MBTI Personality Assessment

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is rooted in the psychological theories of Carl Gustav Jung, one of the founding figures of analytical psychology. In his seminal 1921 work 'Psychological Types,' Jung proposed that human behavior follows predictable patterns based on cognitive preferences.

Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers spent over 20 years developing the MBTI instrument, first published in 1962. Their goal was to make Jung's theory accessible and practically useful for understanding individual differences.

While the MBTI has faced academic criticism regarding test-retest reliability, a 2019 meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Psychological Assessment found that when properly administered, the instrument shows acceptable psychometric properties. The Center for Applications of Psychological Type reports that over 2 million people take the MBTI assessment annually.

Modern research has explored connections between MBTI types and the Big Five personality model. A study by McCrae & Costa (1989) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found significant correlations between MBTI dimensions and Big Five traits, suggesting convergent validity with more empirically-validated frameworks.