Human beings have long looked for signs of order in the unruly variety of our own natures.
Today, this need for coherence is met largely by theories about personality-- as measured, usually, by personality tests. All these personality self-assessments serve the same deeply felt needs:
They subdue the blooming, buzzing hive of differences among people.
They allow predictions to be made and advice to be dispensed.
They permit swift judgments about strangers.
They authorize the assignment of individuals, ourselves included, to the comforting confines of a group.
They often justify social arrangements as they are, extending a reassuring sense of stability to some.
And, most important, they offer to explain why---why we are the way we are.
Perhaps, the most potent effect of personality testing is its most subtle. For almost a hundred years it has provided a technology, a vocabulary, and a set of ideas for describing who we are, and many Americans have adopted these as our own.
Personality questionnaires are used even more widely in the workplace: a 2003 survey shows that personality tests are now administered by 30 percent of American
companies, from mom-and-pop operations to giants like Wal-Mart and General Motors.
Perhaps, no other personality test has achieved the cult status of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, an instrument created in the 1940s by a Pennsylvania housewife.
Fiercely proud of the test she called "my baby," Isabel Myers believed that it could bring about world peace--or, at least, make everyone a little nicer. The Myers-Briggs,
which assigns each test taker a personality type represented by four letters, is now given to 2.5 million people each year, and is used by 89 of the companies in the Fortune 100.
Employed by businesses to "identify strengths" and "facilitate teamwork," the Myers-Briggs has also been embraced by a multitude of individuals who experience a revelation (what devotees call the "aha reaction") upon learning about psychological type. Their enthusiasm persists despite research showing that many test takers achieve a different personality type when tested again.
For more on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and other personality tests, please visit: www.SelfAssessmentCenter.com
Human beings are complex creatures, and we need simple ways of grasping them to survive. But how we simplify---which shortcuts we take, which approximations
we accept---demands close inspection, especially since these approximations so often stand in for the real thing.
"The Cult of Personality: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves" tells the story of one very powerful and pervasive way of understanding ourselves: where it came from, why it flourished, and how, too often, it fails us. Every personality test publisher and all those professionals who use these instruments in their work should buy and read this new book.
John Agno
Certified Executive & Business Coach
I disagree. MBTI Personality typing allows us to see that at a deep level we are different. "I'm fundamentally different from you, and that's okay." In my personal experience it seems to encourage individuality, not conformity.
Often people are unaware about how much their individuality is subsumed into the group, so I can see how you might think the opposite.
Posted by: Maestro | November 21, 2005 at 12:18 PM