Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

[Ser Clegane]

For the training I have attended during the last week I also made a rather detailed MBTI test.

Have any other patrons also takes this test at any occasion?

What type were you (I am ISFJ)?

Any opinions on the value of this test (perhaps also from the "Shrink of the Org" ~D )?

[LittleGrizzly]

ohh i remember doing this, forgot what i was.

Grizz is INTP.

[Don Corleone]

ENTJ I am prime management material, baby.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

INTJ yeah science and engineering! 1% of the population.

Reading the intj description (http://www.typelogic.com/intj.html) I'm always amazed by how accurate it is.


Famoush intj's

Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense
General Colin Powell, US Secretary of State



Ha.

[KukriKhan]

For those wondering what the letters mean:

http://skepdic.com/myersb.html

Boy, they've come a long way from the 70/80's when they used the 4-hours-to-fill-out MMPI (Minnestota Multiphasic Personality Inventory). I once tried to "game" that test, once I detected that they used the same questions, re-worded, repeatedly. Gave different answers each time.

Didn't work. They caught on and made me take it again. Just goes to show clever does not necessarily = smart. :)

[Ser Clegane]

For those wondering what the letters mean:

http://skepdic.com/myersb.html

Boy, they've come a long way from the 70/80's when they used the 4-hours-to-fill-out MMPI (Minnestota Multiphasic Personality Inventory). I once tried to "game" that test, once I detected that they used the same questions, re-worded, repeatedly. Gave different answers each time.

Didn't work. They caught on and made me take it again. Just goes to show clever does not necessarily = smart. :)

Hm ... does that mean people actually use it for hiring/evaluation purposes?

Just asking because my understanding from the communication training for which we took the test was, that the MBTI should never be used for categorization of people e.g., for hiring.
It should rather be a help to better understand your own personal approach in communications and problem solving (as compared to other people)

[Proletariat]

Boy, they've come a long way from the 70/80's when they used the 4-hours-to-fill-out MMPI (Minnestota Multiphasic Personality Inventory).


I work in a psych ward where this is still used. I took it myself as part of training and it said I was slightly paranoid. I'm not taking that too seriously since some of the questions were like, "Do you take news at face value?" or something like that (it's been awhile).

I forget my MB type, but I remember disagreeing with it.

I've used it though for an 8 session class on stress management for an ASAP program for the military and the patients typically found it accurate and useful.

The psych ward where I currently work in now also uses the ACL (http://www.allen-cognitive-levels.com/research.htm) alot, which I'm not a big fan of.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I'm INTP, same as Grizz.

[DemonArchangel]

Infp
W00t!

[A.Saturnus]

Any opinions on the value of this test (perhaps also from the "Shrink of the Org" )?

Sorry, can't say much on it. It got mentioned in my psychdiagnostics course. But I don't know much of it. It's based on Jung's typology though, that doesn't bold too well. The best personality test is the MPI-R, but I guess it's not very suitable for buisness needs. I'm rather sceptical of all personality test though.


I work in a psych ward where this is still used. I took it myself as part of training and it said I was slightly paranoid. I'm not taking that too seriously since some of the questions were like, "Do you take news at face value?" or something like that (it's been awhile).


That shouldn't worry you too much, the MMPI is mainly based on psychopathological probes. It tells you in what direction you're mad if you're mad.

[KukriKhan]

Hm ... does that mean people actually use it for hiring/evaluation purposes?

Just asking because my understanding from the communication training for which we took the test was, that the MBTI should never be used for categorization of people e.g., for hiring.
It should rather be a help to better understand your own personal approach in communications and problem solving (as compared to other people)

I'm sure some lazy Human Resources-types might want to use it for hiring, but I agree - such shorthand evaluations are more suited to assessing one's own communications skills.

@Proletariat: I'm surprised to read that. I thought the MMPI would have surely been superceded by some other product by now. In the mid-80's our army noticed a 'spike' in the number of attempted suicides by young soldiers. Among many other solutions, one thing they did was appoint a junior officer or senior Sgt to be battalion-level "first responders" to even the whisper of suicidal thoughts (reported anonymously by their peers). We took the MMPI as part of our sensitivity training for that extra duty. I never got to use that training; no soldiers reported potential suicides (and none were attempted) in the 2 years I was there.

[Proletariat]

@Proletariat: I'm surprised to read that. I thought the MMPI would have surely been superceded by some other product by now. In the mid-80's our army noticed a 'spike' in the number of attempted suicides by young soldiers.


Where I saw it used was at the psych ward in EAMC (which is on the 13th floor, for some reason) but it was usually used for more severe cases than just suicidal ideation or other adjustment disorders (ie, schizophrenia.)

I'm sure it's been updated or revised since the 70/80's but unless I'm completely mistaken it was still being used by the interdisciplinary team there.



We took the MMPI as part of our sensitivity training for that extra duty.


I don't understand the thought process behind that, but hey. The military does alot of weird/overkill things that don't make alot of sense, I guess. I can't imagine taking it twice. It seemed more laborious than my certification exam.



It tells you in what direction you're mad if you're mad.


That makes much more sense.

As for whether or not they use this for hiring purposes, is that legal? Sounds funny to me, but I don't know much about that area.

[Ironside]

ENTJ

Doesn't match me that good, some parts are quite correct, others quite wrong.

[Don Corleone]

ENTJ

Doesn't match me that good, some parts are quite correct, others quite wrong.

Aaah, welcome Ironside. Together, we shall put the rest of these slaves to work doing our bidding and rule the world.

[Ironside]

Aaah, welcome Ironside. Together, we shall put the rest of these slaves to work doing our bidding and rule the world.

Certainly :evilgrin:

But we have a political problem, we don't agree on most things. But you're not that extremly on the other spectrum, some things we actually agrees on, so I can accept your existance. I will even give you the pearl of the world, United States of America as a peace-offering gift.

I will take the rest of course, as it's filled with people that don't understand your policies and is filled with other useless stuff, the useless garbage you know. ~;) :deal2:

[Productivity]

INTJ - Extremely strong (~90) on the ITJ and moderate on the N. Fits me very well.

[SwordsMaster]

ESTP here 8%E,8%S, 38%T, 44%P. ~D

[KukriKhan]

I don't understand the thought process behind that, but hey. The military does alot of weird/overkill things that don't make alot of sense, I guess. I can't imagine taking it twice. It seemed more laborious than my certification exam.


Heh. Ain't it the truth. All that.

They never explained the reasoning. I guessed they wanted to make sure we wouldn't be prone to make things worse, should an incident come up. And, yeah - taking it twice pretty much ate up my usual 12-hour day.

[Ser Clegane]

I forget my MB type, but I remember disagreeing with it.


That was another takeaway when we discussed our results. The faculty made very clear that ultimately it would be our individual decision to decide which type we are (based on the descriptions of the four type dimensions) as we would be in the best position to judge our preferences.

Also quite important to keep in mind how clear the preferences along the four dimensions are (see SwordsMaster's post) to avoid reading too much into the results - for me the S and F preferences were only very slight while I and J were very clear (when I too the test a couple of years ago I actually came out as an INTJ, gaian with only a slight NT).

It can be very interesting (and hilarious) to observe how differently people with strong preferences in one dimension approach certain situations, especially if they do not know their types yet (the first time I took the test we discussed the typology and the individual results only after we did some roleplays with people that had very clear preferences)

[A.Saturnus]

As for whether or not they use this for hiring purposes, is that legal? Sounds funny to me, but I don't know much about that area.

I don't know the laws over there, but I guess it is legal. The MMPI is used a lot, even outside psychopathology. It's not illegal to do bad psychdiagnostics.


Doesn't match me that good, some parts are quite correct, others quite wrong.

Well, the point is that it doesn't matter whether you think it matches you. If you were a good judge on your own personality, the company would just ask you and not pay a lot of money for a professional test, wouldn't it? I don't know the reliability of the MBTI but I suspect it's rather high, otherwise any company would be insane to use it. That means, unless the test wasn't correctly done or scored wrong, there's a good chance it's a rather good description of your personality, as far as the MBTI can describe any personality good. The problem is that the MBTI may use dimensions that are usefull for companies, but it doesn't use the "real" dimensions that constitute personality. That means that the MBTI will always tend to ignore aspects of personality that may or may not influence behaviour.

[Ironside]

That means, unless the test wasn't correctly done or scored wrong, there's a good chance it's a rather good description of your personality, as far as the MBTI can describe any personality good. The problem is that the MBTI may use dimensions that are usefull for companies, but it doesn't use the "real" dimensions that constitute personality. That means that the MBTI will always tend to ignore aspects of personality that may or may not influence behaviour

I think the errors of the matching process has more to do the generetic description of ENTJ, while I would "match" in a sub-category of ENTJ. Even slight changing in the answer gave the same category so I'm pretty stucked there. Too unspecified test I would say and that is hardly surpricing, considering the length (quite long, but not very long) of the test I made (one linked from this thread).