Review of MBTI & Strong Interest Inventory

1. Review of MBTI & Strong Interest Inventory • February 12, 2011 Date

2. Myers Briggs Type Indicator • Based on Carl Jung’s Personality Theory (Psychological Types, 1921) • General Attitude: Extroversion or Introversion • Four Functions: • 1. Feeling - understanding value of conscious activity • 2. Thinking - understanding meaning of things; relies on logic and careful mental activity • 3. Sensation - means by which person knows something exists • 4. Intuition - knowing about s/t without conscious understanding of where knowledge comes from

3. Carl Jung: Personality Theory • 8 Personality Types: • Extroverted Thinking - abstract concepts are ones passed down from other people; extroverted thinkers are often found working in the research sciences and mathematics • Introverted Thinking - interpret stimuli in the environment through a subjective and creative way; interpretations are informed by internal knowledge and understanding; philosophers and theoretical scientists are often introverted thinking-oriented people • Extroverted Feeling - judge the value of things based on objective fact; comfortable in social situations, they form their opinions based on socially accepted values and majority beliefs; found working in business and politics • Introverted Feeling - make judgments based on subjective ideas and on internally established beliefs; ignore prevailing attitudes and defy social norms of thinking; thrive in careers as art critics • Extroverted Sensing - perceive the world as it really exists; perceptions are not colored by any pre-existing beliefs; jobs that require objective review, like wine tasters and proofreaders, are best filled by extroverted sensing people • Introverted Sensing - interpret the world through the lens of subjective attitudes and rarely see something for only what it is; make sense of the environment by giving it meaning based on internal reflection; often turn to various arts, including portrait painting and classical music • Extroverted Intuitive - understand the meanings of things through subliminally perceived objective fact rather than incoming sensory information; rely on hunches and often disregard what they perceive directly from their senses; inventors that come upon their invention via a stroke of insight and some religious reformers are characterized by the extraverted intuitive type • Introverted Intuitive - influenced by internal motivations even though they do not completely understand them; find meaning through unconscious, subjective ideas about the world; comprise a significant portion of mystics, surrealistic artists, and religious fanatics • Functions: People make use of two functions primarily; others inferior; hierarchy, not set type; compass analogy

4. Myers-Briggs Development • Katharine Cook Briggs & daughter, Isabel B. Myers • self-knowledge and enhancing human relationships • Two sets of attitudes: • Extroversion/Introversion & Judging/Perceiving • Two pairs of mental functions: • Sensing / Intuition & Thinking / Feeling • Step I - 4 letter “Type” / Step II - Elaboration on these themes (20 facet scales)

5. MBTI: Trait vs Type • Traits: relatively fixed patterns of personality & bx; various amounts are thought to have different values (i.e., anxiety, autonomy) • Types: all equally legitimate but qualitatively different categories; mx by amount of preference (sorting task); not mutually exclusive, just tend to prefer one method over another (i.e., thinking / feeling) • Discuss differences between s/t like MMPI vs. MBTI with regard to diagnosis, exploration, dynamics, and preferences

6. MBTI: Key Terms • Extraversion (E) • Introversion (I) • Sensing (S) • Intuition (N) • Thinking (T) • Feeling (F) • Judging (J) • Perceiving (P)

7. MBTI: Functions • Dominant Function: Most energized & accessible (ENFP) • Auxiliary Function: Balance b/w perception & judgement; tends to operate in nonpreferred attitude; less energized and accesible (In-Ff) • Tertiary Function: attitude not specified; opposite to auxiliary function (Thinking) • Inferior Function: opposite in function and attitude; little conscious energy (Introverted-Sensing)

8. Interpretive Considerations • Four Categories - emphasize Type not Score • Theta score used for computer analysis of preference • Raw “points” - not significant in themselves • Preference Clarity Index (1-30) - preferred / non-preferred pole • Preference Clarity Category - Very Clear/Clear/Mod/Slight

9. Validity Concerns • Because: Self report, forced-choice, & face valid . . . • 1. pressure 2 conform • 2. Gender bias • 3. life crises • 4. transitional development • 5. lack of differentiation / age • 6. perception re: desired type for job, situation, etc. • Verify type with client; ensure understanding of type not trait

10. Description of the Strong • 317-item inventory • Designed to provide “compare [an individual's] pattern of responses to the pattern of responses of people in of different types and in different occupations" • First published in 1927 • Designed to provide information about the world of work, and to promote occupational exploration by assessing an individual's pattern of interests.

11. Strong: Sections • Four Sets of Scales • 6 General Occupational Themes based on Holland’s (1997) typology, • 25 Basic Interest Scales • 211 Occupational Scales • 4 Personal Style Scales: Work Style, Learning Environment, Risk Taking, and Leadership Style. • Administrative indices show the number of total responses; percentages of the like, indifferent, and dislike responses; and infrequent or unpopular responses.

12. Strong Interest Inventory • General Occupational Themes—what am I like? Based on Holland’s themes. • Basic Interest Scales– what do I like? • Occupational Scales- who am I like?

13. Strong: Additional information • Time to complete: ½ hour • Reading level: sixth grade. • Age level: 17 and older, because young respondents do not have stable interest patterns. • Scoring service must be used. • Output: profiles or interpretations

14. Strong: Norms • The General Occupational Themes Basic Interest Scales and Personal Style Scales were normed on 9,484 men and 9467 women; this represents men and women in each of the occupational groups collected as criterion groups for the 1994 revision. • The mean for both sexes is set at a standard score of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.

15. Strong: Occupational Scale Norms • Normed on those employed in the Occupation. • Occupational members met four basic criteria: 1) age (at least 25 years old), 2) tenure (had been in their occupation for at least 3 years), 3) satisfaction with their work, and 4) pursuit of typical occupational tasks. • Most occupational groups contained 200 or more members; • The mean and standard deviation for each group are 50 and 10, respectively.

16. Strong: Validity and reliability • Very high reliability for all scales • the older the group, the more reliable the test scores • Each type of scale has concurrent validity, that is that persons in an occupation score higher on their own scales. • 50-75% of individuals tested entered the occupations predicted by their profiles.

17. Strong: Cross-cultural Validity • Few racial/ethnic differences found at the item level. • Even fewer differences were found at the scale or profile level. • It is important to note, though, that no research has examined whether interpretations are generalizable across cultures. • Gender differences greater than race/ethnic group differences.