Discover what the 4 letters in Your the MBTI Personality Type mean

We are complicated beings and what we love to do is to label and categorize things. Information-organizing in categories helps us make quicker and better decisions. That is why the personality type categorizations are really popular, take for example the zodiac signs. We seem to be fascinated by anything that can reveal information about the deeper aspects of our psyche and explain the diversity of human personality.

The Myers Briggs Test is offering a jumping off point for such self-exploration. They differentiate 16 personality types and create a certain persona for each type. (for example The Performer ) These types are based on generalizations and do not exist as valid personality constructs, that is why you wont see your whole self fully reflected in the MBTI type categories. The test is more reliable than the sun signs, but it is not always accurate or reflecting the deep layers of the personality. No personality test is valid and accurate for everyone. But you can get good insights about your general personality type and of others. The MBTI assessment is very insightful, however, when we want to self-explore and know more about ourselves and our purpose.

In this Article:

• Basic information about the Myers-Briggs Test
• Where to take the test?
• What do The Four Letters stand for?
• Is the test accurate, insightful and valid?

How The Myers-Briggs Test Works

Development and applications of psychological type are founded on the idea that understanding your type can help you (a) appreciate your own strengths, gifts, and potential developmental needs, and (b) help you understand and appreciate how other people may differ from you.

Myers Briggs Foundation

Isabel Myers (1897-1980) and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs (1875-1968), shared a vision to help people make better life choices. In the early 1940s, the mother-daughter duo developed the personality type indicator with the intention of helping people choose the jobs that best suited to their personalities. MBTI continues to be a popular tool used by HR for recruiting and team building.

In psychology the personality type is a classification of individuals based on how they react, how they behave and what decisions they are likely to make. The early forms of this type theory go back to Hippocrates, who suggested that people can be categorized in 4 groups based on their Temperament. K. Briggs followed this typology and in the original version of the type classification she proposed four temperaments: meditative, spontaneous, executive, and social.

From this was later developed the Myers and Briggs type differentiation indicator (MBTI). The test was greatly influenced by the personality theory of psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Jung’s work, vision and personal insights have been fundamental to the concept development in the MBTI. Jung’s typology theory categorized people into primary types of psychological functions expressed in either an introverted or extraverted form. After extensively studying the work of Jung, Briggs and Myers developed their own theory of psychological types based on decades of personal research.

Where to take the test?

The word test is generally seen as a questioner where you have right and wrong answers and you got to choose the right ones. Well, a personality test is not like this. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is asking for preferences and tendencies and works like a self-assessment. There is no right or wrong answer.

MBTIonline.com is the only online place to take the official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment and verify your MBTI type. It is a payed version, but for the payment one gets a professional version of the test, assessment by accredited professionals and access to a large personal development library as well.

There are, on the other hand, countless pages online where you can take a similar test for free and get the results for free. Of, course in this case you don’t have the same professional assurance that the results are accurate and meaningful. Some pages give a free version of the results and than charge for getting a more detailed description of your type. Free testing can be a good way to start discovering your personality type and than, when you feel more serious about it you can dedicate more resources like money and time for more accurate results. Examples: 16 personalities or Typefinder.

Note ! The MBTI is extremely popular, which explains why it has also been negatively labeled as pop psychology. The academic psychology community turns toward this indicator with criticism. Actually, no-one really knows – not the academic and not the pop psychology – how to really accurately measure personality. There are various theories and tools that are all good, but not perfect. Of course we can say that some tool and some theories are better than others, but none of them are fully accurate, reliable or valid. When you take the MBTI, or any other personality test use caution when considering the meaning of your results.

What do the letters in the Myers-Briggs test mean?

Once you took the test you will be given a 4 letter result, that looks something like : ENTP or ISFJ. Each MBTI personality type is described with 4 letters. These 4 letter are abbreviations. The first letter is always E or I and it indicates the primary attitude of a person of being E = extroverted or I=introverted. These are distinctions made based on the theoretic work of Carl Jung, and what is important to note is that Jung did not see the types (such as intra- and extraversion) as dualistic, but rather as tendencies. Tendency is a key word often overlooked in personality exploration.

Each pair above represents a spectrum, ranging from one extreme to the other. We are usually in the middle somewhere with a tendency towards one characteristic or the other. Tendency means that we are using one type of function more often than the other, but it doesn’t mean that we are not using the other function at all. It is a question of percentages.

We are not fixed or rigid beings. We live a dynamic emotional experience, a continuous thinking flow in an ever changing physical environment. We cannot put ones personality in a box and say that it never changes. Therefore it is important to look on these categorizations, these results as indicators of tendencies. No-one is completely extraverted or completely introverted, but we develop tendencies and over time and one of these attitudes just becomes more naturally to us.

1. Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I)
2. Sensing (S) – Intuition (N)
3. Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)
4. Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)

We are all using all 8 of these preferences. Every person uses all of these functions, but not all the time. There is a dominant tendency that can be recognized.

Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I).

Extraversion and introversion, also referred to as our primary dominant personality preferences, are probably the most popular expressions related to personality types. This aspect of the test measures how we interact with our environment. Knowing about our preferences for Extraversion or Introversion can help us understand more on how we can efficiently communicate, what we have to do to re-energize, to refill, how we best manage stress and how to avoid burn-out.

Extraverts are energized by social interactions and being active. They like focusing outward and they would prefer to recharge in a coffee bar or a seaside terrace with music and people surrounding them. People who tend to be extroverts like to communicate by talking, so they will rather call instead of texting or emailing. They like to express their ideas and experiences in face to face conversations or talking on the phone. They learn by jumping in the middle of things and doing it in practical forms. Theoretical reading exercises, purely mental forms of teaching might not be the most effective ways of learning for them. Extraverts will prefer active vacations with travel groups or with friends. They like going to team buildings, family days, adventuring on a safari, going around islands on a cruise ship, playing beach volley, skiing with their bodies rather than just laying in the sun, reading a book for 10 days on the same beach.

Introversion is often misunderstood and mistaken for shyness or social anxiety, but it is not used in that sense in the context of personality testing. Introversion is more about what kind of interactions will energize us and which of them will drain us of energy on the long run. Introverts prefer to recharge in their internal world and gain energy from spending time alone. That does not necessarily mean that they also possess social anxieties. They might function pretty well in social setting, they might have satisfying relationships with friends and family. They just prefer to think through their thoughts privately, they communicate their ideas in writing more efficiently than by talking and prefer to learn by reading, drawing and listening. They prefer communicating with colleagues, clients and friends in writing and they will most probably have a journal. Introverts might feel drained after a longer visit to a shopping center, an amusement park or a mall and they prefer quite places like a park, an empty seaside, mountain trails for recharging. Introverts need quiet time alone to rebuild their energy and might feel drained after a lot of socializing. They will prefer a vacation in a wellness hotel by a lake, a mountain chalet, off-season travelling, exclusive places and going off the beaten trails.

We are all somewhere along the scale between these two extremes with active tendencies towards one of these ends or the other. This means that we aren’t fully introverts or extroverts. We might be introvertive in some areas and have a preference for extraversion in others. We might also change our preferences periodically and we might change a lot over-time. Testing tells you where you are right now on this scale.

Sensing (S) – Intuition (N).

The second letter in the MBTI is about how we collect information, understand data and how we learn about our environment. We all collect information through our five senses, our mental understanding and through emotional sensing, or what is also called intuition. Intuition is abbreviated using the letter N because the letter I was already used to represent Introversion.

Those with a letter S in the personality type are Sensing types, which means that they will tend to use only their mind and their 5 physical senses for information-gathering and processing. Sensing people tend to rely on their 5 senses and ‘believe ‘only what is factual, what they can see, or touch or taste. They have a tendency to process things in their minds, in a step-by-step linear sequence and observe and remember the details, the specific information. They are practical, logical, tactical and detail-oriented. They are mostly focused on the past and like to bring up the past to prove their points.

On the other hand, those who prefer intuition tend to learn and understand by seeing the big picture, the patterns and the underlying themes. They are strategic type thinkers and so they are seeking a wider context. They tend to look for meaning in the connection between the individual pieces of data. Intuitive individuals rely more on their deeper/ higher levels of understanding and give validity to hunches and gut feelings, even if they cannot logically explain their perspective. They use emotions as data, as a source of useful information. They sort of get out of the limits of strictly mental processing and let their whole self process the data, including the emotional processing. ( They let the information sink in and they process also the way it makes them feel). They are more future focused, imaginative, they like to brainstorm and visualize things and come up with solutions that have never been before.

There is no right or wrong way to collect, process and understand information because there is a place and time for every modality. The best performers are those who develop agility and balance and can change their method based on the requirements of the current situation. We are all somewhere in between, having a bit of this and a bit of that in us, so there is no use in labeling either of these functions wrong. The test shows which method is preferred by you in general.

Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)

These are the rational or judging functions that refer to how people arrive to certain conclusions and how they use information to make decisions. In more common terms Thinking aspect comes close to what is called objective decision making, while Feeling is what we refer to as subjective decision making.

Someone high on the thinking scale collects and researches factual, objective data and forms logically based conclusions. Thinking preference means that we arrive to conclusions through analysis and reasoning and make decisions based on causality and efficiency. They value efficiency and fairness. They are firm and can appear impersonal or emotionally distant to others. It might come through as coldness but it is a very important positive aspect to this characteristic. Leaders, doctors or firefighters, for example, have to be able to take clearheaded decisions even under emotionally challenging situations.

On the other side of this spectrum are the feelers, care-takers who are interested in embracing the emotions and like keeping harmony in every aspect of our lives . They are more likely to make decision based on subjective data, like gut feelings, emotions and subjective value estimations. Feelers take into consideration social values, ethics, and the emotional needs of others when they have to make decision. They might appear more warm to others and use more gentle, empathetic and passionate language in conversations.

This doesn’t mean that Thinkers don’t have empathy or that Feelers can’t think logically. The MBTI result tells you what you are inclined to do, what comes more natural to you as of now.

Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)

The J or P preference stands for judging or perceiving and it is the most mysterious from all the letter pairs. It is sometimes described to refer to how others perceive you, sometimes it is described to refer to how you present yourself to others and sometimes it is about how organized someone is. Most of the meaning about this pair is hidden behind MBTI jargon. In this article we focus on the more easily understandable approach to describing the J_P functions and use the terms to refer to the Planned vs Spontaneous aspects of ones personality. In this sense it reveals tendencies about our lifestyle preferences related to change, security, adaptability, planning and being organized.

J (Judging) Personality Types are not about being judgmental. Judging is used in this context to mean that one prefers to have a plan. We are talking about the manager, the coordinator type. They like to have a plan for the day, a plan for the vacation, a plan for the business. They like to plan either by talking or in writing. They like to use lists and all kind of organizing tools. They might not always be organized and tidy, but they prefer structure and organization to unpredictability. They feel better by planning out things which makes them more decisive on the average. A person who would score high on the judging scale feels relaxed and safe when there are presented with deadlines, itineraries, travel or project plans. Predictability makes them feel good and they do well performing routine tasks. Judging types like to finish one task before they start another, they enjoy setting up milestones and knowing that they are completing pieces of the tasks. They will tend to get closure in relationships.

Perceiving people will be more impulsive and spontaneous. They enjoy not knowing all the details and letting things unfold mysteriously. Perceiving characteristics make this type more adventurous, curios, adaptable, flexible and spontaneous. They would rather have flexibility than structure, so they will consider most plans or vacation itineraries to be limiting, stressing and constraining. They like to keep their options open and prefer solving things on the spot rather than planning ahead. They enjoy idea generating as long as it isn’t regulated. They enjoy being in the journey and tend to feel good in the process of exploring opportunities and possibilities. This would be the business developers, innovator types. They have a tendency for multitasking and getting involved in several unrelated projects at the same time. They enjoy starting the tasks as opposed to finishing them off. They like the parts of projects and daily life where there are no routines.

The combination of these characteristics and attitudes result in the 16 personality types differentiated by the MBTI.

Is the test accurate, insightful and valid?

To answer this we got to get back to the concept of tendencies. When we discuss personalities we don’t discuss rigid categories, but tendencies. Personality is not like a picture we hang on the wall. Personality is about a process, a flow, a vibe, a movement. A personality assessment shows our current tendencies.

The result can depict a clear picture about some people while it can be only a blurry shot about others. Some people are more established and firm, while others are more easily manipulated and prone to changing characteristic behaviors due to strong outside influence. Some people do change a lot due to outside influence and can behave more collected around stable people and become irresponsible around people with that influence. Their characteristic tendencies form only after a long while, based on who they hang around with more, so for them results can change when taking the test multiple times.

An obvious shortcoming of the MBTI is that it does not take all of our characteristics into consideration. Your personality type is more than just a collection of four pairs of preferences. They have selected some functions that define us as a personality. Even if they did it with the best intentions of selecting things that are really important and descriptive, it is still an arbitrary selection from a much larger set of characteristics. We are all more complex than that. We do not only have these characteristics. So there is a lot that is left outside and sometimes the little differences, that are considered here unimportant, can make a big difference.

Of course, if they would take much more characteristics into consideration they would end up with a lot more than 16 types. With too many categories the information reducing process itself would become useless. For example having 120 types wouldn’t serve us in getting really useful knowledge. However reducing the categories to 16 leaves us with a lot of generalizations and big, broad categories that aren’t fully reliable and descriptive of ones whole personality. These test can serve as a good starting point.

Summary – Thoughts and conclusions about the MBTI in general

We are complex beings and it is very hard to categorize the diversity of human nature into a small number of personality type categories. We can sense that people are similar in some ways and differ in other ways. It is not an easy job to get these differences and similarities together in a manageable system. Some people expect an outsider to come and tell them who they are and than present for them clear and concise strategies to live a happier, more satisfying life experience. But, there are no magic pills and there are no shortcuts. We all learn about who we are, what we prefer throughout our life. And in most cases by the time we know it, we have already changed into a more complex version of ourselves with new attitudes and preferences. That said, the MBTI is a useful tool and it is enabling people to explore and to start understanding more about themselves. The goal of the MBTI assessment is to help you learn about yourself and it is succeeding and it is valid in that aspect.

Further reading / Other tests to take for self-exploration:

Sources/ Resources/ Credits :

The Myers Briggs Foundation, 16 personalities, Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI Theory, Personality Preferences

Images: People with different personalities