Can the MBTI test be an authoritative reference for studying abroad and choosing a career?

The MBTI test provides a new way for young people to express their individuality in social interaction and plan themselves in learning and job searching. However, when it comes to life paths and major milestones, it is still necessary to carefully consider and make choices according to personal needs and actual circumstances.

If you want to say what is the hottest social way for young people in recent times, the MBTI personality test is definitely one of them.

On domestic social platforms, "MBTI" and other related topics have been read more than 2 billion times and discussed more than 900,000. Not only did stars and public figures such as Yang Mi and Sa Bening participate in the test and type interpretation, but even the Winter Olympic champion Gu Ailing also showed and shared her personality type in an interview, making this topic once dominated the hot search on social media and short video platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, attracting people's attention.

The MBTI seems to be replacing the horoscope test that was all the rage in the past as a hot topic and social calling card. Various conceptually oriented and marketing products related to this are also emerging.

The origin of MBTI

MBTI, full name "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator", was developed by American writer Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Catherine Cook Briggs in the 40s of the 20th century. It is a self-reported personality assessment tool to measure and describe people's mental activity patterns and different personality types in obtaining information, making decisions, and dealing with life.

The theoretical basis of the MBTI is the theory of mental types created by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Jung pointed out that an individual's mental activity has four basic functions: feeling, thinking, emotion, and intuition. Individual libido (Freud called mental energy libido, a special mental kinetic energy that is different from physical energy and chemical energy, cannot be measured and quantified, and also obeys the laws of chemistry and physics) tends to the external environment, that is, extraverted people; Libido's activity tends to himself, that is, the introverted person. Under this framework, personality is divided into the following eight personality types according to two attitudes and four driving forces: extraverted thinking, introverted thinking, extraverted affective type, introverted emotional type, extraverted sensory type, introverted sensory type, introverted intuitive type, and introverted intuitive type.

On the basis of Jung's theory of mental types, Isabelle Briggs Myers and Catherine Cook Briggs proposed the MBTI Mental Type Test Tool Scale. After reading Jung's book "Psychological Types" by chance and discovering that their research was highly consistent with Jung's theory, the two began to study Jung's theory of psychological types and tried to observe the behavior and subtle differences of different people. After a lot of observation and comparative research, on the basis of Jung's theoretical concepts of superior function and disadvantage function, dominant function and subordinate function, the two further proposed the concept of functional hierarchy, determined the order of its functional level for each type, and proposed the lifelong development theory of type, forming today's MBTI psychological type.

At the beginning of the theory, because the researchers were women and not professionals in psychology, the theory was not recognized by the academic community and widely recognized by society at first; After the 60s of the 20th century, MBTI gradually attracted attention and recognition, and Myers also published relevant research literature; Since the mid-70s, publications and academic conferences and research around MBTI have also appeared; After continuous revision and improvement, the theory was gradually widely used and began to become popular in the 80s.

MBTI's 16 personality types are divided

MBTI divides individual behavioral differences into four dimensions: spiritual energy orientation, information acquisition mode, decision-making mode and life attitude orientation:

Spiritual energy direction includes introversion (Introversion) or extroversion (Extroversion), generally examining where people prefer to focus their attention and where to get vitality, extroverted people pay attention to people and things in the external world, have a wide range of interests, good at communication, while introverted people pay more attention to their inner world, appear quieter and focused; Information acquisition methods include realism (Sensing) or intuition, people who pay attention to realism are mostly practical and pay attention to real details, while those who tend to intuition are mostly imaginative and creative, and have more possibilities for the future; Decision-making methods include thinking or emotion, the investigation hot is the way people process information and make decisions, people who are good at thinking often use causal ethics, treat people objectively, fairly and reasonably, while people who are accustomed to emotional judgment are easy to empathize with others, considerate of others, and compassionate; Life attitude orientations include Judging or perceiving, which focus on how to deal with the outside world, and people who are good at judgment usually like to live a planned and orderly life in a step-by-step manner, while people who are accustomed to living and working with perception prefer to live in a spontaneous, open way.

Under the framework of these four dimensions, four categories of personalities can be divided into analysts, diplomats, guardians and explorers. Combining the different preferences in these 4 dimensions can be combined to form 16 different personality types represented by initials, including architect (INTJ), logician (INTP), commander (ENTJ), debater (ENTP), advocate (INFJ), mediator (INFP), protagonist (ENFJ), activist (ENFP), logistician (ISTJ), guardian (ISFJ), general manager (ESTJ), archon (ESFJ), There are 16 personality types such as performer (ISTP), explorer (ISFP), entrepreneur (ESTP), performer (ESFP).

Embellish your study abroad life

The MBTI test is not only popular among young people in China, but also quickly became popular among overseas study groups. In addition to being widely used in social activities, many international students also try to understand their matching with the corresponding major and job search direction through self-testing.

For example, the INTJ personality has the characteristics of strong thinking, strong logic, strong numerical logic, and outstanding mathematical analysis ability, so many people think that the personality is more suitable for scientific research directions such as chemistry, biology, mathematics and other STEM majors for research, and many of this type of personality are also showing their skills in the computer and proficient fields because of their strong logical ability.

The ENTP personality usually refers to people who are flexible, agile, have diverse interests, are resourceful, articulate, and articulate. Therefore, many people who are interested in studying abroad should consider choosing majors such as politics, economics, and international relations, or journalism and media majors that focus on social communication skills and communication skills.

ISFJ personality people generally have the characteristics of hard-working, careful and thoughtful, good at taking care of others, they value harmony and cooperation, and are good at collecting data and paying attention to details. Therefore, this category of people is generally considered suitable for specialization in social services, choosing professions such as medicine, nursing, architecture, engineering, etc., which require both technology and care and patience.

For example, ESFP type personality, with strong social skills, and often hold a positive and optimistic attitude, many of this type of group personality is more outgoing, strong affinity, love life, excellent expression, can be like a fish in water in group communication, many people of the corresponding type can also consider choosing to study in media arts, performance, public relations and other aspects.

Such matching and analysis are also very common and popular in the study abroad circle. Moreover, not only in the analysis of professional and career directions, many young people are also keen on the test to "label" and "play with memes" to roommates. "Solo beautiful artist", "humble craftsman", "passionate leader", "indispensable tool man", etc. For a time, such witty and humorous MBTI roommate picture books were stacked on top of each other, adding some embellishment and fun to the stressful academic life, and also helping international students find their own community and sense of belonging in an unfamiliar environment. Through these guides, people can also feel the enthusiasm and vitality of Gen Z young people, and get a glimpse of the learning and lifestyle of contemporary study abroad students.

The reason behind the MBTI turning red

Why is the MBTI personality test, which has been born for more than half a century, suddenly so popular in these two years?

First of all, whether it is the popular MBTI test, or the tarot cards and constellations that have been popular for a long time, it can be found that almost content related to human psychology and personality has always been quite popular in mass communication. These tests all help people discover themselves, unlock "who I am", and recognize and build a diverse self through a more convenient question and answer mode. At the same time, these tests also divide the population to a limited extent, giving people in the same group a greater sense of belonging and identity.

Secondly, young people pursue personalization and like to label themselves with personal and tall "labels" in the process of socializing, which is also an important reason why MBTI has rapidly become popular and fission among young people. According to the American personality psychologist Allport's theory of self-development, an individual's self-knowledge goes through three stages: the physical self, the social self, and the psychological self. The latter two are realized in the social norms set by the media and in interpersonal communication with others, in the dissemination of information and social interaction, the individual constantly improves his identity with himself. Therefore, the MBTI test gives young people a "labeling" opportunity in social activities, to express themselves and show their individuality, so that they can gain a sense of identity.

Finally, with the development of the Internet, the way mass communication has changed, digital platforms and social media have flourished, and individuals as audiences can quickly access information and produce content that highlights their personality. In this context, the speed of information circulation is rapid, the frequency and speed of group dispersion are greatly accelerated, and the stability of the traditional group and environment in which individuals belong will be weakened, showing greater mobility. With this, the traditional labels that young people used to be labeled in the past, such as family, occupation, and faith, have been replaced by labels that are more and more segmented, more diverse and clear, and more youthful. Tests like MBTI can meet people's corresponding needs in this context and become a new social currency.

Is there a scientific basis?

MBTI test can help individuals understand their style, career potential and personality hobbies to a certain extent, so it is also widely used in personnel decision-making and consulting in enterprises, universities, etc., providing auxiliary reference for individual and collective development planning and management.

In recent years, the test has also become a marketing tool used by many merchants to promote consumer goods or explore business opportunities. Search for the test on major websites and social platforms, you can find a variety of test versions and links, want to test you can pay attention to some public accounts and bloggers, want to get the test report need to pay, the price ranges from more than ten yuan to dozens of yuan, the number of payments is not few. MBTI also brings consumer market and traffic password to merchants, and by promoting the test while promoting psychological courses, online and offline consultation training, and even guiding consumers to shop in different fields, it can be described as unlimited business opportunities for many merchants.

In fact, as a psychological testing tool, the MBTI personality test is only a tool for people's self-understanding, and its test report can be used as a reference for some aspects, but it is not comprehensive and omnipotent. In psychology, there is a concept of retest reliability, which refers to the degree of consistency of the results obtained by the same scale on the same group of participants twice, which reflects the stability and consistency of the test across time. Of the 1,200 testers, the MBTI retest rate was 57 percent, and only 17 percent acknowledged its explanatory power, while passing the psychology test was at least 50 percent, suggesting that the test's accuracy itself has certain limitations. Although through the test, people can roughly understand their own personality characteristics, but the variety of life is not only determined by the original personality and human factors, but also interacts with various factors from the outside, constantly acting and changing. Therefore, it is not possible to arbitrarily use a single personality test result as an authoritative guide for personnel management, vocational training, study abroad counseling, etc.

There are hundreds of people, thousands of faces, and the MBTI test only has 16 personality types, and each individual in reality is unique and difficult to be defined by a single type. Whether in daily life or study and work, various psychological analysis and personality tests, including MBTI, can be used as a reference to help us better understand ourselves, or as a way to relax and relax. However, when planning and making major choices in life, it is still necessary to carefully consider personal needs and real-world circumstances. (Reporter_Wang Bo Editor_Liu Yu Design_Liu Shiyue)

Source: 20220420 Study Abroad Magazine No. 194