What Personality?

Hi there. Before I wade straight in here, since this is my first post on Boadicea’s Chariot, I thought it only polite to say hello.

I have my own WordPress blog, but have also been invited to contribute to this one so since, unlike mine, people actually seem to read this one occasionally I thought I’d give it a go.

My first offering isn’t especially exciting or controversial, which is probably best as Idon’t want to raise unrealistic hopes for the furture. Hope you like it though….

This week started off in a rather introspective manner as I attended a course largely based around the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment.

If you are not familiar with MBTI you are obviously starved of management courses as in my experience it is quite prevalent – this is the third time that I have been assessed using this psychometric technique. Based broadly on the work of the philosopher Carl Jung it seeks to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.

MBTI assess you against four ‘dichotomies’ giving a total of sixteen possible ‘Types’:
Extroversion (E) – Introversion (I)
Sensing (S) – Intuition (N)
Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)
Judgement (J) – Perception (P)

The description for each of these dichotomies is very detailed and beyond the scope of my blog, but clearly you can see how this can be very useful in identifying why you behave in the way that you do and to help provide an understanding of why others behave in different ways which to you may seem irrational or even crazy.

The trouble is, after two days I’m still not entirely clear who I am – in fact I may be more confused than when I started.

The assessment is first done by questionnaire, where you are asked a series of either/or type questions. This is a recipe for trouble as I can never answer a simple either/ or question. My wife says this is because I am indecisive: this may be true, but I’m not sure.

In this instance however, it is genuinely fraught with difficulties. The questionnaire seeks responses about your behaviour and preferences in certain scenarios and in almost all cases I want to answer ‘it depends’. I don’t remember any of the actual questions, but they are things like ‘when I am with a group of people I like to speak my mind’. Well, it depends, doesn’t it? Who are these people? How well do I know them? How confident am I feeling on that particular day? How knowledgeable am I about the subject? How much do I care? See what I mean?

Then there’s the problem of how to tell whether how I would react is my innate preference (which is what I am supposed to be answering based upon) or whether it is a learnt response, especially in the work place where you learn to act in a certain way to be professional and to be seen as credible. And is my answer how I would really react, or how I would like to think that I would react?

As I said: minefield. This is why, after doing the questionnaire three times, I have come out with three different answers.

This time the questionnaire said: INTJ.

However, before getting this answer, as a group we get to explore the four dichotomies and come up with our own self assessment. In this I decided I was ISFJ.

Not much agreement there then.

I am not convinced about either entirely, but have decided to stick with my self assessment as it is closest. Clearly I am in touch with my feminine side as this is the most popular type for women, whereas men tend toward ISTJ.

It’s not perfect: for instance there is a bit about how I would have done really well at school due to my respect for authority and love of uniforms and structure. When I mentioned this to my mother she almost fell off her chair laughing and reminded me again of all the times she was called into school due to my preference for wearing a leather jacket rather than a blazer.

So is it any good this MBTI stuff? I think so, as long as you use it as it is intended as a tool to better understand yourself and others, not as a way to pigeon-hole people. Group hug anyone?

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Author: Darrel Kirby

I am what I am.

42 thoughts on “What Personality?”

  1. Hello and welcome Darrel, my name is Val, I’m…..well, you’ll see 🙂

    I have read a little of Carl Jung, very interesting, in parts. Dr Stephen R Covey is also a good read, possibly better.
    Is MBTI any good? you ask; the easy answer is; I’m not sure.

  2. I know exactly what you mean about the answering of questions on a yes or no, either or basis. I too wish to clarify the circumstances before I commit to an answer…

    Personally I feel most tests of this type can only go so far in determining the type of personality you are. A number of people would answer them according to the expected ‘right’ response. I have never done any management training, BTW, because the NHS can’t afford to train us all….

  3. Good evening and welcome, we have similar tests down here, I do it every year and always get the same result EPRS.

    (Eastern Province Rugby Supporter 😉 we’re playing a vital promotion / relegation match at 7pm tonight, there’s an outside chance that we just might go and and play with the big boys next year)

    I do get an LSRS result occasionally during June and December (Loyal Springbok Rugby Supporter :))

  4. On a technical matter. Authors are encouraged to limit their usage of the front page to a dozen lines or so by use of the ‘more’ function in the create post page. It acts as a page break.

    I’ve inserted one for you on this post, if you edit your post you’ll see what I’ve done.

    Regards

    S
    🙂

  5. Myers-Briggs dates from at least the 1970s and I can’t remember when they came up with it now, but it was all the vogue at Cranfield on the MBA program in that decade. From an ESTJ, I gradually morphed into an ENTJ, much to my surprise and everyone else’s, as I clambered up the career ladder and supposedly became more intuitive in the process.

  7. Hello, my name is Backside and I’m a blogaholic.
    Oh, shut up, Backside, and be polite to this newcomer.
    OK. 🙂

  8. So, anyway, before I was so rudely anticipated, my No. 2 daughter is an (clears throat, assumes executive tone) HR Specialist. She does all this psychometric mallarkey with allegedly high-powered people in industry. If you need some help, I can arrange an introduction, for the usual consideration naturally. 🙂

  9. Apparently I am
    # moderately expressed introvert
    # moderately expressed intuitive personality
    # slightly expressed feeling personality
    # very expressed judging personality

    But I don’t agree with the latter at all! I feel I do not judge people.

  10. Soutie, what is the difference between Add a new post (like what I use), and Create a new Post (which I can’t see)? Where is word ‘More’? Never seen it myself, have I been doing wrong all this time?

  11. Hi Darrel 🙂 Glad you made it!

    I’m ENFJ which means I have a lot of trouble with logic, which is about right! 🙂 But I think the Winnie the Pooh Personality Indicator is more accurate; Kanga with Tigger rising and spasmodic Piglet and Eeyore showers blowing in from the west later.

    I feel you are probably Rabbit with Badger in the ascendant and scattered, occasional Piglet. 😉

  12. Val

    The ‘more’ instruction (read page break) is the 4th little square from the right on the new post page. Read ‘add’ for my ‘create’ in my comment #4

    I wouldn’t say that you’ve been ‘doing it wrong’ in the past, you just haven’t been doing it, no problem, I’ve been inserting them for you (on your ‘Stump’ post for example).

    I really don’t mind but I’m not here 24/7, so sometimes I get to it a bit late.

  13. Hi, Darrell.

    Tried Pseu’s link and I am allegedly ENFP.

    So, not very different from Janh1 then, but I do differ with her about whether there was ever a Badger in the Pooh stories. Unless she’s referring to the Disney travesties, of course.

  14. An ex army buddy of mine had a franchise for Psychometric Testing. He did well made money, retired and now lives in Johannesburg. He tested Toc and his wife. Utter bollocks!

    Hi Darrell.

  16. Jeez what a pack of piffle and hogwash!
    Why do people allow themselves to be interrogated like this?

    How wise I was to be self employed for 35 years.
    None of their damned business anyway, you get paid, you do your job, what more do they want?
    Blood?
    No wonder the bloody country is in the mess it is.

  17. Oh God, I’m an ISFJ apparently, but I’m no St Theresa. Whenever I take part in such things it’s totally depressing, so I won’t do it again.

    Jan, as usual, cheered me up and made me laugh. However, like Mr Mackie, I have no knowledge of a badger in the Pooh stories. Didn’t matter though, to me.

    Glad you have come out of your ISFJ shell, Darrell! 😉

    Nice post. 🙂

  19. Welcome Darrel!

    I reckon these tests should be banned. They are positively dangerous since they ‘pigeon hole’ people – and can promote a pretty poor self-image in the susceptible.

    I’ve just done this test: moderately expressed interaction, intuitive, thinking and slightly judgemental.

    What a difference!

    I did one of these ‘self-knowledge’ tests at about eighteen. I was not in a good space at the time and the resultant analysis didn’t do much to cheer me up… The analysis reckoned I was an extremist likely to commit suicide (no this not the ghost of Boadicea blogging!) or would be involved in some sort of dreadful scandal … well I’m still waiting…. ! 🙂

  20. Darrel, a word about protocol! It is usual to acknowledge comments before too long…..just out of politeness if nothing else. 🙂

  21. Janus :

    Darrel, a word about protocol! It is usual to acknowledge comments before too long…..just out of politeness if nothing else. :-)

    🙂

  23. My last employer sent us all on a 5 day course at Royal Holloway during which we did umpety ump of these tests. Strangely enough the troops performed much better than the management who apparently lied a lot. I could have told them that for nothing.

  24. Crikey, what a lot of responses. Apologies for not responding sooner, but: a) I’m more used to one response per year and b) I’ve been out for the evening to a beer festival. Will get back to you all when I sober up! G’night.

  26. jazz606 :

    My last employer sent us all on a 5 day course at Royal Holloway during which we did umpety ump of these tests. Strangely enough the troops performed much better than the management who apparently lied a lot. I could have told them that for nothing.

    Jazz, that’s why they were managers, innit?

  28. Cheers Val! When Soutie hasn’t done it for you, Bearsy and I have… No great problem, but it does help if people learn to use the button for themselves – they can then decide where their punch-line comes in 🙂

  32. Soutie :

    On a technical matter. Authors are encouraged to limit their usage of the front page to a dozen lines or so by use of the ‘more’ function in the create post page. It acts as a page break.

    I’ve inserted one for you on this post, if you edit your post you’ll see what I’ve done.

    Regards

    S
    :)

    Thanks for that Soutie, I have only grasped the very basics of this blogging lark and welcome any educational tips.

  33. coldwaterjohn :

    … as I clambered up the career ladder and supposedly became more intuitive in the process.

    That’s odd, I thought people usually get less intuitive as they climb the career ladder!

  34. Hmmm, I’m sensing a degree of scepticism for this MBTI stuff. Your views probably vary depending on your MBTI type…
    There seem to be a lot of Es out there, so glad to meet a kindred spirit in Bilby!
    I definitely need to seek out the Pooh test, that sounds much better – thanks Jan 🙂
    I agree with Boa that self tests can be a dangerous thing and doing it on-line is probably not helpful. We spent a long time discussing what it all meant and I think that is critical. In that way we also do a public service in keeping people like Janus’ daughter lucratively employed.

  35. Just a bit of ‘out of the box’ thinking, Mr Mackie, Bilby, Pseu! The riverbank is just east of 100 acre wood with Nutwood on the other side. No reason at all why Algy Pug, in his tweed plus-fours, shouldn’t wander down to Badger’s place for a pleasant chat. They were contemporaries, after all.

    Don’t bother looking for the Pooh test, Darrel. I made it up. But I do exclusive consultations by appointment 😉

    Bloody hell, Janus. Give the man a chance! Darrel is an *alcohol expert.* You can never expect him to be at the keyboard on a Friday night! (This must be true because it said it in the local paper – not the Friday night thing, to be clear, the alcohol thing. And afaik he hasn’t sued them for libel yet)

  36. Welcome Darrel:

    I have never had an MBTI assesment, but quite a few Belbin Team Inventory ones. If I do these honestly, I normally come out as a plant with a few of the characteristics of a shaper, which is possibly reasonable. However, it is much more fun to try and answer in such a way as to arrive at a team role that is opposite to what you are. I think all such assessments are a waste of time.

  37. On the course I did we were given the following excercise.

    Following a weekend fishing expedition you’re wrecked on a desert island with a limited inventory of stores and equipment. You find a small boat which is just about seaworthy.

    You are given the following choices:-

    (a) Stay on the island and hope to be rescued.

    (b) Try and sail to safety in the boat. BUT if you excercise this option you can only take six items of food and equipment.

    We were given 5 minutes individually to decide on the options and in the case of option (b) what stuff to take.

    I spent the five minutes thinking about my forthcoming cycle ride along the Kennet and Avon canal.

    We were then divided into groups of three to negotiate the best course of action and as there was a class member missing I ended up in a group of two, myself and a fleet manager ‘X’ .

    X fixed me with a beady eye and said ” I think we should take the boat and try to reach land and here’s list of the necessary stores”. I subequently agreed with everything X proposed which pleased him no end. We finished the task well within the time allowed, whilst the classroom resounded with the noise of the other groups arguing the toss. Some of the discussions were very heated and more one group failed to reach any decision at all.

    I was told that I would be considered a ‘consensual’ type of manager, should I ever become one. (Mrs Jazz laughed her head off at that) and X was congratulated on his leadership and clear thinking.

    Of course I was dealing with the real situation i.e. I was sitting in a room in Egham. Had I really been marooned on an island I’d have probably had to hit X over the head with the boathook thoughtfully provided in the inventory.

  38. Just now, I did the test for the first time.

    Your Type is
    INTJ
    Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging

    Never having believed in psycho-babble, do I need ‘professional’ help?

    OZ

  40. Thank you all for your kind welcomes.
    Jan: you may have made up the Pooh test, but I seem to recall that there are some genuine management type philosophies based around the honey-loving bear, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find someone’s beaten you to it. If not, get in there quick whilst there’s still a niche. As for the alcohol expert, I think it was actually pub expert I was accused of, but your basic premise remains sound.
    Love the approaches to management training – I will bear them in mind.
    OZ – professional help only required if you find yourself becoming addicted to these tests!

  42. christinaosborne :

    Jeez what a pack of piffle and hogwash!
    Why do people allow themselves to be interrogated like this?

    How wise I was to be self employed for 35 years.
    None of their damned business anyway, you get paid, you do your job, what more do they want?
    Blood?
    No wonder the bloody country is in the mess it is.

    I tend to agree with you COB, all these so called theories and psychotic testing are rubbish. They are produced to make the sellers of the system shit loads a money.

    However welcome Darrel

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