Any thoughts on MBTI?

[Harmony342]

Seems like all the rage at the moment. Thought it'd be useful to bring it up here and see what people think of it as a tool for self-actualizing! To clarify, I mean the personality typology known as myers-briggs.

[fridjonk]

You can use the search bar at the top right for it. 

There have been endless discussions on it the past months. 

[Harmony342]

 

9 minutes ago, fridjonk said:

You can use the search bar at the top right for it. 

There have been endless discussions on it the past months. 

Oops! Aha makes sense...

[Harmony342]

I still welcome any contribution if anyone wants to continue the discussion here

[vizual]

It's hard because, up to now, science knows very little about the brain and personality. So, this MBTI stuff can't be proven. It's pretty much glorified astrology if you look at it objectively.

But intuitively there seems to be some truth to it. I don't mean the stereotypes you read online about the 16 types. But the deeper theory behind it regarding the 8 cognitive functions defined by Carl Jung. I do seem to perceive the manifestations(or lack thereof) of these cognitive functions in the people around me. 

I think it can definitely help people can some awareness about themselves and others. It just has to be approached with caution as it can also cause bad effects when a person turns it into an ideology and absolute truth. 

 

[Harmony342]

@vizual  Do you think there is any real reasoning behind why there are these 4 dichotomies people exist on? It seems to my like it hasn't really been derived from anything and can't be directly linked to anything with more evidence like evolution or neuroscience. Obviously there will be some studies about the differences between people but surely differences in people can be measured in a near infinite number of ways? So I guess it's not wise to get too attached to this model

[vizual]

@Harmony342 It's not 4 dichotomies.

Jung has distinctly defined 8 cognitive functions that the human perceives and judges his or hers experience by. And it seems people have an innate preference of the order of these cognitive functions people view the reality-lense through.

It's hard to quantify this with the scientific method. But it is being worked on. I know a psychologist Dario Nardi is working on this. He is doing brain scans on people to see the preferences in the neural pathways of the brain. And that people that show a preference for Intuition show different results on the brainscans than the Sensing types. Don't pin me on the details.

And sure the differences in people are infinite. But it is still possible that people's brains prefers to process information in a certain way as opposed to someone else. And that this is not the defintive measurement of a person's character. But it can explain differences in people in broad strokes. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by vizual

[Harmony342]

@vizual  Apologies, I guess I mean they have measured characteristics that exist on a spectrum in between 4 dichotomies... idk

You sound about right to me! It seems like a very intriguing topic to me that can be explored in a lot of depth