 77% Intuitive (N) 23%
Thinking (T) 70% Feeling (F) 30%
Perceiving (P) 59% Judging (J) 41%

[PurpleChipmunk]

Originally posted by J-No
Do people use them to make important decisions?

I just had to do one as the FIRST step in the selection process for a job I'm applying for. Presumably if I don't have just the right personality type according to their computer, I don't get any further than that. This is even before they've bothered to find out whether I'm actually able to do the job or not.

It's really rather extraordinary. Occupational psychologists give you several hundred questions about your personality, and then using only that information they are able to tell you what sort of personality you have. How on earth do they do it? The intelligence of these people never ceases to amaze me.

[Z]

The Draconic One is following suite:

Your personality type is ISTP.

Introverted (I) 61% Extraverted (E) 39%
Sensing (S) 68% Intuitive (N) 32%
Thinking (T) 80% Feeling (F) 20%
Perceiving (P) 64% Judging (J) 36%

It's good to be so perfect.

[Gayle]

I've taken versions of the Myers-Briggs before and never scored like this:

ISFP.
Introverted (I) 100% Extraverted (E) 0%
Sensing (S) 50% Intuitive (N) 50%
Feeling (F) 70% Thinking (T) 30%
Perceiving (P) 64% Judging (J) 36%

I must have been abducted by aliens and had my brain messed with. It's the only possible explanation.