Categorizing Personality Types

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Outgoing and spontaneous, or level headed and reserved: these are ways in which people identify the others surrounding them every day. These personality indicators may seem easy to distinguish; however, at times, finding one’s own personality type can be difficult. In the early 1900s, a Swedish psychologist named Carl Jung introduced the idea of categorizing personalities into identifiable types (Boeree). By investigating the subconscious, Jung was able to classify personality types that have certain characteristics in common. This became known as typology (Boeree; TheFreeDictionary.com). Several years later, Katherine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs-Myers, took Jung’s typology to the next level. Together they separated grouped traits into 16 types (Boeree). They soon went on to create a test in which a person could determine his or her own personality type. The test creates combinations of traits to easily identify a person’s personality as one of the 16 types. These types include combinations of the following categories: Extrovert/Introvert, Sensing/Intuitive, Feeling/Thinking, and Perceiving/Judging (Boeree). Many of the personality types may have similar qualities, but each type indicates a unique individual. The first of the categories is one of the most well known: extroverted and introverted. An extroverted person is said to focus on the world around him or her. An introverted person tends to focus on the inner self (MBTI Basics). At some point, every person acts introverted and every person acts extroverted. All people need to have solitude, a time to think and refocus. They also need to socialize with others (Extroversion). However, most people tend to lean more toward one trait or the other. The... ... middle of paper ... ...riggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/extraversion-or-introversion.asp>. "My MBTI Personality Type - MBTI Basics - Judging or Perceiving." The Myers & Briggs Foundation. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. . "My MBTI Personality Type - MBTI Basics - Sensing or Intuition." The Myers & Briggs Foundation. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. . "My MBTI Personality Type - MBTI Basics - Thinking or Feeling." The Myers & Briggs Foundation. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. . The American Heritage Dictionary. "Typology." Def. 1. TheFreeDictionary.com. Farlex, Inc, 2011. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. .

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