The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator System: Intuition And Meaning

What defines a person? If asked to describe yourself in one word, what would you say? Would you say tall or short? Academic or athlete? Social butterfly or Netflix recluse? It is difficult to describe something as complex as a person in only a few words. But, fortunately, there exists a classification system. A system that can predict with reasonable accuracy how a person acts, thinks, feels. The four letter code used in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system is composed of Extroverted vs Introverted, iNtuition vs Sensing, Feeling vs Thinking, and Judging vs Perceving. An experiment that took place in the Psychology class of Holmes Community College illustrated the different letters magnificently.

The most basic way to differentiate between

The two groups of four were once again called to answer one question, “Describe an apple.” The sensing personalities were quick, organized, and precise. An apple is round and red. That’s all there is. Intuition personalities took a bit longer. An apple is a round fruit that is often red, it comes from a tree. It’s sweet, juicy, and has a core. One student told a story of in elementary school they would play games pulling off the stem. Sensing personalities saw the apple only for an apple, they quickly analyzed, answered, and moved on. Intuition personalities often fall down a rabbit hole of information, going from an apple is red to childhood stories. Sensing personalities are quick and efficient while Intuition reads between the lines of anything and everything. “Intuitives tend to define intelligence as ‘quickness of understanding,’ while sensing types define intelligence as ‘soundness of understanding.’” However, neither are objectively superior in any way. They simply see the same world through different lenses.

The question to illustrate their differences was, “Suppose your little league team had to the chance to play in the World Series. But only 8 of the 12 boys on the team can go. How do you decide who gets to go?” The feeling personalities recoiled. They couldn’t make this impossible choice. Crushing a little boy’s spirt by telling him he wasn’t good enough to play was worse than losing the World Series. The thinking personalities gritted their teeth, they weren’t happy about leaving part of their team behind, but it was a necessary sacrifice. Feeling personalities consider the emotions and viewpoints of others when making a decision. over any objective or physical prize. They are usually unable or unwilling to make choice that would hurt the feelings of those they care about. Thinking personalities do not lack empathy by any means, but they are willing to make the right choice no matter the cost. Thinking and Feeling personalities can also resemble Introvert vs Extrovert in that Thinking types sometimes like to surround themselves with books and knowledge. Feeling types naturally get along better with people, as they understand others emotions effortlessly and can play to them for better or for