Personality

Zach Raab

HRM 362-0800
 Overall, personality can mean 2 main things, the characteristics of an individual or the

organized pattern of behavioral characteristics of a group of people. Personality can be seen as

the embodiment of a collection of qualities of the individual, but also how that personality is

portrayed to other people. On the intrapersonal level, personality would be described as the

“physical, mental, and social characteristics of an individual”(Personality, Dictionary.com). All

of these personality characteristics break down into 16 main personality types based on the

research by Isabel Myers, Katherine Briggs, and Carl Jung. On the extrapersonal level, this is

just how that person’s traits are shown to others. This is defined according to Dictionary.com as,

“the visible aspect of one's character as it impresses others” (Personality, Dictionary.com). This

impression that you leave on others is a result of all of those intrapersonal beliefs and

characteristics that Briggs, Myers, and Jung dissected. Overall, both of these have a strong basis

behind it, and I do not prefer one over the other, but when looking at which is most prominent, I

see the extrapersonal definition more important, as that is how one's reputation is developed and

based on. One thing that has been used for decades to show a person's personality type and help

people understand why certain people think the way they do is the MBTI.

The MBTI instrument or test is something that was developed to help people understand

and really appreciate the differences that make each person who they are. This “test” helps break

down why people think the way they do and what goes into their personality, and breaks

everything down into 16 main personality types. This test or instrument was developed by Isabel

Myers and her mother, Katharine Briggs, because they both shared the same wish for people to

really understand the human psyche. Isabel shared the same wish as her mother and took her own

observations and those of Carl Jung and developed this questionnaire to assess different “types”

of people. This questionnaire was developed over decades to test different combinations of 64
answers to break them all down into 16 personality types. In 1975, “... Isabel Myers and Mary

McCaulley, Ph.D., co-founded the Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT®), a

nonprofit organization that supports research of the MBTI instrument”(n.d., myersbriggs.org).

Overall, this test was built to distinguish between 2 options for personality distinctions.

The first personality distinction is the most common that most people know about, which

is whether the individual is extravert or an introvert. All this means is that a person is either

out-going towards others or tends to keep to themselves. The next part of the scale is between

“Sensing” or “Intuition”. A person that tests on the “Sensing” side of the scale tends to pay more

attention to reality and what their senses, the reason for why its termed “sensing”, can tell them.

This is based on facts and their hands on experience. Those who test on the “Intuition” side of

the scale pay more attention to patterns and impressions. These people love abstract ideas and

tend to think more about the future then the present. This part plays into the next set on the scale,

pointing between “Thinking” and “Feeling”. People who test on the “Thinking” side of the scale

tend to be more logically based in their decision making. Those who test on the “Feeling” side of

this category tend to take people's feelings into account when looking at options. The final set

with this test is whether the person tested is “Judging” or “Perceiving”. Those who land on the

“Judging” side prefer structure and set decision making. People that end on the “Perceiving” tend

to be more open and flexible to other options. Now another major part about the MBTI is how

reliable it is.

The reliability of the MBTI can be tested in the Test-Retest method. This is when the

same test is given to the same person on 2 different occasions. On a retest for the MBTI,

75%-90% get the same result when they retest. “When a person changes type on retest, it is

usually on one of the dichotomous pairs (e.g., E-I or S-N), and in a dichotomy where the
preference clarity was low” as was stated on the myersbriggs website (n.d., myersbriggs.org).

This remains the consistent figure across the board, even when I did this same test 2 days apart

with a few different people. I did the test-retest with my friends Mitch, Ashley, and Nate along

with my co-worker Matt. The only person that saw a change was Ashley when her result

changed from an ENFJ to an ENFP on the second retry. This would mean that this is a reliable

test for individuals and actual organizations to use. My test came out to something I projected.

My test resulted in the INTP personality type, which is what I saw coming. An INTP

personality type is an Introvert that loves thinking about the big picture and the future. The test

shows that people with that personality type think logically and like keeping options open. I

believe that this personality type fits me extremely well. I love thinking about the bigger picture,

especially when it comes to the future of my own business and when I consult those in my circle

about theirs. I am often told that I can come up with solutions and ideas for large issues very

quickly, but when thinking on smaller issues that play into the big picture, that I can lag a little

bit behind. I love finding issues and loopholes in different systems, especially when it comes to

political issues or those in large scale business ideas in esports or marketing. The only thing I

would say that I found that is wrong is that I don't like deadlines. If I am working on something

for someone else, whether at work or school, I tend to excel when there are deadlines attached to

the project. Other than that one thing, I think this is very accurate for my personality.

I took one of the people that I conducted my test-retest with, Matt, and took his results

and compared them to my own. My co-worker Matt came out to be a ESTJ. This means that the

only category that we are alike is that we are both in the “Thinking” category, other than that, we

are seen as opposites. We both hold different points of view just because we hold very different

points of view, but both use logic but disagree when using analysis. Matt is for sure the more
outgoing compared to myself, which is why he excels a lot more when we are in a group of

friends. He makes a lot of arguments coming down to his personal experiences and he sits on his

decisions even if he is wrong in an argument. The reason we get along so much is because we

can bounce so much off of each other. I guess that I can really do better would be trying to take

his way of thinking more into mind as we are discussing important topics that can be heated,

watch my temperament when we are in a large group setting, and maybe not call him out when

he is so firm on his decisions. There is one other personality model that psychologists use these

days.

The Big Five Personality Model is something that is used widely today. It breaks down

personalities into 5 main categories, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to

experience, and extraversion. Both acronyms CANOE and OCEAN are used when people talk

about the Big Five Model(Lim 2020) . Personally, I would choose to go with the Big Five Model

for hiring new employees. This is something that could be a bit more easily tested when in an

interview and talking on the phone with references. If I were to judge a person by the MBTI

model, it would take a lot longer to judge whether or not I wanted to continue on in the process

for a singular employee. It may also deter good potential employees from applying if you use the

MBTI model because it can be such a long test for a new job, but that also depends on the level

of which you are hiring from.

Overall, both models are really interesting to go with. On a professional level, the Big

Five Model can easily be implemented in the workplace. The MBTI model can be used between

friends to get a better opinion about that person and why the relationship is the way it is or to tell

how a person processes information. It is really interesting to see where everyone falls on that

scale and what that all means.

(n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from

https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/isabel-briggs-myers.

htm

Lim, A. (2020, June 15). The Big Five Personality Traits. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from

https://www.simplypsychology.org/big-five-personality.html

Personality. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/personality