The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality questionnaire that sorts your preferences into one of 16 types, each written as four letters such as ENFP or ISTJ. It looks at four pairs of opposites: where you focus your energy (Extraversion or Introversion), how you take in information (Sensing or Intuition), how you make decisions (Thinking or Feeling) and how you deal with the outside world (Judging or Perceiving). It describes preferences, not abilities, and no type is better than another.
If you want to see how answering a personality questionnaire feels, try a free personality test. To read about every combination of letters, see the 16 Myers-Briggs personality types.
Where the Myers-Briggs test came from
The MBTI was developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, who began work on it in the 1940s. They based it on the theory of psychological types set out by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, and wanted to make his ideas practical for everyday use.
The official questionnaire is now published by The Myers-Briggs Company and is usually taken through a trained practitioner, who talks you through the results. Many free online tests use the same four letters, but they are not the official MBTI and may score you differently.
The four preference pairs explained
| Pair | The question it answers | One side | The other side |
|---|---|---|---|
| E or I | Where do you get your energy? | Extraversion: from people, activity and the outside world | Introversion: from your own thoughts, ideas and time alone |
| S or N | How do you take in information? | Sensing: facts, detail and what is real now | Intuition: patterns, possibilities and what could be |
| T or F | How do you make decisions? | Thinking: logic, consistency and objective criteria | Feeling: values, people and the effect on others |
| J or P | How do you approach the outside world? | Judging: planned, organised, likes things decided | Perceiving: flexible, spontaneous, likes options open |
The words have narrower meanings than in everyday speech. Judging does not mean judgemental, and Feeling does not mean emotional. Thinking types have feelings and Feeling types think logically. The letters only show which approach comes more naturally to you.
How the four letters make a type
You take one letter from each pair, always in the same order. Someone who prefers Introversion, Intuition, Thinking and Judging is an INTJ. Someone who prefers Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling and Perceiving is an ESFP. Two options in each of four pairs gives 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 = 16 types.
A useful comparison is being left or right handed. You use both hands, but one feels more natural and you reach for it first. In the same way, you use both sides of each pair, but one is your preference. Official reports usually also show how clear each preference was, because some people sit very close to the middle on one or more pairs.
The theory behind the Myers-Briggs indicator
Jung described people as differing in two attitudes, extraversion and introversion, and in four mental functions: two ways of taking in information (sensing and intuition) and two ways of making decisions (thinking and feeling). Briggs and Myers added the Judging and Perceiving pair to show which of those functions a person tends to use in the outside world.
In the full theory, each type has a dominant function that leads and an auxiliary function that supports it. This is why two types that differ by one letter can feel quite different in practice. You do not need to know this to use the MBTI, but it explains why practitioners describe types as patterns rather than four separate scores.
What the Myers-Briggs test is used for
The MBTI is mostly used for:
- Team development, so colleagues understand why they approach work differently.
- Communication, for example how a planner and a spontaneous colleague can agree deadlines that suit both.
- Career exploration and coaching, as a way to think about what kind of work suits you.
- Personal development, as a starting point for reflection.
The publisher’s own guidance is that it should not be used to select job candidates. If an employer asks you to complete a personality questionnaire as part of an application, it is much more likely to measure traits, often close to the Big Five model, than to give you a Myers-Briggs type.
Strengths and criticisms of the MBTI
Strengths. The MBTI is easy to understand, its language is positive about every type, and it gives people a shared vocabulary for talking about differences. Many people find their type description a helpful prompt for thinking about how they work.
Criticisms. Researchers point out that most people are not one thing or the other on these pairs. They sit somewhere along a scale, and many cluster near the middle. Splitting them into two groups means that someone just either side of the line can get a different letter on a different day. This is why some people find their type changes when they retake the test. Researchers generally prefer trait models such as the Big Five for research and for predicting behaviour at work.
The fair summary is that the MBTI is a useful tool for conversation and self-reflection, and a weaker one for measurement.
How to find out your Myers-Briggs type
- Decide which version you want. The official MBTI comes with a practitioner’s feedback session. Free online versions are quicker but are not the same instrument.
- Answer as you naturally are. Picture what you do without effort, not what your job or family expects of you.
- Read the descriptions for your type and the types next to it. If one letter was close, read both versions and see which fits better.
- Treat it as a starting point. Your type describes tendencies, not limits.
Some types turn up far more often than others. The rarest and most common personality types sets out how often each one appears. If you are preparing for a workplace questionnaire, our practice personality test uses the agree and disagree format employers tend to use.
