Meyers-Briggs Personality Test

Anna Wheeler, Staff Writer

The Meyers-Briggs Personality Test is a psychological analysis of one’s character based on a questionnaire. It supplies insight into traits decided by your responses summarized as a five-letter acrostic that fits into one of four general categories: Analyst, Diplomat, Sentinel, or Explorer, with each category having 4 specific types belonging to one.

Your five letter acronym begins with either an I or an E, representing Introverted and Extroverted, respectively. The second letter is an S or an N, signifying (S)ensing and i(N)tuition.

The third letter is either T or F, which stand for (T)hinking and (F)eeling, respectively. The fourth letter is a J or P, which represents (J)udging and (P)erceiving. The final letter is attached to the end of the main four, and determines whether you are Assertive or Turbulent.

Your resulting personality type is then stylized in a four letter-dash fifth format, like ENFP-A.

Each personality also comes with its own tagline, such as “The Campaigner” for ENFP.

When you finish the 93 question test – which takes around twenty minutes to take – along with percentage bars that show to what degree you display each trait, the MBTI supplies an incredibly thorough eight-page analysis of your personality type. For most, the results are extremely accurate and bring forth parts of your character that you didn’t even realize existed.

Other than a description, the test results also provides an in-depth look at your strengths, weaknesses, romantic relationships, friendships, parenthood, career paths, and workplace habits. These are all evaluations of what your personality might cause your future, past, and present to look like.

After receiving your analysis, it is up to you to decide what to do with it. For example, the career paths section may offer perspective on a possible major you might want to pursue if you were unsure before.

Keep in mind, however, not all results are 100% accurate and it is up to your own self-evaluation to decide what is true about yourself and what isn’t.

I was personally categorized as a mediator and found that the analysis was rather spot on, save for a few points. After seeing how accurate the test was, I asked a couple of other staff members of Scratch Paper to take the test as well.

Anushka is a logician, Eric and Hannah are both mediators like me, Josh is a campaigner, and Athirai is split between a logician and debater. They all found the test to be reasonably valid for their results aligned with their personalities quite well.

The general consensus seems to be that the MBTI achieves what it is designed to do. But it’s important to remember that it is only one look at your character and is a broad application for people to fit into one of the sixteen defined types; While you might have the same type as some of the people around you, every individual personality is unique!

Try it for yourself here: https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test