Know then thyself,
presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind
is man.
-Alexander Pope
For millions of modern folk trying to follow the poet`s dictum, a new approach to understanding human nature is expressed in four-letter words.
Make that four-letter codes. ESTJ people are beginning to understand their INFP spouses and colleagues. ESFJ parents are learning to accept their INTP offspring-or at least to tolerate the kids` tendencies to shut themselves in their rooms for hours at a time.
Weird as those alphabet jumbles may at first appear to someone who takes pride in functioning rationally (a classic ESTJ trait), the initials have nothing to do with crystals, pyramids or other ”New Age” mysticism. Nor do they connect with the touchy-feely philosophies of pop-psychology gurus.
The four-letter combinations are shorthand for personality types as defined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a psychological-assessment system that has become a popular management tool. It is used by corporations, churches, the U.S. military and many other organizations to foster team spirit and improve personal communication and understanding. Its use has even spread into personal relationships.
The system asks its subjects, Are you an introvert or extrovert? Sensor or intuitive? Thinker or feeler? Judger or perceiver? Once you figure that out, it contends, you can understand why you communicate easily with some folks, hardly at all with others.
The system, based on the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, was developed over about 20 years, beginning in the 1930s, by the American mother- daughter team of Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myers.
Essentially, the system recognizes that individuals differ in how they see, interpret and react to the world around them. It holds that people will get along better and function better if they understand one another`s points of view. It assumes that everyone is predisposed to certain traits and teaches people how to see and appreciate strong and weak suits in themselves and others.
The first letter in each acronym is an E or an I, indicating extroversion or introversion. The next letter, S or N, shows that the person prefers to gather information through sensing (relying on the five senses, on facts) or leans toward the intuitive (tending to be impatient with detail but drawing broader conclusions, seeing the big picture).
Then comes T or F, for thinking (assessing situations coolly and intellectually without much regard for emotional fallout) or feeling (being concerned about how a situation or action affects others). Finally, there is a P or a J for perceiving (feeling that everything is relative and valuing flexibility) or judging (drawing quick and firm conclusions and sticking to them).
The 16 possible combinations of letters define 16 basic personality types as defined by the Myers-Briggs system. Some types obviously are closer in style than others. An ENFP person looks at the world from a different viewpoint than an ISTJ, but an ENFP has a good deal in common with an ESFP.
Experts on the system also note that the degree to which individuals are given to one trait or another can vary greatly. A person may be strongly introverted and judging, for instance, but so near the borderlines on sensing- intuitive and thinking-feeling that he can go either way in those areas.
Consultants, industrial psychologists and others who use the system work with the official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, published by Consulting Psychologists Press Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif. Individuals being tested answer more than 100 questions, and the experts determine their types from the answers.
Those who use the system stress that it is nonjudgmental, that there is no good or bad and that each type has strengths. (The idea that each type also has weaknesses or blind spots is merely implied.) Users note that personality typing does not probe an individual`s deepest secrets and that it is not a therapy tool.
In recent years, millions of people have been typed-more than 1.5 million in each of the last two years, most of them in connection with their jobs. Inevitably, some of those people now apply what they`ve learned in their personal lives.
You can see how it might work if you`re, say, an introverted man married to an extroverted woman. Many evenings, when you get home from work, you probably want to be left alone to read or watch television or just think. Your spouse, on just as many occasions, is likely to want to talk, to see friends, perhaps go out.
Myers-Briggs proponents say that if you recognize your drives and those of your spouse, you can reduce the tension between you by negotiating compromises: You may get the hour before dinner to yourself and perhaps some time later in the evening, but you agree to participate in conversation with the family during and after the meal.
According to authors Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen, understanding of type can even help reduce those little irritations that in time grow beyond proper proportion, eventually driving one family member into a rage while others wonder what it`s all about.
An N (intuitive) type might recognize, for instance, that when an S
(sensing) mate asks what time it is, the preferred answer is ”10:15,” not
”We have plenty of time.”
Kroeger and Ms. Thuesen, partners in marriage and in Otto Kroeger Associates, a consulting firm based in Fairfax, Va., wrote ”Type Talk,” a book based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
The $16.95 hardcover book, which went on sale recently, describes, with numerous examples, how type affects the ways people perform as friends, lovers, parents, employees, bosses, even as politicians and athletes. The authors also give helpful hints on how to resolve, or at least tolerate, differences among people who work or live together.
(”A sensor`s `messy room` may be the intuitive`s `dazzling array of possibilities,` ” they note. They suggest that the S parent of an N child might do better to say, ”Place your books on the shelf and toys in the box,” than, ”Clean up your room.”)
What Kroeger and Thuesen didn`t do is provide a questionnaire to aid their readers in typing themselves.
On a recent promotional tour, the pair said the omission was deliberate. The ”instrument” belongs to the Myers family, whose members are friends of theirs, and they didn`t want to step on toes, they said. And they were afraid that running a questionnaire in a popularly sold book would turn the Myers-Briggs indicator into something of a parlor game, thus ”demeaning a system that took a lifetime to develop.”
Nevertheless, the authors acknowledged, the book gives big clues on how people can recognize and interpret types. Kroeger, who has used the system with clients ranging from clergy members to high-ranking Army officers, also admitted that he and his wife often indulge in type watching just for fun
”because we can`t help it.”
”We apply it all over,” Thuesen added. ”Like the ads for Hyundai cars. They appeal to sensing types, which is very smart, since about 70 percent of people in this country are sensing types.”
Like all married couples, they said, they have their problems, but knowledge of types has contributed to the making of their marriage.
Kroeger, although a strong N, can be very detail-oriented in some areas of interest, and as a J, he likes a structured life. Thuesen, an ENFP, doesn`t sweat the small stuff. But knowing her husband`s leanings, she can ”wipe down the faucets after a shower so that they`re shiny and not all spotted,” she said.
”I don`t care and he does, so I`ll give him that. It`s a little concession that makes life easier for him, and I can do it without calling him neurotic.”
”One thing you learn is that people who are different types aren`t doing things just to irritate you,” Kroeger said.
Fortunately, he said, a more common result of typing is that it ”affirms for people that it`s all right to be what they are.”
