Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Meyers built on the model developed by Carl Jung in his 1921 publication Psychological Types expanding it and giving it a practical application. Where Jung described three personality preference scales and eight personality types, Briggs and Meyers determined that there were four personality preferences and sixteen personality types. In the 1940's Briggs and Meyers began development of a test instrument, an "indicator", which has been refined over time and continues to be widely used today.

Four Dimensions of Personality Type

• (E) Extraversion <---> Introversion (I)
  How we interact with the world and where we direct our energy
• (S) Sensing <---> Intuition (N)
  The kind of information we naturally notice
• (T) Thinking <---> Feeling (F)
  How we make decisions
• (J) Judging <---> Perceiving (P)
  Whether we prefer to live in a decisive, planned and structured way or in a more flexible and spontaneous way taking in information

  Note that the words associated with type often have different connotations from the way they are used in everyday language. Each dimension illustrates a continuum within which we have a preference even though we use both. One is not better than another, just different.

• Four Temperaments: NF, NT, SJ, SP

Sixteen Patterns (The Permutations & Combinations)

I S T J	I S F J	I N F J	I N T J
I S T P	I S F P	I N F P	I N T P
E S T P	E S F P	E N F P	E N T P
E S T J	E S F J	E N F J	E N T J

People: Katharine Briggs, Isabel Briggs Myers, Carl Jung, Paul Tieger, Barbara Baron-Tieger, Otto Kroeger, David Keirsey

Publications:

• Bridges, William. (1992). The Character of Organizations: Using Jungian Type in Organizational Development. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black Publishing.
• Keirsey, David and Bates, Marilyn. (1984). Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types. Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis Book Company.
• Kroeger, Otto and Thuesen, Janet M. (1988). Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types that Determine How We Live, Love, and Work. New York, NY: Delta.
• Kroeger, Otto with Thuesen, Janet M. (1992). Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job. New York, NY: Delta.
• Myers, Isabel Briggs with Meyers, Peter B. (1980). Gifts Differing. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
• Tieger, Paul D. and Barron-Tieger, Barbara. (1995). Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type, Second Edition. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.

Web Sites

Keirsey Temperament Sorter and Keirsey Temperament Theory
Center for Applications of Psychological Type, Inc.
Association for Psychological Type
Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.

Related Topics:

Home | Models and Theories | Issues | Style Diversity

Updated March 5, 2000