
Learn the agenda for the course. You will learn the basics. And it will prepare you for going deeper. Also, know that you'll be getting a professional overview.
Your teacher here comes with 25 years of experience with type. Also, please consider, what are your intentions? A good starting goal is locating your best-fit type.
There are many applications. Let's start with an activity. Type reflects preferences, roles, bias, and one-sidedness. Personality always occurs in context.
Meet Anya, a theater director. She will accompany us through the course, giving an everyday face for Type discovery, reflection, and applications.
Anya does Isabel Myers' classic signature exercise. This exercise illustrates the nature of type: It is about preference. We use both hands, and use them in different complementary roles, we have a bias for one hand. Type preferences work the same way.
Type is a framework: a lens, language, and lever. And it is about development! How we each express our type varies based on our unique experiences.
Hear from 8 professionals who use type in their coaching practice. Why use type? What has been their personal experience? And what is it like to use type with others?
The history of type goes back 25 centuries. Key figures include Carl Jung, Isabel Myers, David Keirsey, and Linda Berens. Type is like a mandala to keep re-engaging.
Contrary to some naysayers, type has a solid scientific foundation with a lot of research, from the MBTI(R) instrument and the CPA to genetics studies with twins and neuroscience data.
Feel free to read the download on the validity of Jung's original framework of functions. There is also a second download about the popular MBTI assessment, written to correct common myths and misinformation.
Please spend a few minutes to answer the Cognitive Processes Assessment. Or, complete the score the downloadable assessment there. It's either 32 or 48 questions are validated with over 130,000 people.
The CPA delivers your personal cognitive profile across 8 areas and suggests 3 type codes to look at. Taking an assessment provides one kind of data point. You are responsible to find a best-fit type.
Let's follow Anya as she takes the Cognitive Processes Assessment to get a 1st data point. As she goes, she asks some questions and shares some perspectives.
Learn about two fundamental preferences: introverting and extraverting. We all do both, but prefer one. Learn the scientific basis of these.
Jung observed 4 mental functions that help us perceive (access or gather information) and judge (organize and make decisions). These relate to the prefrontal cortex.
Note: The download here is for reference through the rest of this section.
What is your favorite or preferred way to perceive: Sensing (concrete, tangible, experience) or Intuiting (abstract, conceptual, potential)? We all do both, but what's your bias?
What is your favorite or preferred way to judge: Thinking (objective criteria, measures and logic) or Feeling (subjective, personal and social values). We all do both, but what's your bias?
Everyone perceives and judges, resulting in 4 pairings: Sensing-Feeling, Sensing-Thinking, Intuiting-Thinking, and Intuiting-Feeling. Read descriptions based on published research data.
Let's explore the last letter in the code: Is your preference J or P? This dimension reflects what you show to the world: Do people tend to see your judging side or your perceiving side?
The downloads here highlights how two types that differ by J vs. P (INTJ vs. INTP, and INFJ vs. INFP) are actually quite different in many ways.
After taking the CPA, Anja gets a second data point on her type by going through a tour of the 4 dichotomies: E vs I, S vs N, T vs. F, J vs. P. At this point, she gets very close to one best-fit type code, for now.
Anya hears about two facets of Intuiting (extraverted intuiting and introverted Intuiting). Intuiting is her driver of her psychological car. She describes how she challenges herself and arrives at ENFP as her best-fit type.
Anya looks at some type snapshots. Based on her CPA results, she looks at ENFJ and ENFP. She also looks at ISTP as a point of comparison. The snapshots are a brief introduction and a third data point after the CPA. You will see them for yourself in Section 7.
Do not rely on one data point to find your best-fit type. Instead, "triangulate" using multiple points. This is like figuring out how to get home when you are lost in the woods.
The two downloads show options to triangulate, with the bigger piece showing 8 common ways to arrive at best-fit Type.
We dig into key considerations and paths to discover your best-fit type. There is culture, unconscious behavior we are blind to, questionnaire (test) errors, and so on.
Note: The 3-ring "target" is from multiple books by Linda Berens and Dario Nardi.
Hear from type professionals what they gained, or what changed, from before and then after knowing type. Mostly, type gives a language, shows strengths, gives permission to be oneself, and better work with people in general. Sometimes, when the lightbulb turns on, there are some big surprises.
The Johari Window is a great tool to help you on your self-discovery journey. What's (un)known to self and/or (un)known to others? Some things we do not see about ourselves. We also briefly cover BLM (Be Like Me) and BLT (Be Like Them), which are 2 of several "dragons" of Type.
Note: The Johari Window for personality is from multiple books by Linda Berens and Dario Nardi.
Please take a few minutes to explore this matrix of the 16 types. Here are snapshots of the 16 types. Each type comes with a name and a set of unique themes. This is a holistic way to understand the types.
This is your opportunity to get a 3rd data point to triangulate toward your best-fit Type.
Here is another way to explore the types: 1-page pieces based on interviews of multiple people of each type. Hear what they say about themselves in their own words.
Copyright Notice: These are for your personal use only. You do NOT have permission to share them. They come from "16 Personality Types: Descriptions for Self-Discovery" by Linda Berens and Dario Nardi.
Feel free to explore these heroic biographical portraits, 4 per type. These are like case studies. They show how type expresses in context and in unique ways.
The downloadables include a Q&A about the biographies plus 64 short biographies that are used in the upcoming assignment.
Copyright Notice: These are for your personal use only. You do NOT have permission to share them. They come from "Character and Personality Type" by Dario Nardi.
Let's look in on Anya as she reads through and comments on the "Life Report" for ENFP. These descriptions are written from a young-adult perspective. Moreover, every person is unique.
What's your subtype? Are you firstly: Dominant, Creative, Normalizing or Harmonizing?
With 4 subtypes for each of 16 types, there are now 64 varieties of personality! Based on neuroscience data. They are a great way to help clarify type.
The 1st download here describes the 4 subtypes in depth for one type, INFP, to help make the model clearer. And the 2nd download here summarizes the 4 subtypes in general (independent of the specific types).
This short exercise is your opportunity to take a best guess at the various personalities in your life among friends, family, and coworkers. Relationship preferences can reveal a lot!
The downloads include 1) a type grid with icons and names, and 2) a profiling cheat sheet to help you think about others.
Learn the value of following Isabel Myers' famous zig-zag path to solving problems effectively. Start with Sensing, then zig to Intuiting, zag over to Thinking, and end with Feeling.
Personality type for relationships is a perennial topic! Based on your likely best-fit type, how do you tend to behave or want from relationships, and who might you go best with?
Anja walks through the type preferences and some snapshots as she considers her husband's likely best fit type. Are his type preferences ISTJ, INTJ or some other type?
At its heart, type is about development. It was born as a therapeutic framework. A great way to get back to that is by focusing on ways you can improve yourself and your life.
The downloadables include both a "quick advice" (all 16 types on one page) and more detailed "reminders for growth".
Watch the video to meet virtual characters Lakshmi and Sven. Hear their answers to several typical profiling questions and get an impression of their personalities. If you like, download "hint-1" or "hint-2" for guidance.
(There is a full "cheat sheet" with this section's assignment.)
Note: This is recorded from an interactive game for profiling others' typess. To learn more, ask us.
Continue with Lakshmi and Sven, hearing their answers to more questions. By now, you'll likely have some opinion of their best-fit Type codes. If you like, download "hint-3" or "hint-4" for guidance.
(There is a full "cheat sheet" with this section's assignment.)
From a final set of questions and answers, can you correctly identify Lakshmi's and Sven's best fit Types by the end? If you like, download "hint-5" or "hint-6" for guidance.
(There is a full "cheat sheet" with this section's assignment.)
In this extra, challenge round, we continue the interview. Can you correctly pick out Lakshmi's and Sven's first-ranked subtype? Includes answers at the end.
This is the 1st of four courses on the Myers-Briggs / Jungian psychological types.
You have likely heard about the 16 types in some way, such as ESTJ or INFP. The letters stand for Extraverting vs. Introverting, Sensing vs. Intuiting, Thinking vs. Feeling, and Judging vs. Perceiving. Each dimension is a preference, like how we use both our hands but favor one in a lead role. When we weigh all four preferences, we get 16 basic types.
As you will discover, “type” is not about boxes. Instead, type provides a lens to see yourself and others, a language to talk about similarities and differences, and a lever to be more productive with your career, relationships, and life in general.
Even if you come here feeling that you know your 4-letter code already, it is worth it to start with a solid foundation. You will get a professional overview from an expert with 30 years of experience, research, and publications. You will hear from eight other professionals who are coaches and consultants. Also, you will learn how to use a free, highly-validated questionnaire to help you find your best-fit type.
All of the definitions and materials are based in research studies, including over a decade of neuro-imaging. In fact, you will get the latest progress: The 4 brain-based subtypes that result in 64 variants, not just 16 types!
The course takes on a journey of three acts: 1) history and mindset, 2) finding your best-fit type and subtype, and 3) applications for careers and relationships, plus a test of your skills to profile others. The last part is of course the heart of any framework: how to apply an idea to live better.
All along the way are handouts and book excerpts for self-reflection.