Find your Myers-Briggs Type

When I discovered the MBTI in the early 1990′s, I took the Keirsey Temperament Sorter in the book Please Understand Me to figure out my Myers-Briggs Type.

Today, the Internet contains many Jungian type tests that let you identify your type.

HumanMetrics Jung Typology Test
Similar Minds – Free Jung Test
Keirsey Temperament Sorter®-II

Take all 3 tests to verify that you get the same result each time. I’ve taken all three and I get INFP. However, it’s not uncommon for someone to get different results.

How To Take the Test

The MBTI is a preference test not a personality test. Someone’s preferred behavior depends on the situation. The tests are forced choice answers which means the answer is an either-or/yes-no choice or the test taker chooses on a scale between Agree to Disagree. The test taker isn’t allowed to make up the answer.

When answering the questions, it’s important to separate Identity from your Roles. How you behave in a Role as parent, employee, friend influences how you answer the questions. Behavior in Roles will make you do certain things against type.

You get an accurate MBTI score, you answer as what you prefer to do, not what you have to do because of a particular Role. I naturally would prefer to show up to parties whenever I get there which is usually 10-15 minutes late. It just ends up that way. However, in my Roles as a parent and employee, I show up on time because the Role requires it.

Answer the questions as how you prefer to do things, not how you are required to in certain situations.

What to Do With Your Score

It’s not uncommon for someone to get three different types depending on the test. Even if you get the the same score each time, I recommend confirming each letter individually. If the test says you’re an INFP, read the description for I, then for N and then F and then P to validate that those letters are your natural behavior preferences.

Do you focus your energies with I behavior more often than E behavior? When you gather information, do you do it with the S preference or the N preference? When you make decisions about where to go to eat or who gets to be your friend, is the final decision emotional (F) or logical (T)? Are you organized and methodical in how you approach the world (J) or are you a wait and see type person (P)?

Determining each letter separately is the best way to validate your true MBTI type.

Descriptions of INFPs

I’ve never been happy with how authors extrapolate personality from behavior preference. I would say most the personality descriptions are 50-80% accurate in their portrayal of each type.

INFP Descriptions

Personality Page – Portrait of an INFP
Wikipedia – INFP
Personality Cafe – Description taken from MyType.com

Description of other types

Personality Page – Description of the Sixteen Personality Types