Fun with Personality Tests

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter are personality tests that are widely used in schools and in the workplace to assess an individual's strengths and weaknesses, and to learn what type of career might best suit them based upon the test's findings.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers and is based upon Carl Jung's work "Psychological Types." The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is a personality test that was first used in David Keirsey's book Please Understand Me.

After David Keirsey was introduced to the Myers-Briggs Indicator by a friend, he developed his own theories about personality types. While very similar in nature to the MBTI, Keirsey felt that the idea of temperament could be traced back to the Ancient Greeks, namely Hippocrates. Hippocrates spoke of four humors which Keirsey believed could be linked to the four temperaments in Myers-Briggs.

Probably the biggest difference between these two models is that while Isabel Myers was concerned about how people think and feel, David Keirsey was more interested in how people behaved. As a certified Fieldmarshal/ENTJ personality type, I feel it is my duty to tell you that I have studied both of these systems thoroughly and have reached the conclusion that they both hold truths and are both equally viable. Also, regardless of whether you take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test or the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, your personality type will be the same on both tests. There will merely be a slightly different interpretation for each one.

One of the first things that these tests will determine is whether you fit into the category of an introvert or an extrovert. That is to say, do you prefer to focus on the outer world of people and things or the inner world of ideas and images? A well-balanced person focuses on both, of course, but one is preferred and dominant above the other and determines whether you are an introvert or an extrovert.