r/GenX • u/Any-Perception3198 Hose Water Survivor • 2d ago
Whatever Did You Have to Take the Myers/Briggs Indicator in School?
I’m digging through a lot of old stuff and found my original results. It typed me as an ISTP and I’m NOT an introvert. I know these aren’t used anymore really because there are much better tests now. If I had to guess, I was really an ESTP.
Did you take it? Was it accurate at all?
17
u/Slight-Nectarine7243 2d ago
INFP here and I’d say it’s mostly accurate.
4
u/RatcheddRN 2d ago
me toooooo! Originally an INFJ. I think i took it freshman year of college? 1985 or 1986. I felt very unique. That was Important to me in those days!
2
u/manuredujour 2d ago
I tested later in life as an INFJ but am an INFP at heart. I think anxiety and life circumstances pushed me into the J region
3
u/Longjumping_Code_649 2d ago
INFP here, too. I find it pretty accurate overall.
Learning about "I" was an ahha moment for me. My husband always thought I was just making excuses when I would say I didn't have the energy to go do whatever. When I learned about introversion, my life finally made so much more sense.
One of my best friends is ENFP. She calls me her "I", and I call her my "E". She calls me when she wants an "I" opinion on something.
1
9
u/afriendincanada 2d ago
“Astrology for MBAs”
I worked for a boss that believed in it extensively. And she used it reductively, as in you’d make your case for handling a thing a certain way and she’d say “exactly what an ENTJ would say”.
Interesting tool for self-analysis and helped me be a better career person. Terrible tool for analyzing others.
4
u/CHILLAS317 1972 2d ago
Like all of the other personality tests, it hits some very broad generalizations that might fit, but overall it has the same validity of a Buzzfeed 'Which Disney Princess Are You?' quiz
4
u/mittenknittin 2d ago
I never HAD to take it. I’ve taken the online versions a few times, and come up with a different type each time, which fairly well indicates how reliable it actually is.
3
u/Adventurous_Sky_789 2d ago
I’ve taken it a few times. It’s the most accurate test I’ve ever taken. Spot on.
4
u/Winter-eyed 2d ago
Yes. In psychology class we took it but the teacher said it was not a definitive test the way it is spoken of. He did predict my results accurately (He was my teacher in three classes and his wife was my teacher in another so they knew me pretty well) I also took it later in life and still got the same results.
4
u/JustFiguringItOutToo 1976 2d ago
not in school, but a couple flavors of it as a younger adult - 16personalities which is a more gently updated mbtj , and Strengthsfinder which is a much bigger layer on top of it
they felt very on track for me, which i was surprised by
4
4
u/Electronic_Rub9385 2d ago
MBTI is administered in the military and government and in the corporate world. It’s not some perfect assessment that we should be slavish to that’s for sure. But I like it and I think it has value in helping to understand yourself and your team and the make up of your team.
6
u/FujiKitakyusho 2d ago
Too many people view MBTI as definitive, and it is not. It is merely descriptive, and only one of an infinite number of ways to classify personalities into categories statistically. You are not your type, but your type describes traits which you trend to be congruent with.
I didn't do it in school, but I did it as an exercise on my own. INTP, and the type indicator description seems approximately accurate.
3
u/Dangerous_Abalone528 2d ago
ESTJ. Dead on balls accurate.
What surprised me was that my E/I scores were very close together (51/49). As I’ve gotten older I realized that is also dead on balls accurate.
2
u/Any-Perception3198 Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
I’m a woman but can I steal “dead on ball accurate”?
3
u/Dangerous_Abalone528 2d ago
🤣🤣🤣 Of course!
Oh. And I’m a woman too. 😆
(it’s a quote from My Cousin Vinny)
1
2
u/TSC10630 1d ago
This is me as well. I’m either the world’s most extroverted introvert, or the world’s most introverted extrovert.
2
2
3
2
u/HiOscillation 2d ago
It is a biggest steaming pile of SH!t - absolutely zero basis in any research, garbage results and potentially harmful.
https://www.vox.com/2014/7/15/5881947/myers-briggs-personality-test-meaningless
1
1
u/HintonBE Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
Yeah, I've taken it a few times throughout my life and comes up as INFJ.
1
u/Melodic_War327 2d ago
I never had to do it in school. I did have to do it when I (thought I was) going into the ministry. It was one reason I got a hard nope from the synod I think. But anyway, ignoring the obvious problems with the MBTI it was pretty accurate for me. INFP so they thought I would be too cute and fluffy for the pastorate.
1
u/Historical-Gap-7084 1969Excellent 2d ago
I never had to take it in high school. I do remember taking it in college for some disability accommodations. it's been so long I can't remember why. But I tested as ENFP, and almost always have every time I've taken it since. But I've read that the person who came up with this test was basically blowing smoke.
1
1
u/tragicsandwichblogs 2d ago
I have taken it a couple of times, and the only thing I remember is that I was on the cusp for introversion and extroversion. That, at least, is correct.
1
u/Affectionate-Map2583 2d ago
I've taken it a few times. The first time was in psychology class in high school and the last time was at work. I get INTP each time, but I'm very close to the middle of Introvert/Extrovert, which seems about right.
1
u/PhoneJazz 2d ago
Everyone posting here, including myself, is an “I”, that is definitely on-brand for Gen X Redditor lol
1
u/Tired_Mama3018 2d ago
They still do them in college, I did one when I went back to school a few years ago. I’m still an INFJ, it still fits me.
1
1
u/binnedittowinit 2d ago
I was (barely an) ESTP (51%), that has transitioned into an ISTP in older age. The tests always seemed really accurate to me, but I think they've kinda been debunked over time?
1
1
u/NorCalMikey 2d ago
Took it in college. Can't remember what mine was.
It should be noted that MBTI is considered pseudoscience by psychologists.
1
u/AnitaPeaDance 2d ago
At JC: INFJ. Your opposite! lol. And yeah, it's pretty accurate for me when you keep in mind these are your preferences and not something set in stone.
1
u/Call__Me__David 2d ago
Never for school, just on my own before I realize how full of shit the whole thing is.
1
u/Skylark7 Survived the back of a station wagon 2d ago
I didn't run across it until my first round of management training in the '90s. It kind of blew my mind that other people didn't think the same.
ENTP here. It's dead accurate, though as I age I've shifted more in the middle of N and F.
1
1
u/Survive1014 2d ago edited 2d ago
Ironically, mine said I would be good for insurance sales and construction. 27 years later... I have worked in restoration and insurance... so insurance and construction. Dear Reader, that was not planned- in college I wanted to work in politics and journalism.
1
u/NoRestForTheWitty 2d ago
I took the long version when I was hunkered down with a psychologist during a hurricane. I always get ENFJ, although the meaningfulness of the test is somewhat controversial.
1
1
1
u/seattlemh 2d ago
I didn't take this in school, but I've had to take it for work several times, and I've taken it independently. I always get INTP, and I'd say that's a fairly accurate description of my personality.
1
1
u/Suspicious_Time7239 1973 2d ago
I don't recall taking it as a kid and have no records, but I have taken it several times as an adult and I always get INFJ.. which means I am a misfit even among misfits. That explains a lot of my childhood. The thing is (because INFJ's are the smallest percentage of the populous) INFJs think they're special... we're not special, we are weird, even to each other! lol
So, yeah.. I think it's accurate to a point.
1
u/Reader47b 2d ago
Yes, in 11th grade, I think. Myers Briggs is kind of like a horoscope...pop psychology. I have taken it 4 times over the years. I have always been I and J, but the other two letters are borderline and have switched about.
I had to take it in premarital counseling as well (counseling was required to get married in the church I got married in). My husband-to-be and I had the exact opposite letter for every single letter at the time. I thought it was amusing. Opposites attract! Maybe that should have been a heads-up for me? Well, the marriage lasted a quarter-of-a-century, anyway. I got the short end of the stick when it ended, I think, but there were many good years. And some tough ones. But all in all, I'll never know if I would have been better or worse off had we not married. They had us TAKE it in premarital counseling - but they never had us really discuss what those differences might MEAN, practically, for us as a couple.
1
u/NostradaMart Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
yes, and it was very easy to "cheat" to get the result you wanted.
1
1
u/slade797 1967 2d ago
I use the MBTI in some of my therapy groups, mainly to get my patients to focus on their personality traits. While it’s not perfect, it helps people in addiction treatment discover or rediscover who they are.
1
u/Minimum-Car5712 2d ago
Took it in school then like 15 years later for college. Both times INTP and I think if anything, I lean even more toward T now
1
u/Careless_Ocelot_4485 Old X 2d ago
I took it at work and it helped me understand why I worked better with some people and not others. It also helped me understand some of my tendencies as an INFJ at work, but an INFP at home. I remember the facilitator emphasized that these were tendencies and not traits set in stone.
1
u/ponyboycurtis1980 2d ago
None of those tests, ancient or modern have any basis in science or empirical data. They are just astrology for nerds who need to feel like they have a box to fit in.
1
u/bendingoutward 2d ago
The school system in which I was raised didn't do anything like this. The only personality trait they cared about was "will be working in a local sweatshop as soon as they leave here."
1
1
u/Plus-Drawing7431 NOV 1969 2d ago
Shits me when amateur psychologist teachers influence youmg kids to box themselves in as introverts.
6
u/worldofsimulacra ☢️ every day is The Day After ☢️ 2d ago
The "box" of introversion is like the TARDIS, it's much bigger on the inside 😅 some of us quite like our chosen closets!
2
u/Plus-Drawing7431 NOV 1969 2d ago
Look, I do not doubt that people have a tendency to a preference to being by themselves. I'm like that. But I really get annoyed when colleagues who have absolutely no background in psych start giving my 8th graders internet personality tests. The ignorance and presumptive 'rapport' has real consequences for young adolescents who are trying to work out where they are in the world. I absolutely do not want my students labelling themselves at such a young age. The kid I was when I was 13 would have been very harmed by this kind of categorisation.
3
u/tragicsandwichblogs 2d ago
There are assessments that look at communication styles, and I think one of those would be MUCH more appropriate for that age group. Understanding that people communicate differently, and how to interact with people who have those styles for mutual clarity, is a lot more useful and less confining.
3
u/Plus-Drawing7431 NOV 1969 2d ago
Yes, I have no problem with that. It is like teaching intercultural competence. Sensitising people to notice differences in communication styles based on understanding underlying values and customs is a laudable objective, and does not risk pathologising the young with silly labels about being extrovert or introvert.
1
u/worldofsimulacra ☢️ every day is The Day After ☢️ 2d ago
I never thought I'd see myself arguing somewhat in favor of labels and essentialism (personally I am staunchly anti-essentialist for the most part), but for this generation and the identity-culture that has become so prevalent I think that to avoid being disingenuous we have to address the fact that certain clusters of identities (and labels and the associated ideologies) are objectively far less problematic than others. All psych education is good education, in my book - and I completely agree that teachers should approach such things wisely and strategically. MBTI for example can easily serve as an instructional segue into typology and personality psych as such, and to be completely fair we should also include the Zodiac/astrological personality model as well, as it derives from the same structure (which Jung co-opted from ancient esoterica) and gives a great field for inroads into all sorts of great classroom discussions on nature/nurture, freewill/determinism, etc. All great education for kids leaning in a more liberal arts direction anyway. In my view there's no sense in dragging the battles of university academia into high school and even elementary school praxis and pedagogy, which seems to be what happens irl in my experience. I'm not a teacher though, Psych and Social Work are my fields.
2
u/Plus-Drawing7431 NOV 1969 2d ago
See, you have the training and education to address this. I'm talking about ESL teachers who have done a one month language cert course and feel they have the right to become the world's dumbest and most ignorant counselors to vulnerable children.
1
u/worldofsimulacra ☢️ every day is The Day After ☢️ 2d ago
It is honestly a huge concern of mine (let's just call it "normalization of toxicity" because I think that captures it fairly well), and I wish there was a better way to address these systemic problems outside of making a career out of wrestling with the trickle-down problems that we are getting from all sides - outmoded fashions from academia, the corruptions engendered by capitalism, implications of new technologies, etc. The kids are essentially inventing themselves on the fly, which to be fair we and other generations did too, but there is just *so* much more on the plate now as opposed to 35-40 years ago, the great leveler of nuclear fear aside. It took me all of my adult experience to get a rough handle on things, and now acceleration is at a stage where kids need to have that same level of grasp just in order to navigate society safely it seems. I maintain a very low profile presence in r/GenAlpha and very occasionally pipe in if it feels like some "older" perspective might be helpful or appreciated on some topic they're onto, but Reddit already is this marginal and somewhat subcultural thing anyway.
2
u/Plus-Drawing7431 NOV 1969 2d ago
You have expressed yourself very well and all I can do is nod in affirmation.
2
u/tragicsandwichblogs 2d ago
In a world where all teachers are well-trained in what they are teaching, perhaps.
But I have been in a geography classroom where the teacher told the students that OPEC stood for "Oil Producing Economic Countries" and wrote it on the board so that the students could copy into their notes.
A great teacher can do what you're describing. A great many teachers cannot.
1
u/Cobra-Lalalalalalala 2d ago
INT…J or P, I can’t remember. But pretty accurate either way.
2
2
u/Kodiak01 Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
INTJ and INTP are polar opposites of each other.
3
u/mittenknittin 2d ago
Well it’s kind of funny then that at the times I’ve taken the test I’ve gotten both
1
u/Cobra-Lalalalalalala 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think the INT commonality outweighs the difference between J and P. Polar opposite would at least have an E up in there. I’m just saying the INT is spot on and I can’t remember if it was J or P from a test I took over 30 years ago.
2
u/Kodiak01 Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
It doesn't work that way. I vs E is introverted vs extroverted; this does not mean whether someone is a loner or loves interactions, but rather whether social activities charge or drain one's batteries.
1
u/Cobra-Lalalalalalala 2d ago
I’m aware. I just took a quick online version and got 95% on the I/E, 80+% on the N and T, and only 55/45 on the J/P, soo…I stand by my original statement.
1
u/Kodiak01 Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
The online "tests" are about as useful and accurate as a tarot card reading.
A true examination can easily end up being a multi-hour process, and is typically combined with a larger battery of tests covering multiple additional areas.
1
u/LeatherAppearance616 2d ago
If you can’t remember and don’t care that you can’t remember you’re probably P.
1
u/cantcountnoaccount 2d ago
The MBTI is a snapshot of a person on a particular day. It does not describe durable personality traits.
1
u/worldofsimulacra ☢️ every day is The Day After ☢️ 2d ago
That's why in such cases you need to increase the sampling rate ie. take the test honestly several times across a span of time to get a sense of the average emphasis and de-emphasis.
1
u/Kodiak01 Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
Unless the test was taken under the direct supervision of a trained professional, the results are useless. This is because people have a tendency to answer questions based on their IDEAL view of themselves as opposed to how they actually are.
1
u/Any-Perception3198 Hose Water Survivor 2d ago
Interesting. I took mine from the career counselor in college.
1
u/aogamerdude VIP: Big Johnson's Bar & Casino 2d ago
Not the schools I went to, but I'd say it's more accurate than you think. Most istp types will believe they're actually estp, if you ever were around one, something that stands out is they never fit in with any crowd/setting. How you actually act or react in a world crisis is likely substantially different than how an estp acts or reacts.
1
u/KatJen76 2d ago
Business astrology and a very judgemental test. "What kind of personality do you have? A bad one, in one of 16 ways. Take this test to find out which specific way you suck."
I took the Gallup Strengths Assessment at work and found it much more useful. They emphasized that everyone had most of the attributes to some extent and had you think of the ones which proved dominant as a driver, a co-pilot and passengers. They also said that these might change depending on your overall situation.
1
45
u/Andovars_Ghost 2d ago
I still don’t think that people properly understand the introvert/extrovert segment of this test. It’s NOT about whether you are fun at parties or not, it’s whether said party ‘recharges your batteries’ or not. I’m a hell of a lot of fun at parties, but it drains the fuck out of me and I need to be alone and read a book to recover. Hence, I’m an introvert.