In 1943, Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers created the famous Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test.
Want to learn about other personality tests? Click here to find out!
Inspired by renowned Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, they devised a questionnaire that would help identify a person’s psychological type. Get your personality type instantly by taking the online test below. Studies have shown that your personality can impact how much money you make!
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This article goes in-depth on the different Myers-Briggs personality traits, what they mean, and how to maximize you strengths. Personality tests are not fool-proof but offer insight into who you are and why you do things the way you do.
The goal is self-awareness. Self-Awareness is key to success. There are multiple ways to develop it. Get feedback from people around you, look at things objectively, keep a journal and self-reflect, and take personality tests to help you learn more about yourself!
The owner of GameQuarium, Jason, has a unique way to develop self-awareness. Video games nowadays are loaded with opportunities for people to enhance their self-awareness skills, exposing the strength and the weakness of the individual playing the game. Especially when you play with others online, you get immediate feedback.
Personality tests will help you learn what really drives, inspires, and worries you, helping you build more meaningful relationships.
Self-Awareness is key to success in life.
Here are some of the key components you can learn about when taking the Myers-Briggs or any other personality test.
- Personality Descriptor Name
- Personality Preferences
- Personality Traits
- Personality Relationships
- Personality Success Definition
- Personality Strengths and Weaknesses
- Personality Problems and Solutions to Overcome Them
- Personality Happiness
- Personality Suggestions
- Personality Rules to Live By
Learning your MBTI profile is very helpful in understanding yourself, how you deal with others, ideal careers, and your strengths and weaknesses. Some organizations go as far as using the MBTI to assess compatibility with a spouse!
The MBTI sorts people into different personality types broken down by two pairs of cognitive functions.
- The “rational” (judging) functions: Thinking and Feeling
- The “irrational” (perceiving) functions: Sensation and Intuition
The cognitive functions are then broken down into 16 different personality types based on how the functions are paired with each other. After you take the test, you will be given one of the 16 different personality types which is expressed as a four-letter code.
For example, based on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test, I am an ENTJ with ESTJ close behind. While my natural personality and internal motivations will not change much, my adaptive style and behaviors can change depending on my environment.
The MBTI looks at four aspects of your personality:
1. Favorite World
Favorite world: What is the orientation of your focus and how are you energized? Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
- Extraverted Characteristics (E) – Outgoing, action oriented, seeks breadth of knowledge, frequent interaction and gets energy from spending time with people
- Introverted Characteristics (I) – Reflective, thought oriented, seeks depth of knowledge, substantial interaction and gets energy from spending time alone
2. Information
- Information: How do you take in information and what do you normally pay attention to? Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)
- Sensing Characteristics (S) – Lives in the present, uses the five senses for practical and real solutions, memory recall is rich in detail, improvises from past experiences, comfortable with clear and concrete information
- Intuition Characteristics (N) – Lives in the future, looks beyond the five senses for imagination and new solutions, memory recall emphasizes patterns and contexts, improvises from theoretical understanding, comfortable with ambiguous and fuzzy information
3. Decisions
Decisions: How do you make decisions and form judgments? When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
- Thinking Characteristics (T) – Instinctively search for facts and logic, naturally drawn to accomplishing tasks, able to provide objective analysis, accepts conflict as natural
- Feeling Characteristics (F) – Instinctively look at personal feelings and empathy, naturally sensitive to people’s needs and reactions, able to seek consensus, unsettled by conflict
4. Structure
Structure: How you deal with the world and what type of lifestyle habits do you prefer? In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
- Judging Characteristics (J) – Plan details in advance, focus on task-related action, keeps ahead of deadlines, naturally use standard procedures and organization to manage life
- Perceiving Characteristics (P) – Comfortable without details to act, likes to multi-task and have variety, tolerant to deadlines and time pressure, naturally avoid commitments which interfere with flexibility and freedom.
“CognitiveFunctions” by Jake Beech – Own work. Licensed under CC0 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CognitiveFunctions.png#/media/File:CognitiveFunctions.png
“MyersBriggsTypes” by Jake Beech – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MyersBriggsTypes.png#/media/File:MyersBriggsTypes.png
Keep in mind these tests do not measure character, abilities or traits. The important thing to glean from the test is to understand and appreciate the differences in people. It also helps in developing self-awareness. I also show below the personality types that make the most money!
According to the Center for Applications of Psychological Type the chart below shows the breakdown of each of the 16 MBTI personality types in the U.S., broken down by gender. The percentage shown below is the estimated percentage of people that have that particular personality type.
Using Personality Assessments for Career Choices
Many companies as part of the hiring process use personality tests like the Myers-Briggs. Certain job positions and responsibilities require certain personality traits to be successful. The goal is to place people in positions that optimize their strengths.
Science suggests there’s one personality type that’s more likely to ditch the corporate structure and work for themselves.
A new report from Truity Psychometrics, a provider of online personality and career assessments, found in its ranking of the personality types most likely to be self employed, extroverts took up six of the top eight spots.
All of the introverted sensing types, on the other hand, were much less likely than average to report being self-employed.
For example, 13.5% of ENTPs (people with a preference for Extroversion, Intuition, Thinking, and Perceiving) said they were self employed, while only 3.2% of ISFPs (people with a preference for Introversion, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving) reported the same.
Molly Owens, CEO of Truity and developer of the TypeFinder® personality type assessment, says the finding speaks to what extroversion is and how it functions in the brain.
“Studies in neuroscience have indicated that levels of extroversion may be related to how the brain processed dopamine, our brain’s reward chemical,” she tells Business Insider. “Extroverts have a stronger dopamine response, meaning they get a bigger kick out of achievements like a job promotion, a new romance, or a successful business launch.”
She says this means extroverts are more likely to take risks, like striking out with a new business venture, because they anticipate more of a reward when things go well. Introverts, on the other hand, may be less interested in the risk of self-employment because they tend to be more even-keel, she explains, and aren’t as motivated by the potential for a thrill if things go well.
There are also a lot of tasks related to being self-employed that play more to an extrovert’s strengths, she says.
“Founders typically have to locate and pitch clients, hold regular meetings with employees, actively seek out networking opportunities, and do lots of other things that require them to be outgoing and expressive,” Owens says.
“However, this is changing as more and more businesses move online. Introverts can really excel in areas like digital marketing, where they can take a more behind-the-scenes approach,” she adds.
New data from Truity Psychometrics shows that your Myers-Briggs personality type correlates with how much money you earn.
Specifically, traits of extroversion, sensing, thinking, and judging all predict higher incomes. And the difference is remarkable: Introverted, sensing, and perceiving individuals (ISPs) make an average of $32,000/year, while those with an extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging (ESTJ) personality type come out on top with a whopping $77,000/year.
The authors of the study suggest that these differences may be largely due to different likelihoods of holding managerial roles. Extroverts, sensors, thinkers, and judgers managed more people on average and also made more money than introverts, intuitives, feelers, and perceivers, respectively.
However, if you’re an introvert, your prospects of holding managerial roles are not hopeless. A study currently in progress in the U.K. has found so far that introverts in high positions at a marketing firm received equal performance reviews to extroverts and did not feel drained because their workplace has implemented “restorative resources” — quiet places to relax after giving presentations or participating in meetings.
So, if you’re an introvert struggling through your weekly all-hands updates, the problem may be with your office rather than you.
The authors of the study also theorize that since about two-thirds of ESTJs — the highest-earning group — are men, who earn more on average than women, gender may be causing this gap in addition to personality. However, gender cannot be held entirely accountable because similar correlations existed when men and women were considered separately.
Interestingly, these separate sets of results showed larger variation among men, with an average of $30,000/year for INTPs versus $95,000/year for ESTJs, than women, whose average salaries ranged from $39,000/year for INFPs to $80,000/year for ENTJs.
What the authors don’t explore is how gender, personality type, and wage are intertwined. Asking whether differences in income are due to personality or gender overlooks how personality is gendered. We as a culture cultivate more extrovert-like qualities, such as assertiveness and competitiveness, in men than women and then privilege these “masculine” traits when we seek people to fill leadership roles.
Other research has shown that women are more timid about asking for raises, which may be symptomatic of introverted qualities we conversely encourage in women.
It would be interesting to see future studies that, rather than trying to tease apart gender and personality as two separate factors determining income, explore how we may disadvantage women through cultural limitations on what personality traits they can demonstrate, as well as how we may disadvantage both men and women with “feminine” traits by associating “masculine” ones with leadership.
A lot of things determine how much money you make: your level of education (e.g. whether you have a bachelors degree or a post-graduate degree such as a masters degree in psychology, or a high school diploma); the job you choose to pursue; the company you work for; your hard skills; and your ability to negotiate.
But one thing you really have no control over that affects your pay is your personality type.
According to the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator, which tests behavioral binaries, there are a total of 16 distinctive personality types.
The Career Assessment Site created an infographic that, among other things, shows the average household income for each one.
Individuals with the ENTJ (Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging) type, who tend to be natural leaders, earn the most money, on average.
“They’re typically short- and long-term planners who are able to read into data effectively, leading them to find patterns and creative solutions to problems,” explains Jonathan Bollag, an executive coach and founder of Career Assessment site. “They put this information through a logic-based filter in order to make objective decisions. You then add their preference for extroversion that translates to them having an easier time networking and communicating with large groups of people.”
These personality preferences combine to create the potential for an individual who stands out as an effective and efficient problem solver with a long-term vision.
“These people also tend to present their positions from a logical perspective, and are able to create the right connections to create leadership opportunities,” Bollag says. “Not coincidentally, these leadership positions come with some of the highest possible income potential.”
At the other end of the spectrum you’ll find the INFP (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving) type.
“Individuals with the INFP personality type are introverts and they tend to be less comfortable with networking and ‘reaching out’ in general,” he says. “This may lead them to miss opportunities to make contacts that propel them to positions of higher income levels.”
And in a world where “who you know” matters more than “what you know,” this can be detrimental.
These individuals also tend to be attracted to career paths that offer a lot of flexibility and freedom where their creative expression can manifest itself on their terms, Bollag says. “This is why you find that a lot of INFP’s go into fields like music, arts, and creative writing,” he explains. “Unfortunately for income statistics, there is a very good reason why we use the term ‘starving artists’ and the few examples of famous artists, novelists, and musicians that make it big are a very small percentage of the population.”
Finally, he says, these individuals tend to lean on subjective analysis of situations when making decisions. “They consider the impact their decisions have on other people and aim to have harmony in their environment. While there is nothing wrong with this perspective, it may lead them to shy away from positions that force them to make hard, logic-based decisions that effect others in a negative way.”
For example, an INFP may have a much harder time making a corporate level decision that lays off a thousand employees for the betterment of the company than someone who had a Thinking (“T”) based personality type. “A T-based personality type may be able to justify the action, but an F-based personality type, like the INFP, may have lingering issues with such a past decision long after it has been made.”
When you combine all of these aspects you find a combination that is less likely to be naturally attracted to some of the high-income career paths, Bollag adds.
He says it is important to note that these are “averages” and it does not mean that you cannot make a great living while having the INFP personality type.
“Your personality type does not dictate how good you will be at something. It only lets you know which preferences are most natural for you,” Bollag explains. “What you do with that knowledge and how hard you work at your chosen career path will have the biggest impact on your income potential.”
For more detailed information you can visit sites such as
- http://www.truity.com/view/types
- http://www.myersbriggs.org/
- http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html
