제 14 호 How Much Can You Trust the MBTI Test?
KICKER: LIFE (PSYCHOLOGY)
How Much Can You Trust the MBTI Test?
by Yeong-Jin Choi, Editor
Have you ever experienced the MBTI test before? Long before COVID-19, our school, Sangmyung University, has offered MBTI tests to students free in the “Cultural Education and Personality” class. MBTI tests are very well known these days, and since it is easy for people to approach and experience it as they can obtain the result by just googling the keyword “MBTI test”, numerous people introduce themselves to whom they first meet by telling what MBTI they are classified as. However, we must think about the fact of whether the MBTI test is trustworthy. Is it psychologically reasonable, or is it just another blood type or zodiac* classification for fun? In this article, I would like to find out if the MBTI test is believable or not with scientific reasons and experts’ quotes.
*Zodiac: An area of the sky through which the Sun, Moon, and most of the planets appear to move, divided into twelve equal parts, each with a name and symbol, and each connected with an exact time of year
What is the MBTI Test?
Some companies, believe it or not, state that the result of the MBTI test is one of applicants’ qualifications of getting the job. To people who precisely know the MBTI test may think that this is just absurd. However, to those whom who don’t know what the MBTI test is, I would like to share the definition of the test, what the abbreviation respectively stands for, and find what it means.
MBTI test, shortened for “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator”, is a self-help assessment test which helps people gain insights about how they work and learn. The founder of the MBTI test, Katherine Briggs developed the test based on the theory of Carl Jung who proposed that there are four essential psychological functions by which people see the world: sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking.
The MBTI Test, https://me2.kr/k8m3x
What Do the Alphabets of the MBTI Test Stand for?
E, extroversion*, and I, introversion*, are the defining line of the direction where you focus your attention. If you are an extrovert person, you can consider yourself that you prefer to direct your energy outwards like to people, things, and situations. On the contrary, if you are an introvert person, you may tend to direct your energy inwards like to ideas, information, and beliefs. The main characteristic of extroverts is action-oriented, whereas introverts are more likely to be known as thought-oriented.
The second alphabets of the MBTI test results are S and N. This compares if a person is a sensing type or an intuition type, which indicates the way you take in information. Each of the alphabets, S and N, stands for sensing and intuitive respectively. People who prefer to deal with facts, details, and concrete information are sensing type. On the other hand, if a person likes to deal with ideas, abstract concepts, and vague theories, they are intuitive type.
The third function is a comparison between thinking and feeling. It tells you what kind of a person you are by how you make decisions. Obviously, in this round, T stands for thinking type, and F represents feeling type. If you like to make decisions from a detached standpoint* with using reason and logic to make a conclusion, you are a thinking type. If you prefer to make decisions from an insider and with an emotional standpoint, you are a feeling type.
Lastly, the final function is to compare between judging and perceiving. In this stage, you are judged by how you deal with the world. People who prefer a planned, well-structured, and organized life are judging type. This aspect results in sequential* and step-by-step mental processing, whereas the perceiving type who prefer to go with the flow, responds in a spontaneous* and flexible way.
*Extroversion: The quality of being energetic and not shy, and enjoying being with other people
*Introversion: The quality of being shy and quiet, and preferring to spend time alone rather than often being with other people
*Standpoint: A set of beliefs and ideas from which opinions and decisions are formed
*Sequential: Following a particular order
*Spontaneous: Happening or done in a natural, often sudden way, without any planning or without being forced
MBTI Considered as Unscientific and Unreliable by Experts
The problem with the test, however, is that a lot of people have already questioned if the test is reliable. Many researchers answer that even though the MBTI test is one of the most popular tests in the world that roughly 1.5 million people take the test online each year, that does not necessarily mean that it works, and does not obtain scientific merit. Adam Grant, a professor of industrial psychology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School tells, “For the MBTI, the evidence says not very no, no, and really.”
There is another irony in the test. Carl Jung himself, who established the original psychological theory, admitted that the binaries* were useful ways of thinking about people, but writing that “there is no such thing as a pure extravert or a pure introvert. Such a man would be in lunatic asylum.” The test, however, is built entirely around the basis that people are all one or the other. This tells that the test is not scientific, but full of bias.
The fact from many research and surveys points out that the test is notoriously* inconsistent. As the test defines a person black and white and concluding that participants of the test are forever stuck with the result of the test, it contains many errors. Research has found that as many as 50 percent of people arrive at a different result the second time they take a test. It is because the traits it aims to measure are not the ones that are consistently different among people. Most of the people vary in these traits over time, and even the mood is one of the factors that alters the result. If a participant is in a bad mood and wants to be left alone, the test might indicate that he/she is an introvert. However, if the same person takes a test a few weeks later with a happy feeling, the test may indicate him/her as an extrovert person.
*Binary: Relating to or consisting of two things, in which everything is either one thing or the other
*Notorious: Famous for something bad
What I would like to emphasize is that even though the MBTI test can be considered as one of the tools to judge and classify people in the psychological field, we must strongly understand that it does not have enough scientific ground to be considered reliable. Telling the test result to people who you have never met before as a clue to tell who I am can be considered as a small talk. However, we should be very alert not to misjudge a person by trusting the MBTI test result only.
Sources:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/myers-briggs-type-indicator
https://thinkinsights.net/strategy/mbti-personality/
https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en/tools/MBTI/MBTI-personality-Types
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/06/myers-briggs-type-indicator-does-not-matter/3635592002/
