Personality & Personality Types: Examples & Descriptions

Lesson Transcript

Cite this lesson

In this lesson, we'll learn how psychologists de ne personality, the di erent theoretical perspectives on personality, and
the di erent personality types de ned by one commonly used scale, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Personality
Ever heard the phrase ''They've got a big personality''? Usually, that means the person is very outgoing and
noticeable, which can be good or bad depending on the opinion.

However, personality is not something measured on a scale of having more or less. It's a part of who we
are and our myriad of traits. Let's take a look at the way psychologists describe personality and the
di erent personality types. You might even recognize your own.

De nition
As a professional term in psychology, personality is a person's unique patterns of thought, emotion, and
behavior. This means that personality is composed of all of an individual's unique characteristics.

When psychologists study personality, they usually conduct two di erent kinds of research, including:

1. How and why people di er in a particular characteristic or group of characteristics, like aggression, humor, and
outgoing behavior, and

2. How the di erent traits in a person's personality work together in terms of how he or she behaves and interacts
with the external world

Competing Views
There are a wide variety of competing theories on personality. The ideographic view of personality sees
each person as completely unique individuals. People cannot be compared with one another because their
psychological makeups are integrated wholes and not a series of comparable characteristics.

This contrasts with the nomothetic view that states that personality traits can be compared between
people and where each person places on a scale of that trait. Their unique personalities are thus observed
by mapping their positions along these traits.

Myers-Briggs Indicator
One of the most commonly used evaluations for personality typing is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI), created by a mother-daughter team of psychologists, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers.
The Briggs developed a typing system based on the work of Carl Jung, a prominent psychologist from the
early days of the eld.
The team developed four dimensions to measure personality. Each dimension consists of a continuum
between two extremes of a particular trait.

1. Is the person more extroverted or introverted?

2. How does the person learn new information? Doe he or she lean toward using the physical senses for empirical
observation or intuitively gathering information from observed details and reasoning (whether conscious or
unconscious)?

3. How does the person make decisions, through a logical process or by going on a feeling?

4. How does the person deal with the world around him or her? Does the individual project his or her beliefs onto the
situation or take in observed details to modify or support those beliefs?

16 Types
Given the binary alternatives in each dimension, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator produces 16 di erent
personality types. A trained professional can evaluate the variety of people within each type based on the
strength of their responses in each dimension.

The types are as follows, with the letters representing each extreme of the dimensions scale:

(I) introversion to (E) extroversion

(S) sensing to (N) intuition

(T) thinking to (F) feeling

(J) judging to (P) perceiving

Introverts
All of the following types are on the introvert side of the scale on the rst dimension. Details of these types
are only vaguely described as more extensive study is needed to describe these personalities in depth and
explain the way the di erent dimensions work together.

ISTJ: Quiet, serious, thorough, and dependable

ISTP: Tolerant, quiet, adaptable, and a quick problem solver

ISFJ: Quiet, friendly, dependable, and loyal

ISFP: Quiet, kind, independent, and loyal

INTJ: Creative, skeptical, and driven

INTP: More interested in ideas and abstract theories, quiet, adaptable, and focused

INFJ: Curious, organized, decisive, and committed to their values

INFP: Idealistic, loyal, curious, and adaptable

Extroverts
All of the following types are on the extrovert side of the scale on the rst dimension.

ESTJ: Practical, decisive, and organized

ESTP: Adaptable, patient problem-solver interested in the here and now

ESFJ: Caring, cooperative, loyal, and dedicated to completing projects

 ESFP: Friendly, energetic, adventurous, adaptable, and spontaneous

ENTJ: Decisive, e cient, good at planning, enjoys learning, and easily leads others

ENTP: Attuned to motivations of others, easily bored, outspoken, quick-witted, and resourceful

ENFJ: Aware of needs and emotions of others, responsible, loyal, and sociable

ENFP: Imaginative, enthusiastic, seeks a rmation, spontaneous, and supportive of others

Lesson Summary
Personality is a person's unique patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior. It's at the core of what
makes us who we are.

The ideographic view of personality sees each person as a unique set of traits that must be studied in their entirety
rather than in categories.

The nomothetic view of personality, however, encourages comparability by claiming there are particular types of
traits and people that can be compared along a scale of these traits.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by psychologists Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers,
builds on the theories and nomothetic views of Carl Jung, an early leader in psychology. It determines an
individual's position on a continuum in four di erent dimensions of personality, under which individuals
can fall under 16 personality types.

These dimensions test the range between:

1. Extroversion (E) and introversion (I)

2. Sensing information (S) and intuiting information (N)

3. Making decisions through thinking (T) or feeling (F)

4. Interaction with the world through judging (J) or perceiving (P)