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| What is Personality? |
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Personality is typically defined as the unique and enduring collection of attitudes, motivations, emotional patterns, behavioral characteristics and social traits that make each of us who we are. But even this basic definition can often trigger heated debate in the psychology community. Even more contentious are the questions of how personalities develop, whether or not they are static, whether they change over time, and, of course, what they mean in terms of our relationships, careers and other life endeavors. That there is so much debate on the subject of personality in the professional community should not be interpreted as any lack of consensus or doubt about the importance and influence of personalities in determining who we become. Rather, it has been so hotly debated over the past century because psychologists believe that it is the most determinative and predictive measure of who we are likely to become, and each is eager to advance their own theories on the subject.
But, before we get too far, it is probably best to examine the origins of personality theory and typology. So let’s start in the beginning.
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| Historical Background: From Freud to Jung |
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For the first half of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud was by far the most dominant and influential figure in shaping both psychiatric and popular approaches to personality. Originally trained in laboratory physiology at the University of Vienna, Freud was among the first medical and academic professionals to explore human personality in all of its complexities. Relying almost exclusively on information gleaned from his treatment sessions with patients, he developed an immense theoretical system called psycholoanalysis (Hoffman, 2002).
Psychoanalysis (also called psychodynamic personality theory) seeks to explain human behavior in terms of interaction between various components of personality. Freud broke the human personality down to three significant components: the id, the ego and the superego. According to Freud, personality is shaped by the interactions of these three components (that he believed primarily operated in the unconscious).
Throughout his work in psychoanalytic theory, however, Freud was more interested in studying what formed personality rather than in what constituted personality. His personality models served as a means for understanding how personalities develop and how the mind operates. As he sought to explain the origins of personality, he began focusing on childhood sexual impulses, repressed feelings, parental influence, latent drives and urges, and, of course, the role of the unconscious in making us who we are.
Up until 1912, one of Freud’s closest colleagues had been Carl Jung. But as Freud began to focus more and more on sexuality, repression and the underlying causes of personality, Jung saw the need for a more conceptual framework from which to better understand what personality is. When their personal and intellectual differences finally became too great, the two great thinkers parted ways and consequentially created a rift in the psychology community. Freud would continue his role as the father of psychoanalysis, while Carl Jung would go on to form a new branch of psychology that he call Analytical Psychology, wherein he sought to analyze the different aspects of personality and develop a typology for modeling what personality is.
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| Historical Background: Carl Jung's Theory of Personality Types |
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In 1921, Carl Jung published landmark book, Psychological Types, which has for the past century been the basis for nearly all popular personality models. In it, he posited that people exhibit tendencies toward certain personality types. He developed a model for conceptualizing these tendencies using archetypes that represented eight personality preferences.
He began with the observation that people are typically involved in one of two mental activities: (1) taking information in, perceiving, or (2) organizing information and coming to conclusions, judging. Next, he saw that people tend to focus their energy or become energized in different ways. Some people oriented their energy outward, extroverts, while others directed their energy inward, introverts. In addition to these four modes of experience (or orientations to the world), Jung also identified four mental processes that function in concert with the four orientations. These were: thought, feeling, sensation, and intuition. Combined, they represented eight fundamental patterns of mental activity available to people (described in more detail below).
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The terms Introvert and Extrovert (originally spelled "extravert" by Jung, who first used the terms in the context of psychology, although "extrovert" is now by far the more common spelling) are referred to as "orientations" and show how a person orients and receives their energy. In the extraverted attitude, the energy flow is outward, and the preferred focus is on people and things, whereas in the introverted attitude, the energy flow is inward, and the preferred focus is on thoughts and ideas. |
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Sensing and Intuition are the perceiving functions. They indicate how a person prefers to receive data. These are the nonrational functions, as a person does not necessarily have control over receiving data, but only how to process it once they have it. Sensing prefers to receive data primarily from the five senses, and intuition prefers to receive data from the unconscious, or seeing relationships via insights. |
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Thinking and Feeling are the judging functions. They are used to make rational decisions concerning the data they received from their perceiving functions, above. Thinking is characterized as a preference for being logical, analytical and seeing things in terms of "true or false". Thinking decisions tend to be based on more objective criteria and facts. Feeling, which refers to subjective criteria and values, strives for harmonious relationships and considers the implications for people. Feeling decisions tend to be based on what seems "more good or less bad" according to values. |
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Judging and Perceiving tell us which of the two preferred functions, the judging function or the perceiving function, is used in the outer world. Those who prefer Judging use their preferred judging function in the outer world and their preferred perceiving function in the inner world, and those who prefer Perceiving use their preferred perceiving function in the outer world and their preferred judging function in the inner world. Judging prefers making decisions and having closure and perceiving prefers to continue accepting data and to leave their options open, waiting to decide later. |
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Broadly speaking, Jung believed that we tend to work from our most developed function, and that we widen our personality by developing the others. In addition, he believed that the unconscious often tends to manifest through the inferior function, so that encounter with the unconscious and development of the inferior function(s) can tend to progress together.
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| Evolution of Personality Testing and the MBTI |
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The first personality test that was developed on the basis of Carl Jung’s personality type theory was the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). (The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® is a trademark of the publisher of the instrument, Consulting Psychologists Press Inc., and is registered by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust.) The MBTI was developed by Katherine Briggs, a journalist, and her daughter Isabel Myers, a novelist-playwright, during World War II, and follows directly from the theories of Carl Jung as laid out in his work Psychological Types. Since its first version in 1943, the MBTI has gained extraordinary renown and popularity, and is frequently used in the areas of pedagogy, group dynamics, employee training, leadership training, marriage counseling, and personal development. Remarkably, more than 2.5 million people take the Myers-Briggs test annually.
While the MBTI remains the conventional leader in personality testing (at least by administration metrics), the past couple decades have seen an explosion in psychometric and personality testing. New tests emerge every year measuring anything from leadership potential to anxiety. Some personality tests have sought to directly challenge the MBTI’s hegemony in the personal self-awareness space, while others have sought to find a more practical application for personality measurement. Numerous online tests exist today, for example, that try to predict romantic compatibility based on personality testing.
While there is no reason to believe the popularity of the MBTI might diminish anytime soon (if for no other reason than its widespread adoption and consequent momentum), there remain numerous opportunities for personality and psychological testing in the more applied fields of psychometrics. The MBTI has traditional been used as an instrument for promoting self-awareness and for understanding group dynamics, and generally falls short of any more practical application.
Recognizing a market gap for personality testing focused solely around career guidance, the researchers at MyPlan.com developed the Career Personality Test as an instrument specifically designed to advise and help users in choosing career paths that most compliment and best fit their unique personalities. |
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| Interesting Fact |
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| When the U.S. Constitution was written, the federal government was not allowed to collect income tax. All revenues came from trade tariffs. The 16th Ammendment later permitted federal income tax. |
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| Did you know... |
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| The MyPlan.com Career Assessment Tests provide more detailed career recommendations than any other set of tests available anywhere! |
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