Everything to know about the world’s most popular personality test

More than 50 million people have taken the Myers-Briggs personality test. Here’s what it’s all about.

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator test is taken by millions of people each year.

Whether it be a horoscope or “Which Friends character are you most like?” quiz, people love nothing more than to define their personality.

The world’s most dominant personality questionnaire — the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) — is proof of this: more than 50 million people globally are estimated to have taken it.

WHAT IS THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR?

The purpose of the MBTI personality inventory is to indicate the people’s differing psychological preferences in how they perceive the world around them and make decisions.

Constructed by American mother and daughter, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, the self-report questionnaire has been administered since the 1940s, and is estimated to be taken by more than two million people each year.

The underlying assumption of the MBTI is that we all have specific preferences in the way we construe our experiences, and these preferences underlie our interests, needs, values and motivations.

The MBTI is used as an indicator for people’s psychological preferences.

WHAT ARE THE FOUR CATEGORIES?

The MBTI is based on the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theory that people experience the world using four principal psychological functions — sensation, intuition, feeling and thinking — and that one of these four functions is dominant for a person most of the time.

Each person is said to have one preferred quality from each category, producing 16 unique personality types.

The four categories of the MBTI are:

Introversion (I) versus Extroversion (E)

• Where you put your attention and get your energy.

• Introversion: looking inward toward concepts and ideas

• Extroversion: looking outward toward people and objects

Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N)

• The type of information you process.

• Sensing: looking for tangible details and facts

• Intuition: looking for wider patterns and possibilities

Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)

• Your style of decision-making.

• Thinking: deciding things in a detached and logical way

• Feeling: weighing people’s needs and seeking harmony

Judging (J) versus Perception (P)

• How you structure dealing with the world around you.

• Judging: preferring to have matters settled

• Perception: preferring to keep decisions open.

US President Donald Trump identifies with the ESTP personality type.

HOW IS IT CALCULATED?

The MBTI consists of 93 questions to which participants select one of two answers (A or B).

These consist of questions like, “In reading for pleasure do you (a) Enjoy odd or original ways of saying things; or (b) Like writers to say exactly what they mean?”

At the end of the test, you are assigned one of the 16 personality types — this “score” a combination of the four characteristics indicated by your answers to the questions, and comprising of an initial for each, e.g. I (introvert) N (intuitive) F (feeling) J (judging).

The 16 personality types/potential results and the celebrities who fit them:

• ISTJ: the examiner.

Celebrity ISTJ’s: Natalie Portman, Jeff Bezos.

• INFJ: the counsellor.

Celebrity INFJ’s: Mahatma Gandhi, Cate Blanchett.

• INTJ: the mastermind.

Celebrity INTJ’s: Mark Zuckerberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• ISTP: the craftsman.

Celebrity ISTP’s: Steve Jobs, Vladimir Putin, Clint Eastwood.

• INFP: the idealist.

Celebrity: INFP’s: J.K. Rowling, Johnny Depp, John Lennon.

• INTP: the thinker.

Celebrity INTP’s: Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, Tina Fey.

• ISFJ: the nurturer.

Celebrity ISFJ’s: Kate Middleton, Kanye West, Mother Teresa.

• ISFP: the composer.

Celebrity ISFP’s: Brad Pitt, Rihanna, Michael Jackson.

Oprah displays the tendencies of an ENFJ personality type.

• ENFJ: the giver.

Celebrity ENFJ’s: Oprah, Martin Luther King, Bono.

• ESFJ: the supporter.

Celebrity ESFJ’s: Hugh Jackman, Taylor Swift.

• ESFP: the performer.

Celebrity ESFP’s: Miley Cyrus, Leonardo DiCaprio.

• ENFP: the champion.

Celebrity ENFP’s: Walt Disney, Sandra Bullock, Arianna Huffington.

• ESTP: the doer.

Celebrity ESTP’s: Donald Trump, Angelina Jolie, Winston Churchill.

• ESTJ: the supervisor.

Celebrity ESTJ’s: Hillary Clinton, Judge Judy.

• ENTJ: the commander.

Celebrity ENTJ’s: Margaret Thatcher, George Clooney, Bill Gates.

• ENTP: the visionary.

Celebrity ENTP’s: Barack Obama, Celine Dion.

WHAT IS THE TEST USED FOR?

While the creators of the MBTI intended it as primarily a tool for self-discovery, it’s now used in 26 countries to assess everything from employees and students to soldiers and potential marriage partners.

The company that took ownership of the test in 1975 and now administer it, CPP Inc., advertise that learning your personality type is a potentially life-changing experience, but in its most basic form, the MBTI helps people to better understand one another.

“When people differ, a knowledge of type lessens friction and eases strain,” Isabel Briggs Myers is quoted as saying.

According to the Myers & Briggs Foundation, these are the ways type can be used:

Knowing your Myers Briggs type can benefit your relationships.

• Relationships. Understanding and applying type theory to relationships can enhance communication, provide people with a better understanding of how they deal with conflict, and provide tools for a variety of situations including successfully making decisions and engaging in activities together.

• Careers. Research has shown that people are attracted to careers that allow them to make use of their natural type preferences. According to the MBTI, the two middle letters of your type have a particular relevance to your career choice.

• Education. Type can reflect people’s learning preferences, and help you identify your strengths and weaknesses when approaching study or learning.

• Workplace and organisations. The MBTI is widely used in the workplace to understand and apply type, increase communication, and create more effective teams and employee satisfaction.

• Counselling. Jung originally developed his theory of types as part of his counselling practice with clients. Type theory can shed light on a number of issues commonly dealt with in counselling, like self-esteem, relationship difficulties and decision making.

The MBTI is not designed to diagnose potential psychiatric disorders and is not an exact science. It’s common for your type to evolve and change over time if you take the test more than once.

However, says the Foundation website, learning about your motivations, judgments and perceptions can be a useful tool to help you make better decisions in your life.

HOW CAN YOU TAKE THE TEST?

The official MBTI can be administered either online — for a cost of $US49.95 ($A74.00) or by a certified consultant, counsellor, coach or therapist.

There are also many replications — though not identical — of the MBTI available online for free. The 16 Personalities quiz is probably the closest in similarity.