What Are The Myers-Briggs Personality Types?

Understanding student personality types helps you understand how you do things best and most comfortably. When I talk about personality type with students I usually do this activity:

“Sign your name on a piece of paper using the hand you are most comfortable writing with. Now, sign your name next to it with the other hand.”

The discomfort we feel when writing with the other hand is the same discomfort we feel when we have to do something that doesn’t quite mesh with our personality style.

When college students are given an assignment or need to work in a group, knowing their personality style is vital. It helps you know how to break the assignment into pieces and how you should approach completing it. It helps with group assignments because you know what part you can play and what your strengths are. If you look at things analytically or need to work according to a deadline, you can put those into play and be more successful.

One example: With the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, a student will be either an extrovert or introvert. An extrovert will process their thoughts out loud by talking them through. An introvert will process internally before saying anything. Extroverts will be among the first to raise their hand to give an answer, while introverts will consider the question and think through the answer before speaking it to the class or group. By understanding that this is true, students of both personality types will have more confidence about how they approach the class.

Even when you are not in an academic classroom, your personality type influences your interactions with others. By understanding your personality type, you can work better in groups and successfully take on leadership positions.

Understanding your personality type also helps you have better relationships with friends. If you are an introvert, knowing that you need time to re-energize yourself away from others may help you feel more comfortable in social settings.

Understanding that your friend, roommate, or partner has a different personality type (and that they are not purposefully trying to annoy you or get under your skin), keeps things comfortable and allows you to talk through conflicts in a more productive way.

With the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, a student will be either a “J” or a “P.” “J” is for judging and “P” is for perceiving, and your letter helps you understand how you interact with the world. If you are “judging,” you like to take a planned approach to the world. You have your spring break plans determined well in advance. If you’re “perceiving,” you like to be more spontaneous and flexible. You want to keep your options open and may only know a week ahead of time or even wait until the day of to know what you are doing on break.

If you are serving a leadership position on campus or working with a club or organization, being upfront with which style you are will help your group understand when your tasks will be completed and how quickly you make decisions.

Personality type can influence the majors and careers students choose because each personality type has strengths that work really well with different careers and within a company’s vision. Someone that likes routine, checklists, and working through a procedure would benefit in a job that requires it. A person that tends to wait to make decisions and likes having the flexibility to change things until the deadline might be suited to a different position.

By knowing your Myers-Brigg style, you can link your personality type to majors and careers that are known for being well-suited to that style. For example, if you are an ENFP (extrovert, intuition, feeling, perceiving), you are considered an innovator. You like getting new projects started and are great at making connections between two ideas that others might not see. ENFPs are great entrepreneurs, social workers, teachers, and human resource professionals.

Students are more successful when they know how they interact with external forces. You can leverage the information about your personality type to put yourself in situations you know will help you shine.

This information is very valuable to know when you are interviewing for a position because it helps you put your best foot forward. You know how to build up your strengths, and instead of a weakness being a weakness, it is a challenge that you have learned to overcome.

By understanding your personality type, you will also be able to understand other people’s personality types. With a little research, you can see how to best interact with other people.

You can’t change your supervisor’s personality, but you can change how you interact with them. If you know they are a “J” on Myers-Briggs, then you know they are looking for decisions to be made in advance and that you should stick to the deadline. If you are presenting an idea to someone who is an “F” (feeling over thinking), you know that you need to appeal to their values because they will make decisions based on their values or how it concerns the people around them.

Every personality has a different way of interacting with others. It is worth your time to examine your own personality style and the styles of people you work with daily. It helps you have better interactions and be more successful.

You should not let your personality stop you from accomplishing your goals. Even if your personality assessment says you are more suited to one role than another, you can still make it work for you. You just might need to change how you tackle the goal based on your strengths and challenges.

You can always learn more about your personality type and observe interactions to find your best approach towards interacting with a person, completing a task, or filling a role that you play, both in and out of the classroom.