I think it's essential to realize people have different ways to behave and that's fine. That said, MBT has a lot of negative things about it.
While the wikipedia page of MBT succeeds in hiding the critique to the end it's luckily there [1]. 'Psychometric specialist Robert Hogan wrote: "Most personality psychologists regard the MBTI as little more than an elaborate Chinese fortune cookie"'
Katherine Briggs and Isabel Meyers (a mother and daughter) should be considered as literary authors at most rather than psychologists [2][3]. Katherine apparently had a lot of ideas about personalities in general and she wrote them down. But it's not like she did massive field work or performed anything that could be recognized as credible research.
Luckily some enterprising consultants recognized her work was easy to sell. The rest is marketing...
People find comfort in lot of things. I don't mind people turning to charlatans like horoscope readers if they know what they are getting into.
MBT is entertaining fiction that is marketed by profiteering consultants as an actual psychometric tool. Fiction can be valuable in understanding the world but it is not a scientific instrument. The fact that it is marketed as such makes it very distasteful.
The only well respected psychometric model that has not failed in one way or another that I'm aware of is the five-factor model [0].
The main problem with MBT is when people think they can use it in some structured manner. The marketing around is so solid it succeeds in fooling some people into actually employing MBT consultants. People in actual workplaces have suggested forming teams based on a balancing made through MBT analyzes.
While the wikipedia page of MBT succeeds in hiding the critique to the end it's luckily there [1]. 'Psychometric specialist Robert Hogan wrote: "Most personality psychologists regard the MBTI as little more than an elaborate Chinese fortune cookie"'
Katherine Briggs and Isabel Meyers (a mother and daughter) should be considered as literary authors at most rather than psychologists [2][3]. Katherine apparently had a lot of ideas about personalities in general and she wrote them down. But it's not like she did massive field work or performed anything that could be recognized as credible research.
Luckily some enterprising consultants recognized her work was easy to sell. The rest is marketing...
People find comfort in lot of things. I don't mind people turning to charlatans like horoscope readers if they know what they are getting into.
MBT is entertaining fiction that is marketed by profiteering consultants as an actual psychometric tool. Fiction can be valuable in understanding the world but it is not a scientific instrument. The fact that it is marketed as such makes it very distasteful.
The only well respected psychometric model that has not failed in one way or another that I'm aware of is the five-factor model [0].
The main problem with MBT is when people think they can use it in some structured manner. The marketing around is so solid it succeeds in fooling some people into actually employing MBT consultants. People in actual workplaces have suggested forming teams based on a balancing made through MBT analyzes.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indi...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Cook_Briggs
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabel_Briggs_Myers