What is your Myer-Briggs personality type? A different take

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality typing system based on Carl Jung’s cognitive types that categorises people into 16 main types along four different axes – introversion/extraversion; sensing/intuiting; thinking/feeling; judging/perceiving.

For example, ISFJ is the MBTI personality type who is introverted (I - more in touch with one’s inner world), sensing (S - in touch which concrete reality), feeling (F - ethically-focussed), and judging (J - organising/controlling the environment over "being flexible").

Many MBTI professionals don't believe in the popular online test as it is self-reported and hence difficult to determine what our personality is like. We have our biases in how we see ourselves. Personality behaviour definitions, even if complex, can be somewhat unfalsifiable.

Typologists such as Casual Cognition reject the traditional dichotomies of the MBTI. Each of us “feel” (evaluate ethics), “think” (evaluate objective phenomena), “sense” (perceive causal concrete phenomena/patterns), and “intuit” (perceive acausal/abstract connections).

To type people, many typologists use the “cognitive functions” that Carl Jung outlined in his books – these functions are ways people approach and “digest” life. All 16 types use four of eight different functions in different orders of preference.

Cognitive functions include introverted feeling (attuning to one’s inner being), extraverted feeling (the social economy/interconnectedness), introverted thinking (deductive/pure logic), and extraverted thinking (inductive logic/seeking breadth of evidence).

The other four are extraverted intuition (seeing multiple simultaneous perspectives), introverted intuition (seeing one holistic future probability), introverted sensing (categorising lots of data accurately), extraverted sensing (being deeply viscerally present in the moment).

The cognitive functions the ISFJ uses are introverted sensing (Si), extraverted feeling (Fe), introverted thinking (Ti) and extraverted intuition (Ne) in that order. This means that Si and Fe will be the strongest processes and Ti and Ne, while present, might be undervalued.

The observant ISFJ will categorise vast amounts of information and experiences, sensing patterns (Si), which can serve to help or care for others (Fe). They can surprise you with their personal logical analyses (Ti), and their willingness to step out of their comfort zone (Ne).

Bottom line: Once we know our thinking style according to Carl Jung’s cognitive functions, we can learn what our blind spots are. We can develop the way we want to (or into a more balanced version of ourselves). By understanding who we are, we can fulfil our potential.