Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung developed a personality theory at the beginning of the 20th century. He observed and explained patterns in seemingly random individual behavior. Books and research on Type Theory fills libraries, so please be aware I can only scratch the surface here. I hope to clarify the connection between Jung’s work and the MBTI(r) tool that I use in my practice. Jung’s first observations revolved around two ways people engage with the world. He defined the terms Extraversion (in the MBTI(r) result described with an ‘E’) for people who gain energy by relating to the outside world, and Introversion (in the MBTI(r) result described with an ’I’) for the people who gain energy by focusing on their own internal world. This is also defined as an attitude.
Jung continued, stating that our brain activity is mainly engaged in one of two things: taking in information (a process he called Perception), or making decisions based on the information we have taken in. These two processes are also referred to as the cognitive or mental functions.
Taking in information, or the Perception process, can take two forms: Sensation (aka Sensing) ‘S’ or Intuition ‘N’ (the ‘N’ is used to avoid confusion in the MBTI(r) result, since the ‘I’ is already taken for Introversion).
People who prefer Sensing ‘S’ tend to trust information they can glean from their five senses. They prefer detailed information dealing in the present here and now, as well as the information’s practical application.
People who prefer Intuition ‘N’ tend to find patterns and themes in the information they gather. They prefer general overviews and find possibilities of what the information might mean for future development.
The decision-making or Judgment process can also take two forms: Thinking ‘T’ or Feeling ‘F’.
People who prefer Thinking ‘T’ tend to make rational decisions based on logical objective analysis, considering the system and connected frameworks, and usually do not shy away from a debate.
People who prefer Feeling ‘F’ tend to make rational decisions according to the framework of their values, how the decision might impact the people involved, and prefer to have consensus and maintain harmony.
Jung’s observations are based on decades of personal and professional experience as a practicing psychotherapist and analyst. When his book Psychological Types was translated into English in 1923, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers were so fascinated that they started their own research, looking at how their friends and acquaintances behaved and noticing the differences and similarities that Jung described.
Most of all, they wanted this knowledge to become accessible to the everyday person dealing with everyday issues. The first major application they used Type knowledge for was helping women figure out which job would best fit their disposition during the war efforts of 1939 and beyond. Since they could not find a test or indicator of how to quickly discern and figure out which preferences one had, they created their own. From scratch. Peter Myers, Isabel’s son, goes into a little more detail in the preface of their book, Gifts Differing and I’ve written a little more about the instrument here.
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