PSYCH 655 Lecture Notes Myers PDF

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PSYCH 655 LECTURE NOTES MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR Its important to understand the basis of what the Myers Brigs Type indicator is, and how it allows the identification and description of the 16 unique personality types that result from the interactions between the preferences According to Myers(2016) “The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator can be used in the workplace to support many situations such as executive coaching, development of leadership skills, managing others, conflict resolution, and other customized needs According to Keirsey(2002) “One could introduce the MBTI into their place of employment to determine an employee’s learning style, organizational settings to assess management skills and facilitate teamwork and problem solving, including communication difficulties, as well as helping one to decide if a new employee will be a good fit for your organization”. Its important to have this variity and factors in a workplace to identify how to help the work and the employee. According to Keirsey(2002) “The MBTI letter identifier can be used in the work place to identify whether a person is an Extraversion or Introversion which can indicate if a person gets their energy from being around others or from being alone, this essentially helps the individual to identify the letters is Sensing and Intuition, these letters show whether a person is aware of specific facts and details or are focused on theories and the big picture”. According to Keirsey(2002) “The third set of letters are Thinking and Feeling which displays whether a person thinks logically or by considering values and harmony, which brings us to the final set of identifiers are Judging, and Perceiving, these letters show if a person wants their life to be planned or prefer keeping their options open and going with the flow”. When we think about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator we can relate to Carl Jung and his theory. When they put this together they used Carl Jung’s theories in order to do so. Jung had a theory that people tend to use their mental capacity in order to determine what their behavior would be. Each person seems to have their own psychological type from what research shows and by taking this questionnaire that is used it can help determine what that psychological type is. It can help in giving an understanding on how that person is. One may think that they already know but until taking the questionnaire and answering the questions honestly they may not really know. It can also give a greater understanding to how others are and why they are that way (“Myers Briggs Foundation”, 2019). Everyone is different in their own way and this is how Carl Jung thought when it came to individuals. Everyone seems to see things differently how one may see it another may not. By putting together the Myers-Briggs they were able to give people and others an idea on how they would make decisions in life, see the things around them and how they process the information that they are given. In order to see the personality of one and how they behave and other things in the person’s life they developed this questionnaire for one to take. After research on this personality test there were many things and questions that came up regarding it. For one people want to know what can it tell about a person and what is there about the person that it can not tell you. For instance if you were to take the questionnaire it could tell you if you actually need

to improve in certain areas, where your weaknesses may be and can help you in turning those around and making them a stronger point in your life. It can also give on more confidence then they had prior to taking the test by showing them where they stand out already and, it can help in explaining to a person why they may act the way that they do. What it can not tell a person about themselves is what they may be passionate about. Say for instance if they are really into art and crafts and are very passionate about it the test that is taken can not tell one that. It can tell their personality type that may lead to being passionate about the arts although. The test that one can take is the 16Personalities when wanting to use the Myers-Briggs it is a simple questionnaire that one would take and it will give you your results regarding what personality types you may have. It will tell you your stronger points and then also the weaknesses that one may have. There are many personality categories that it can put you in but when you take the test in order for it to be valid one would need to make sure they answered the questions honestly and not how one may feel they should answer in order for it to be what they thought the correct answer would be (“16Personalities”, 2011-2019). There some question on if you should know what your type is and will it really help one to know. This is a test that has been used for many years and can seem to help employers know more about their employees. It can help to see if they would be a good match with their company and other employees. There are different view points on if can help one to know their type or not. One thing that is for sure it can help one who knows what their weaknesses are and can help them in strengthening them. Psychometrics properties are represented by quantitative values; calculated by using statistical procedures. Psychometric properties refers to a tests validity and reliability measurement of the instrument. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Instrument has received much criticism but continues to be one of the most popular in psychological personality testing. Reliability refers to the ability to measure the tests consistency. Test-retest reliability is also important because when you measure something the second time you want to get the same results to the same group of people. The retest is usually conducted within weeks, months to a more than a year. Although the test-retest predicts the reliability to be high for the four letter type preference categories or dichotomies; reports indicate that the reliability of MBTI Instrument doesn’t meet expectation. Furthermore, the four-letter dichotomous types often create’s the impression that there is a meaningful difference between personality profiles of individuals when in reality no difference actually exists (Pittenger, 2005). Through the years of numerous studies or articles, MBTI Instrument has continued to be criticized and the reviews are mixed but through research the MTBI Manual shows otherwise. Overall MBTI Instrument tends to continue to provide acceptable score reliabilities. On the other hand, validity is another psychometric property that can be used in MBTI Instrument. Validity refers to the tests ability to measure what it intends to measure. In looking at validity, studies on MBTI Instrument have continued to be proven due to it being based on theory. Furthermore, MBTI Instrument validity is evaluated based on how well it exhibits a relationship and predicts an outcome. Two types of validity that are studied in MBTI Instrument are Construct validity and Critierion-related validity. Construct validity inquires on MBTI Instrument associating with other scales measuring equivalent concepts and Criterion-related validity inquires if the MBTI Instrument anticipates certain

results associated to actual job achievement. In addition, the validity of MBTI Instrument scores are being accepted by correlating the scores with results from different personality tests. Statistically significant correlations have been established between MBTI Instrument scores, behaviors reflective of MBTI constructs, and individual self-assessment MBTI personality types (Capraro & Capraro, 2002). Experts have determined that face validity of the test has come from its user friendly nature, easy to understand and easy to score method. The MBTI instrument is straightforward and assists in determining ones personality type. Despite much criticism towards the psychometric properties of the MBTI Instrument, it appears to be strongly supported by research studies and similar to other personality measurements tests currently available. A strength about the Myers-Briggs is that is does its best to remain neutral, meaning that is avoids negative or bad personality traits like neuroticism, as you can see, all the individual types are described as normal and in a positive light. When compared to other popular personality type assessments like the Big Five system of personality, a strength regarding Myers-Briggs is that by using Jungs framework as a base for the test it does not just describe a persons personality, but also goes into depth to explain it. The MBTI is extremely simple and minimalistic by just having 8 traits that can be combined together Introversion, Extroversion, Sensing, Intuition, Thinking, Feeling, Judging, and Perceiving, to make 16 unique personality types. Another criticism is that the personality type descriptions only appear to be accurate to an individual due to the Barnum effect which is the inclination for people to look at general statements, which can be true of most people and take those statements to be a fitting description of themselves. A big weakness is the reliability of the MBTI is lacking, especially because it has claimed that our personality type is innate and stays the same throughout most of our life. Some individuals may be closer to fitting into a particular type while others may be in the middle, meaning they are not close to any one type or do not just identify with one type. One major issue that comes with any personality testing is that it can be faked meaning individuals who take the test can likely distort their answers to present themselves in a more positive light or in a way they think the researcher wants them to. Using this or any personality assessment is not actually a way of getting to know an individual fully without face to face interaction. As discussed, the Myers-Brigs Type Indicator is a tool that help identify the psychometrics associated with personality. This information can be beneficial for a number of situationally specific reasons. For example, understanding the psychometrics associated with personality can give insight as to how decisions will be made, understanding an individuals decision making process can either make a convincing argument to offer employment or do just the opposite and deny it. Instruments that come with such power, come with just as much ethical responsibility. Ethical considerations that should apply

to all studies, instruments, assessments and indicators (to include the MBTI) include 1) voluntary participation, meaning there should be no coercion or deception when inviting participants to contribute to your efforts, 2) Informed consent, which involves ensuring “participants fully understand what they are being asked to do and that they are informed if there are any potential negative consequences of such participation”, 3) Confidentiality and anonymity, confidentiality meaning the participants are known but their identity is not released with their results and anonymity meaning the participants are not known, 4) Potential for harm, meaning all potentially harmful outcomes are expressed to the participant upfront, and 5) Communicating results which is based on three sub-issues including plagiarism, academic fraud, and misinterpreting results (American Psychological Association, 2017). Each of these considerations should be accounted for before, during, and after the use of a research instrument. Being that the topic of discussion thus far has been the application of this instrument in the workplace, there are a few specific ethical considerations that should demand attention. For example, voluntary participation and informed consent, these two ethical considerations are important to remember considering in the workplace the option to administer questionnaires, observe behaviors and responses, etc. without having to inform the subjects or employees. Potential for harm is also key when using instruments like these in the workplace. If for example you intend to promote or demote based on information that includes but is not limited to the score results, this information must be made clear to the participants- participants must understand any and all potentially harmful outcomes that participating in the test might result in. ◦

American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved February 28, 2004, from https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

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16Personalities(2011-2019). Retrieved from https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types

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Carlson, J. G. (1985). Recent Assessments of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(4), 356.

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Capraro, R. M., & Capraro, M. M. (2002). Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Score Reliability Across Studies: A Meta-Analytic Reliability Generalization Study. Educational & Psychological Measurement, 62(4), 590.

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The Myers Briggs Foundation(2019). Retrieved from https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbtipersonality-type/mbti-basics

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The Myers-Briggs Foundation. (2019). Reliability and Validity. Retrieved from https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/reliability-and-validity.htm? bhcp=1

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Keirsey, D. Please Understand Me II. Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis Book Co., 2002. The Myers & Briggs Foundation. (2018). MBTI Basics. Retrieved from https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/home.htm?bhcp=1

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Pittenger, D. J. (2005). Cautionary Comments Regarding the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 57(3), 210–221....