Personality Profiling

Back in middle school, my dad introduced me to a personality test called the "Meyer-Briggs" test. It is not so much a test as it a questionnaire designed to figure out how individual people interact with other individuals and the world around them based on the psychological preferences. It was developed by Katherine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs-Meyer after the theories originated from psychologist Carl Jung. The four letter combinations can come from a series of 8 different letters:
Either
E (Extroversion) or I (Introversion)
S (Sensing) or N (iNtuition)
T (Thinking) or F (Feeling)
J (Judging) or P (Perceiving)

This leaves up to 16 different possible combinations for personalities. Naturally, the entire world cannot be generally categorized into 16 different categories, but it is scary to find how accurately that description suits you. The tests are designed as questionnaires where you pick which of two situations is more likely to suit you. For example, "Would you rather go out to a party or stay home and read a book" and based on what you answer (there are anywhere from 30-60 questions depending on where you take the test (there are countless websites offering free tests).

Recently, my friend also got into the Meyer-Briggs test and wanted to see if I fit into the personality profile that he thought I did. Now I knew my 4 letter combination, but this test was based more on the S/N and T/F aspects. Ironically enough, the result I got from the test he sent me was "the Idealist" and it gave possible 4 letter combinations that Idealists would have, and believe it or not, the 4 letter combination I received when I took the test back in May was on there. And the more I read the description, the more I could identify it to myself. I saw aspects of myself vividly.

Yesterday, my friend and I got to talking about this personality profile thing and how it's interesting to discover what your friends personalities are compared to yours. Obviously, it's not a science so it's destined to be flawed. My friend and I are technically supposed to not get along very well, which is sometimes evident in that we both get annoyed at how the other chooses to approach things. I think most of it is based on variations. Like, you get "labeled" with a certain personality, but the variations between the letters can account for the variations in people. So while 2 people may share a similar personality, they could be different based on which aspects are more evident.

So, at the end of the day I guess it doesn't really matter if I'm an idealist or an INFJ or an ENTP, although more and more businesses are using these tests to see how well their employees collaborate and suit this type of work, but at this point it's just weird to see how whether or not I'm more clean or messy or whether it's important for me to be on time or not that is able to describe my personality so well.

So if you're curious, I'd say it's worth a google check.