It’s time to stop comparing yourself to everyone around you and LEARN TO EMBRACE YOUR “YOUNESS”
Learning more about your personality & preferences – what makes you uniquely you, is a wonderful self development tool to help identify your natural strengths and weaknesses and begin to use them to your advantage. For example, I am an introvert and I need to have some alone time to recharge after social interactions, but I also have to make sure I don’t withdraw and go into hermit mode, so I have learned I need to schedule some uninterrupted me time.
There are many different personality tests available, but today I want to focus on the FREE online personality test offered by 16personalities .
The approach of 16 personalities, which offers a free online personality test, “has its roots in two different philosophies. One dates back to early 20th century and was the brainchild of Carl Gustav Jung, the father of analytical psychology. Jung’s theory of psychological types is perhaps the most influential creation in personality typology, and it has inspired a number of different theories, including our own. One of Jung’s key contributions was the development of the concept of Introversion and Extraversion– he theorized that each of us falls into one of these two categories, either focusing on the internal world (Introvert) or the outside world (Extravert). These terms are usually defined differently nowadays, with Extraversion being synonymous with social prowess – however, the original Jungian definitions focused on where the person tends to get their energy from. In that sense, Introversion does not imply shyness, and Extraversion does not necessarily mean good social skills.”
In the 1920s, Jung’s theory was noticed by Katharine Cook Briggs, who later co-authored one of the most popular personality indicators used today, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®). Briggs was a teacher with an avid interest in personality typing, having developed her own type theory before learning of Jung’s writings. Together with her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, they developed a convenient way to describe the order of each person’s Jungian preference – this is how the four-letter acronyms were born. There were four possible pairs of personality traits:
The identification and description of the 16 distinctive personality types that result from the interactions among the preferences.”
- Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
- Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
- Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
- Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).
Your Personality Type: When you decide on your preference in each category, you have your own personality type, which can be expressed as a code with four letters.
If you are interested in learning more about the Myers-Briggs theory you should read “Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type” by Isabel Briggs Myers.
Due to its simplicity and ease of use, the four-letter naming model is now shared by a number of diverse theories and approaches, such as Socionics, Keirsey Temperament Sorter, Linda Berens’ Interaction Styles and many others. However, it is important to remember that while these acronyms may be identical or very similar, their meanings do not always overlap.
It is important to make it clear that there is no single definition assigned to these type concepts – each theory defines them in their own way and it is entirely possible that if you meet five people who all say “I am an INFJ”, their definitions of what INFJ means are going to differ. There is certainly a lot of overlap between the theories sharing these type names – however, their type descriptions are by no means identical.
“Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings, or ideas. Judgment involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived. If people differ systematically in what they perceive and in how they reach conclusions, then it is only reasonable for them to differ correspondingly in their interests, reactions, values, motivations, and skills.”
16 personalities uses the acronym format introduced by Myers-Briggs due to its simplicity and convenience – however, they have redefined several Jungian traits and introduced an additional one, simplifying the model and bringing it closer to the latest developments, namely the dimensions of personality called the Big Five personality traits. Furthermore, unlike Myers-Briggs or other theories based on the Jungian model, they have not incorporated cognitive functions such as Extraverted Thinking or Introverted Sensing, or their prioritization, instead choosing five independent scales and building our types around them. This has allowed us to achieve high test accuracy while also retaining the ability to define and describe distinct personality types. Click here to read more about the theory used by 16 personalities.
Take the online 16 Personalities Personality Test and get a ‘freakishly accurate’ description of who you are and why you do things the way you do. (Free. No registration required.)
Take the Test
I took the test as part of my January Live Well Challenge: Find your voice, I think it is important to play to our strengths while addressing and improving upon our weaknesses.
My personality type is:
Ellice
This information is meant to inspire personal growth and better understanding of yourself and others, not to be taken as gospel. via Ellice – The Mediator | 16Personalities.
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