The Myers-Briggs personality type test or 16 personalities was developed by the mother-daughter team Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers.

Katharine Briggs was homeschooled in her early life before heading off to college at the age of 14. She graduated with a degree in Agriculture, continued on to become an academic, and married her husband Lyman Briggs. At 22, Briggs gave birth to Isabel Briggs Myers, the couple's only child who would survive to adulthood.

Like her mother, Isabel Briggs Myers was mainly homeschooled until she attended college studying Political Science. She went on to marry her husband Clarence Myers.

The Myers-Briggs personality test was developed based on Brigg’s research and observations as well as being inspired by the ideas of Carl Jung who was a swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst.

When discussing the Myers-Briggs type indicators (MBTI) it is important to remember that these are just a classification system to gain insight into the personality and motives of our actions. There is no “best” personality type. It's just a tool.

There are 16 personality types based on 4 categories.

Introverted (I) vs Extraverted (E) describes the social needs. Observation (S) vs Intuition (N) describes the intake of information and how we process it. Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F) which describes the factors taken into account when making decisions. Judging (J) vs Perceptive (P) how structured do you like your world?

The 16 profiles each offer insights into the self which can be used to understand strengths and weaknesses. It is definitely worth taking a full test and reading up on your results. Accompanying this article is a link to a very mini (and very unofficial) version of the Myers-Briggs personality test as well as a very basic version of the different profiles.

Written by Johanna Vreede.

Graphic from Canva.

Links:

https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Cook_Briggs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Briggs_Myers