Do you believe in the accuracy of Meyers Briggs and other Personality Tests?

[Anonymous]

Many employers use them. I personally believe they are a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

I don't see Meyers Briggs as the gospel truth, but the analysis has been very useful to me in helping to understand some family members and acquaintances - just a bit more insight into why they might be seeing things or reacting to situations the way that they do.

Like many others, I've taken the test several times online and came out as several different types. However, when I took the Meyers Briggs through work, it turns out that I was right on the line on a couple of parameters - E/I, for example. (This makes sense - I am an ambivert). So it's not surprising that my 'type' comes out slightly differently depending on what day I took the online test.

Meyers Briggs definitely has limitations, and it's not fair to pigeonhole someone based on their personality assessment.....but it's a tool, and one that I've found to be helpful in a number of relationships.

[Anonymous]

Many years ago I took one of these tests that related to determining your management style. I found it very helpful in teaching me that people can have very different styles and if you listen carefully you can determine someone else’s style and that can really help in how you work with them.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the online version is not very accurate. You get what you pay for. Our family has taken them in professional settings for one reason or another and they are pretty accurate. Some people are more analytical others are more intuitive. Some people lead and make decisions quickly others are the opposite. Not everyone is the same.

[Anonymous]

Like several others, I have found the Meyers Briggs test to be very helpful as a manager. Our office does this test for all employees, and it helps me understand why people react the way they do and why this person isn't really driving me nuts on purpose but instead it's how they process the world around them.

[Anonymous]

Seriously is it so hard to understand that some people are introverted and other extroverted and that it can help to know for various reasons. As a manger, parent, choosing careers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like the horoscope, you see what you want to see.

--PhD psyc.

I’m so happy to see a professional say this! That’s what I think but I have no experience in the field. The test seems ridiculous to me. I took it several times a few years back and my results were basically in the middle for everything. Which makes sense because a) people rarely fall to one extreme or the other with any personality trait and b) the test sets up false dichotomies.

And the results sound exactly like horoscopes.

But if somebody finds the test really helpful, whatever.

PhD = “professional”

Um, actually the reliable personality tests have been overwhelmingly developed by PHD psychologists as that is their area of research. That is the Big Five research cited earlier. None are gospel, the predict some variance in human behavior but can be useful in understanding yourself and how to interact with others.

MBTI loses a lot of utility because the scale is bifurcated when your actual score may be closer to the middle.


PhD in psychology is not an expert in this field it’s stupid to act like they are.

But that typical of a Ph.D

[Anonymous]

^^^^ you can’t even figure out quotes... so

[Anonymous]

I’m a science PhD and I’m shocked (well okay, not really) that someone who apparently has a PhD in a field related to psychology doesn’t understand that Myers Briggs is nothing like horoscopes.

[Anonymous]

Complete BS way for consultants to make $$ & put people in convenient boxes. (Head of retained executive search firm)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a science PhD and I’m shocked (well okay, not really) that someone who apparently has a PhD in a field related to psychology doesn’t understand that Myers Briggs is nothing like horoscopes.

It's not an objective test. It can't be falsified. It's at best a general indicator reducing a spectrum to a set of binary attributes. But hey, I am a lowly engineer so I don't understand science.

[Anonymous]

I think Meyers Briggs is accurate if you answer the questions honestly and without overthinking. I took the test for the first time when I was 14. My dad was working on his masters and brought the test home. The result was ENFP. I’ve taken it at least a dozen times since then. The last time I took it, I was 50. My results have always been the same, even with different questions. I’m always an ENFP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Meyers Briggs is accurate if you answer the questions honestly and without overthinking. I took the test for the first time when I was 14. My dad was working on his masters and brought the test home. The result was ENFP. I’ve taken it at least a dozen times since then. The last time I took it, I was 50. My results have always been the same, even with different questions. I’m always an ENFP.

I have been an INFP every single time I have taken it as well.

[Anonymous]

Always an ENTJ over 35 years.

[Anonymous]

I think Meyers Briggs is accurate. But the results show a preference. People who are naturally introverted can do jobs that require the to be extroverted. They can be insightful on how certain fields can work to your type but they aren’t a miracle cure or necessarily help people get along any better in the work place.