MBTI is a really famous personality typing system, that I'm sure a lot of you have heard of already, built on top of Jungian Cognitive functions It basically splits people based on 4 dichotomies into 16 different personality types.
Extroverted versus Introverted: Is a person energized by interacting with the outside world (people or the environment) or internally (within their own head)
Sensing versus Intuition Does the person understand the world with information directly from their 5 senses, or from their own intuition? Also, intuitives like theories, while sensors prefer clear facts.
Thinking versus Feeling Does the person make decisions based on thinking about them or by how they feel about them?
Judging versus Perceiving Does the person interact with the outside world via their perception (sensing/ intution) or by their (judgement/ perceiving).
It is incredible that while this isn't a scientific method, it does a really good job of sorting people, and it can be very helpful for understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, and those of the colleagues you have to work with that are really annoying and you can't figure out why they operate the way they do!!! I personally have found it VERY helpful for understanding who I am, and who others are, and why I can relate well to some people, but not others, and why I am great at some things, but just struggle so much with other things.
To work out your type, you can do this quiz
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
If you want a second opinion, there is this one (Which I think is quite a nice one)
http://similarminds.com/classic_jung.html
And I found this one interesting too, but it seems to be a bit too "sensitive", not very well differentiating the strength of strengths and weaknesses, and as an engineering student told me, it just isn't suitable for engineers who need to have a good variety of skills, beyond what their natural ones are! This test focuses on using congitive functions to identify your type, rather than trying to work out each of the 4 letters indvidually. Which is a more accurate method, but like I said the test itself has some serious limitations.
http://cognitivequiz.com/quiz.html
So I'm curious, what are the types of you guys?
Sometimes these tests can get it wrong though, as there are exceptions to the stereotypes. Two more reliable ways are to either go to a MBTI counsellor, qualified to identify your type, or to learn and understand the cognitive functions underlying the types so that you can figure out your type based on your congitive functions.
And there are limitiations. Not all personality traits are recognised by MBTI. One interesting one my thesis supervisor explained to me was that some people who are good at math like rearranging equations, and are amazing at it, whereas others are very good at figuring out the underlying ideas, and that there is very little over lap between those 2 strengths. Most people who like math are very biased towards one or the other. Also some people can be very near the middle of one of the axises (for example, introversion/ extroversion is a common one for that).
Also, people self administering the test can be very biased, instead answering questions based on who they think they should be, rather than who they actually are. It is important to be completely honest. There is NO best type. All 16 types have strengths and weaknesses, all can function well in the world, and all are here to make different contributions to the world. Trying to be somebody you aren't can often be at the cost of your own happiness, so just answer the questions honestly :-) (Which is a major trap I fell into, for a long time I pretended to be who I wasn't, and it was just frustrating, unrewarding, and always highlighted my weaknesses and made my strengths meaningless)
Once you know your type, there is huge amounts of information online about that type.
http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html
http://www.careerplanner.com/MB2/16-...raditional.cfm
Are 2 of the many interesting websites on it.
And BTW I myself am an ENTP. Smart, but kinda what most people would perceieve as very crazy and all over the place! :)
Note: The poll answers are in a meaningful order. The 16 types make 4 temperaments; NT, NF, SP, and SJ (basically, whichever you have in your type is the one you are). I listed them with the SP's first, then the SJ's, then the NF's, then the NT's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirsey_Temperament_Sorter
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