Category Archives: Psychology

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Attitudes Defined

Posted on by
Reply

Attitudes determine how and individual uses his /  her four functions.   The two attitudes developed by Jung are those of extraversion and introversion.  These two attitudes refer to the way in which an individual relates to his/ her environment.  Extraverts relate to their environment outwardly, their focus is on people and objects in the outside world.  An extrovert gains psychological energy from the outside world.  Extraverts interact continuously with the environment, are easily approached by others, talk through situations in order to think, and are energized by numbers of people . Approximately 75% of the U.S.  population prefer the attitude of extraversion and 25% of the population prefer introversion . Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs, the developers of the Myers-Briggs Type Instrument (MBTI), devised the second set of attitudes judging and perceiving.  The attitudes of judging  and perceiving have a dual purpose their primary purpose as stated by  Myers is to “describe unidentifiable attitudes and behaviors to the outside world ”.  An individual who prefers the judging  attitude seeks order, structure and closure in their environment.  An individual who prefers the attitude of perceiving seeks a flexible, spontaneous and open-ended environment.   Approximately 50% of the U.S. population prefer the attitude of judging and the other 50% prefer the attitude of perceiving.   The second purpose of the judging and perceiving attitudes is used in conjunction with the attitudes of extraversion  and introversion to determine which of the functions is the dominant function and which is the auxiliary function.

 

Myers-Briggs Personality Type and Decision-Making

Posted on by
1

Within the framework of Carl Jung’s personality type paradigm the thinking (T) / feeling (F) preference dichotomy has the most significant influence on the decision making process.   A preference for the thinking(T) function constitutes an objective impersonal approach to decision making  while a preference for the feeling (F) function constitutes a subjective values driven approach.            The sensing (S)  / intuition (N)  preference  dichotomy is the second factor that comes into play in the decision making process . Individuals with a preference for sensing (S) focus on  past experience and  tangible / concrete criteria when confronted with decision making and problem solving while those with a preference for  intuition (N) focus on future possibilities and broad , general issues .Personalities types with preference for both sensing (S) and  thinking (T) …STs focus on past experience, and objective,  tangible/ concrete data . The personality  types included in this group include ISTJ , ESTJ , ISTP and ESTP . Personality types with a preference for both  sensing (S) and feeling (F)….SFs focus on past experience and subjective tangible/ concrete data . The personality types included in this group include ISFJ, ESFJ , ISFP and ESFP. Personality types with a preference for intuition (N)  and thinking (T) ….NTs utilize objective criteria while focusing on  future directed broad  concepts and possibilities  .  These personalities types include INTJ , ENTJ , INTP , and ENTP. Personality types with a preference intuition (N) and feeling (F) …..NFs  utilize  subjective criteria and focus on future directed broad concepts and possiblilities .These types include INFJ , ENFJ, INFP and ENFP.  

The third preference set that is used in the decision making process is the perceiving (P) / judging(J)  dichotomy.  Individuals with a preference for the perceiving  (P)  attitude want to continue to take in information and defer decision making in an effort to acquire additional information . While those with a preference for judging (J) want to take in data and come to closure as quickly as possible .  Individuals with a preference for judging (J) are more at ease once a decision has been made.

 Personality Types who use objective ,concrete/  tangible criteria , strive for closure and come to decisions quickly include ISTJ and ESTJ.  Personality types who use objective , concrete/ tangible criteria and defer decision-making  include ISTP and ESTP. Personality types who use subjective , tangible/ concrete data and are comfortable with closure include ISFJ and ESFJ .  Types who use subjective  tangible / concrete data and are not comfortable with closure include ISFP and ESFP.  

Personality types who utilize objective criteria while focusing on future directed broad concepts and possibilities , and come to decisions quickly include INTJ and ENTJ .        

 Types who utilize  subjective criteria while focusing  on future directed broad concepts and possiblilities , use subjective and defer decision-making to continue to take-in additional information  include INFP and ENFP.

There appears to be no direct correlation between the extraversion (E)  /  introversion (I)  preference  dichotomy with regard to problem solving and decision making process.