In essence the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a very complex way to boil down a personality into a type. It is not designed to pigeonhole people or to say that one outcome is better than another. However, it is designed to help people to understand their characteristic and how they act the same or differently than others with regards to four different preferences.
These four preferences include how each individual responds under normal situations. However, it is not the definitive way that a personality type responds to all issues in life. Everyone has some of all 16 possible combinations, but the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is designed to allow insight into your most dominant responses.
E or I
The first set of preferences in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator focuses on the level of extraversion or introversion. Extroverts tend to focus their energy and efforts on the exterior world, the people and things they interact with, while introverts focus more on self, ideas and beliefs.
S or N
The next set of letters in the four letter designation determined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator focuses in on information processing. An S indicates a strong reliance on facts and reality while an N is more based on intuition and the unknown. These are often seen as people that look to less obvious solutions or that search outside of the box for answers.
T or F
Decision making is the focus of the next letting in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. If you have a T you are considered a thinker, which means that you that you are analytical and avoid emotion in decision making. An individual with a F uses both information as well as values and beliefs to make a decision.
J or P
When people use judgement or planning to organize and structure their life they are a J, but when they are flexible, go with the flow type of individuals they are more likely to have a P designation which stands for perception.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator allows for 16 different combinations of these designations to create a personality preference. There is no hierarchy or preferred combination, but rather a way to see how you interpret information and put priorities on different issues in life. The insight from this test can be instrumental in helping in career choices, team building and even in choosing managers and supervisors within any given workplace.
