Myers–Briggs Type Indicator
model of personality types
The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a self-report questionnaire that makes pseudoscientific claims to categorize individuals into 16 distinct psychological types (often called personality types). The test assigns a binary letter value to each of four dichotomous categories: introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. This produces a four-letter test result, such as "INTJ" or "ESFP", representing one of the 16 types.
The original version of the MBTI was constructed during World War II by Americans Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, inspired by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung's 1921 book Psychological Types. Isabel Myers was particularly fascinated by the concept of "introversion", and she typed herself as an INFP. However, she thought that the book was too complex for the general public and tried to organize the Jungian cognitive functions to make it more accessible.
As a psychometric indicator, the test exhibits significant deficiencies, including poor validity, poor reliability, measuring supposedly dichotomous categories that are not independent, and not being comprehensive. Most of the research supporting the MBTI's validity has been produced by the Center for Applications of Psychological Type, an organization run by the Myers–Briggs Foundation, and published in the center's own journal, the Journal of Psychological Type (JPT), raising questions of independence, bias and conflict of interest. Nevertheless, due to the Barnum effect, participants often attribute a level of accuracy to the results that is disproportionate to their scientific credibility.
The MBTI is not considered useful in psychological practice or study, since it lacks predictive power. According to University of Pennsylvania professor Adam Grant, "There is no evidence behind it.
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