What Are The Benefits Of Knowing Your Myers-Briggs Profile?
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality test that classifies people into 16 types, based on four pairs of indicators. These pairs include the following:
- Extraversion/Introversion
- Sensing/Intuition
- Thinking/Feeling
- Judgment/Perception
The MBTI is one of the most widely used personality assessments, with about two million test administered annually. It’s most common use is in predicting career preferences, rather than ability. The MBTI provides the following five benefits.
1. Improve Decision-making Skills
The MBTI shows that people use distinct mechanisms to make decisions, which often occur at a sub-conscious level. The way you make decisions can shape your life, so understanding this process can help you make the choices that are better for you. This is especially true for important decisions like forming relationships, getting married and having children.
- Understand Yourself
The use of only 16 personality types means a lot of people will share your results, providing a strong defense against feelings of insecurity. Once you get your results, you should conduct an online search of your type and read the many articles about it. You may be surprised to see how accurately they describe you and help you understand yourself.
3. Awareness of Preferences
Personality type can greatly influence your preferences for certain situations or ways of accomplishing tasks. For example, some MBTI types experience a strong sense of satisfaction after completing a crossword puzzle. Knowing your personality type can also help you identify your stressors, allowing you to handle them more effectively. Similarly, the MBTI can help explain why you’re attracted to certain people and careers.
- Improve Relationships
Each personality is unique, even within the same MTBI type. As a result, similarities and differences in personality can affect relationships in unexpected ways. While some relationships naturally become deeper and more satisfying over time, others require more work. Knowing your personality type can help you make a better effort to consciously strengthen your relationship. For example, you may learn that you need to come out of your shell more or tone down your naturally bubbly personality.
Arming yourself with this knowledge can also help you select partners that are more likely to be compatible with you. Professionally administered MBTI tests often include this type of advice in the results.
5. Increase Emotional Intelligence
Some people just don’t feel things as deeply as others, often because their feeling function is lower than their thinking function. Increasing emotional intelligence can help you understand the feelings of others, even if you don’t experience these emotions as strongly as they do.
Conclusion
Opinions on the MBTI vary greatly with regard to its utility. It’s important to remember that it’s primarily useful for overcoming relatively small, specific obstacles in reaching your goal. For example, it doesn’t address mental issues like personality or mood disorders.
