Hi All, This is not necessarily my forum, as I'm not involved in this particular industry, but I'm a work/life coach who's used MBTI very successfully for many, many years, and I wanted to contribute to the discussion, since the thread came across my desktop.
I'm always amazed at the vitriol that is frequently heaped up on MBTI. I find so much of it coming from a poorly informed perspective, from people who don't fully understand the instrument and the thinking behind it or have taken it in a way that cannot support their best needs. When administered under appropriate circumstances and verified and interpreted by a qualified professional %u2013 which is the way it was always meant to be %u2013 MBTI can be a truly eye-opening experience, a real revelation in terms of understanding yourself and others. The fact that it has for decades been %u2013 and still remains - the gold standard in personality self-assessment testifies to that. So why the complaints? One of the reasons, I believe, has to do with the fact that MBTI was never meant to be taken in the way so many people do it nowadays - online, with quick, cut-and-dry personality descriptions and without the supporting services of a qualified MBTI counsellor. MBTI is a self-reporting instrument, and psychology fully recognizes the personal bias that can creep into these. That's where work with a qualified professional becomes extremely important - to help you verify your type, identify your best-fit type, and make the results relevant to your particular situation. And I'm not even talking about the proliferation of fakes - assessments that claim to be MBTI but, in fact, aren't. There is only one place that I would recommend for taking the assessment online, and it%u2019s at www.mbticomplete.com. (No, I don%u2019t get commissions from them.) This is administered by the actual MBTI people, who know what they are doing and are applying all the latest research to the tool and its interpretation. It will cost you $59.95, but you%u2019ll get the real thing, and you%u2019ll actually be taken through the explanation of what each reported preference means in real life, as well as through the type verification process. Even then, I don%u2019t believe it%u2019s a substitute for one-on-one work with a counselor. Another problem arises when the results are used in a less than appropriate manner. To use MBTI to determine an individual%u2019s suitability for a job or ability to perform is absolutely unacceptable, and the ethical rules for MBTI administrators are unequivocal on that. There are so many factors that determine one's success on the job that you just can't rely on a simple personality assessment of any kind. Finally, I%u2019d like to correct one of the posters above, who said that MBTI was about identifying personality traits. MBTI does not actually measure personality traits, nor does it predict behavior. The only thing it identifies is very broad patterns in which we collect information about the world around us and the way we make decisions on that information. The actual composition of traits of within those patterns (i.e., kind, aggressive, compassionate, domineering, etc.) is, of course, unpredictable and completely unique to every individual in question. What MBTI is, is an excellent tool (one of many), which, when used properly, can help us gain a better understanding of who we are. Once we have that understanding, we are empowered to make more informed choices about how we want to be in the world, rather than simply responding to circumstances in a conditioned, poorly-informed way. It is about helping us to best use our unique gifts to benefit ourselves and those around us. That%u2019s all there is to it. I hope this was helpful in some way. Best wishes to all. Izabella Tabarovsky www.projectcreativevision.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=25081 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
