The Definition of Personality 

Human beings are unique in the animal kingdom. We have a bipedal physicality, a distinct compositional language system, a capacity to reason, and an ability to make critical decisions. But it’s our complex behavioral patterns, commonly referred to as our “personality,” that sets us apart from other animals.  

While family structures and socio-cultural backgrounds contribute to how we think, feel, and behave, our personality is primarily determined by the brain’s cognitive functions.  

From childhood to adulthood, personality has a profound impact on our daily lives and strongly influences how we interact with others. 

Why It’s Important to Know Your Personality Type

With over 8 billion people on the planet, it’s becoming even more important to know your personality type. We live, work, and play with a wide range of people, so you may wonder why you think or act the way you do. You may be curious as to why your behavior is so different from family members, friends, college buddies, and colleagues.  

Delving deeper into your psychology will help you to find answers to those persistent questions such as ‘Why do I think or react the way I do?’ You’ll also be able to understand others better so that you can function more effectively in the world.  

An extremely important thing to know about personality typing is that it’s not designed to pigeonhole a person or to show that one personality is better than another personality.  

Personality typing is an empowering personal development tool that provides you with many benefits such as:    

• Understanding your thoughts, feelings, motivations, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and wants. 
• Identifying relevant opportunities relating to a job. 
• Accessing the right type of education and career information. 
• Planning and making wise decisions relating to a career. 
• Presenting yourself effectively to gain access to courses or jobs. 
• Networking and building better business relationships. 
• Being more confident in a job interview. 
• Thriving in the workplace.  
• Building better relationships with family and friends.  

Personality Typing and the MBTI 

Human psychology is extremely complicated. For this reason, ancient and modern scholars, scientists, and medical professionals have endeavored to unlock the mysteries of the psyche. 

Well-known psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung have conducted extensive research and formulated their theories on psychology and personality typing. 

It was not until the mother-daughter duo Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Briggs began to develop the MBTI during the 1940s and 1950s, that personality typing took pride of place in the field of modern psychology.  

Inspired by Carl Jung’s work on psychological types, Myers and Briggs wanted to make Jung’s work easier to understand and use in the real world. Their ground-breaking personality type inventory was published in 1962, and the MBTI continues to be used by individuals, employers, and life coaches, all around the world. 

How Does the MBTI Work? 

You may have heard of different ways to classify and describe different personality types such as the Classical Greeks’ Four Basic Temperaments, or The Big Five. But no personality classification system is as comprehensive as the MBTI. 

The MBTI lists 16 distinctive personality types according to Carl Jung’s four dichotomies. Introversion/extroversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving.  

1. Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E). How you expand energy. Do you prefer to draw your energy from your internal world or the external world? People who are introverts prefer to spend time with a small group of people while extroverts prefer to socialize with lots of different people. 
2. Sensing (S) or Intuition (N). How you receive information. Do you prefer to use your senses to receive information from your surroundings, or intuition to interpret and add your meaning? 
3. Thinking (T) or Feeling (F). How you make decisions. Do you take a logical approach, or prefer to look at people and circumstances before deciding? 
4. Judging (J) or Perceiving (P): How you interact with the outside world. Do you prefer to have things decided and organized or like to remain open to new information and options? 

Combining these letters makes up a four-letter acronym for each preference of each of the 16 personality types.  

This simple coding system shows you how each of the four preferences interact, and which one you tend to use first. For example, if your preferences are Introverted (I), Sensing (S), Feeling (F), and Judging (J), your personality type is ISFJ.  

How you use these preferences can change over time and some of these preferences may be used more often than others.