Question

Organizational Behavior, (please write the Reference for each )

2) Describe Myer s-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework and its strengths and weaknesses

Answer 1

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), developed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, is a well known and widely used personality inventory based on the psychological theories of Carl Gustav Jung. It is often used as a tool for discovering and understanding different normal human personalities and can be utilized in a variety of applications such as academic counseling, career development, conflict resolution, leadership training and relationship counseling, etc.  

Based on Jung’s psychoanalytical theories, Myers deduced that there were four dichotomies which made people differ from one another and referred to them as ‘type preferences’. The four dichotomies are as below:  

• Extraversion or Introversion: This indicates whether people prefer to acquire their personal energy from the outer world of people and activities, or from inner world of ideas and thoughts. E.g., extraverts prefer being in large group of people and introverts tend to take pleasure in quieter activities.  

• Sensing or Intuition: This dimension describes how people take in information as to whether they focus on what is actual and real (factual-based) or prefer to interpret or apply meaning to what they see. E.g., people who prefer sensing is down-to-earth and more dependent on past experiences, where as people who prefer intuition are considered idealists and rely more on the future.  

• Thinking or Feeling: This indicates how people prefer to make decisions as to whether it is based on logical thinking or influenced by their concerns for themselves and others. E.g., people who prefer feeling over thinking are generally predominant in helpful professions such as counselors and they pay close attention to other people’s needs. In addition, those who prefer thinking may seek factual clarity in solving disputes.  

• Judging or Perceiving: This describes the way one manage his/her life and how the person deal with the outer world, whether in an orderly manner or spontaneously. E.g., people who prefer judging like to have everything in order and in a scheduled manner. On the contrary, people who prefer perceiving are more unplanned and spontaneous in their lifestyle, including making decisions.  

Combinations based on these four categories of type preferences result in 16 different personality types which in a nutshell is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality framework.

Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

1. This framework has vast descriptive potential.

2. Even people with not much psychological background can understand the dichotomies mentioned in the framework.

3 This framework is normatively neutral and does not place individual traits and eventual types to be wrong or right.

4. This framework is minimalistic in its construction.

5. Clients found to experience relief and positive feeling in knowing about themselves .

Weakness

1. Theory is considered to be too simplistic.

2 Erroneous understanding of the 'types' is possible

3 MBTI may be used as an excuse and psychopathologies may be overlooked.

4. It is not a comprehensive instrument which says everything about the personality.