Personal Narrative: The Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment

How many of you argue or debate with a particular person? (pause) My top offender is my brother John. In an argument awhile ago, I was intrigued at our unique responses to an unexpected event. Our youngest sister Anna spilled paint in various places around our dining room and kitchen. We both agreed she needed to clean it up. John bluntly told Anna she shouldn’t have made the mess. I told Anna it was no big deal. Then we both gave her instructions on how to clean it up. After this episode, I wondered why John and I say basically the same thing so differently.
I never understood why John and I say basically the same thing so differently (pause) until I took the Myers-Briggs personality assessment. According to the official Myers-Briggs website

MBTIonline.com, published by CPPinc. 2016, Katherine Briggs, and Isabel Myers created the assessment, basing their research on the work of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. This assessment asks a series of questions. Your answers result in 4 letters which explain parts of your personality. Today, will give you an overview of the Myers-Briggs types and two of the benefits of understanding your type.
The first set of types is extroversion and introversion. For this set, the key word is energy. Extroverts recharge by being with people and introverts receive energy when they spend time alone. How do you recharge your phone? You plug it into an electrical outlet. We also have to recharge. How many of you feel refreshed after spending time alone? Me too! That means that the rest of you probably recharge by interacting with a group of people. Your type explains how you normally receive energy.
The next set of types is sensing and intuition. This explains how you take in information. Let’s take a look at this desk. What do you think of when you see the desk? Do think of the color, length, or the type of material it is made out of, or do you compare it to your desk at home, think of a memories related to desks, or what type of person would like this desk? Sensors are prone to think in terms of facts-the height, color, and material, while intuitives make big picture connections, and think more about the meaning behind things.
Thinking and feeling is next. This is how you make decisions. Think of a pair of green tinted sun glasses. When you wear them, everything you look at appears green. Thinkers make decisions through the lens of logic, weighing the facts with a methodical approach, while feelers tend to make decisions based on their values and how their decisions will impact others. Do you make decisions through logic or how they will impact others?
And lastly judging and perceiving. This preference reflects how you approach the outside world. (pause) Let’s say all of us took the week off of school. (pause) Raise your hands if you would plan what you would do during the week? You all are most likely judgers. And how many of you would just go with the flow and see what fun things would come up? You are probably perceivers. I think of judging and perceiving as structured and organized vs spontaneous and flexible. Neither preference is better than the other. They are just two different ways to live.
All of the combinations of these letters create 16 different types.
Now that we have that review under our belt, we can move on to the exciting benefits of the Myers-Briggs assessment, how it can help you understand yourself and your relationships.
Paul and Barbra Barron-Tieger, well-known and respected trainers of the Myers-Briggs assessment in their book, the Art of Speed Reading People 1998, state “[The Myers-Briggs assessment] helps us recognize, and very clearly identify, our natural strengths and potential weaknesses.

And by allowing us to understand the ways we are alike and different, it helps us to value our differences, but to celebrate them as well.” In other words, we can use the assessment to better understand ourselves and others. There are a few things about me that I thought were peculiar a few months ago…before I took my first assessment. A few things about me used to puzzle me. Sometimes I find it hard to brainstorm and come up with original ideas, especially for essays. Sarcastic jokes are never funny to me and I sometimes annoy my friends when I won’t relax until I have completed my assignments. Not until I took my first assessment did I realize why I am this

way.
I have taken the personality test five times and each time I’ve been an ISFJ an introverted, sensing, feeling, judger.
Introverted-I need alone time to recharge. I usually do this by reading a book. My 7-year-old sister Anna is an extrovert and comes to my room to talk when she’s tired. Because I took the Myers-Briggs assessment I’ve become aware that I need to balance her recharge time and mine.
Sensing-Sometimes it’s hard for me to brainstorm how to make things better. I am a part of a leadership group and at one of our chapter meetings we brainstormed on how to plan a better something. While others were spouting off ideas, I was still thinking about how we currently did things.
Feeling-I have a problem with sarcastic jokes. (pause) They just aren’t funny to me. (pause) It’s hard for me to let things slide, especially when something can potentially hurt others. For others it’s not a big deal. This is because I have the feeling preference. I make decisions on how they can impact people and I don’t focus on logic.
Judger-I am a serious person who likes to get things done and stay on track…sometimes this bugs my friends. I use to wonder why they were fine with playing a game while we had work to do. Now I understand that at least two of those friends have the perceiving preference, so they don’t feel the need to follow a strict plan like I do.
The Myers-Briggs assessment can help you understand your relationships. Isabel Briggs Myers and her son Peter Myers, Isabel Myers helped create personality assessment and Peter carries on her work. Here is a quote from their book Gifts Differing 1995. “The merit of the theory presented here is that it enables us to expect specific personality differences in particular people and to cope with the people and the differences in a constructive way.”
How many of you argue or debate with a particular person?

My top offender is probably my brother John. In an argument awhile ago, our youngest sister Anna spilled some milk after dinner. We both agreed she needed to clean it up. John bluntly told Anna she shouldn’t have made the mess and how to clean it up. I told Anna it was no big deal and that she needed to mop up the mess. Not until I took the Myers-Brigs personality assessment did I realize why John and I say basically the same thing so differently. Now, I’ve come to realize that John and I see the world of decisions differently. Logic and facts matter deeply to John, while I consider the impact decisions have on people. Both ways of thinking are important to

decisions.
I participate and help run a local leadership club. I along with my friend Simeon serve as the team of chapter mentors. Simeon is and ENFP and (just in case you forgot) I am an ISFJ. So we have almost the exact opposite personalities (except for the feeling preference). You may think working on a team with a near opposite would be difficult, but in reality, it is very rewarding and can be quite comical at times. Simeon adds humor to lessons and announcement we create, while I help with details and structure. Both are crucial. We sometimes puzzle each other, but that only adds to the fun of working together. Knowing your type help you understand your relationships.