Myers-Briggs

How it can be used:

One individual walks into his office early in the morning and closes the door. His peer will be standing in the hallway, talking. Is one angry? The other a time waster? These are the preconceptions we carry with us about styles that differ. It's possible that person A needs a few minutes of alone time to recharge, and gear up to face the day. It's also possible that person two needs a few minutes of social time for exactly the same purpose. In a Myers-Briggs model, "Extroverts" derive energy from the outside world, while "Introverts" derive energy from quiet and alone time. Neither style is better than the other. Knowing about the differences, however, can increase understanding in teams and in individuals. Broadening horizons leads to more tolerance rather than a closed judgment about what is different.

Its origins:

Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist who worked and studied for many years with patients in psychoanalysis. Jung identified certain preferences in the individuals he observed, and discovered that the preferences were not random, but fell into patterns. He broke these into two basic categories, perceiving and judging.

People also have a basic orientation to the world, either relying on the outside world for stimulation or looking inward for stimulation. When Katherine Myers read Jung's work in 1921, she thought that there might be a way to educate people about themselves and avoid future wars. She began working with family, friends, and acquaintances to see if she could ask the right questions to determine which side of each pair or dichotomy a person preferred: Extroversion-Introversion, Sensing-iNtuitive, Thinking-Feeling. The questions led to the Myers-Briggs Type IndicatorTM, which is used worldwide for helping individuals understand how they interact with their environment. The last pair (PJ) was added by Myers and ? to determine which basic preference was

Jungian: Perceiving - Judging; Perceiving is either Sensing or iNtuitive, Judging is either Thinking or Feeling.
Myers-Briggs added a 4th pair, JP, to indicate which basic function is dominant

The MBTI instrument has gone through change, its developers honing the questions to be "straws in the wind," to be sexually unbiased, and to provide as much meaningful information as possible. Currently Form M contains 93 questions. The MBTI can be taken on the web or on paper. Form M can be scored by individuals; form Q contains additional criteria that need to be computer-scored.