LogFAQs > #980265148

ssjevot posted...

MBTI is not considered a valid personality test. And stuff like OCEAN (Big 5, whatever you want to call it) is pretty well regarded. It's just OCEAN is boring because it's a good test. You don't get a type with cool stories, instead you get told how you compare to population means on five dimensions. So the sad truth is valid tests aren't popular for the exact reasons they are valid. No one wants to do boring math, they want a label and a story.

Oh yeah, I know. I studied psych (though not personality specifically) and MBTI is basically the equivalent of Freudian psychoanalytics in personality:

The test relies on the Barnum effect, flattery, and confirmation bias, leading participants to personally identify with descriptions that are somewhat desirable, vague, and widely applicable.[5] As a psychometric indicator, the test exhibits significant deficiencies, including poor validity, poor reliability, measuring supposedly dichotomous categories that are not actually independent, and not being comprehensive.[6][7][8][9] Most of the research supporting the MBTI's validity has been produced by the Center for Applications of Psychological Type, an organization run by the MyersBriggs Foundation, and published in the center's own journal, the Journal of Psychological Type (JPT), raising questions of independence, bias and conflict of interest.[10]