For those of you who know me, you’ve probably heard this phrase more times than you can count in recent weeks—“I’m an ENFP!”
Although I won’t go on to list the rich and famous with my same personality type—for starters, I count among my close companions Walt Disney, Bill Clinton and Oscar Wilde—I will say that the Myers-Briggs personality test has changed my life. Like many of my fellow Duke students, I took the test when I was in high school under the guise of discovering my perfect college based on personality type. Whether that happened, I cannot say, but the test did have a way of defining me. I was an ENFJ—extroverted, intuitive, feeling and judging.
Well, my whole outlook transformed when I decided to retake Myers-Briggs on a lark. Would my results be different? Had Duke really made me a different person? A few rapid clicks later and the answer was right in front of me—it had, but only slightly. I was an ENFP. I perceived now instead of judged. That sure sounded like a good thing, right?
But no matter how happy I am with my new personality type, professor of psychology Mark Leary tells me I should take the test with a grain of salt. It may be helpful in indicating how we interact with others and how we make decisions, Leary says, but it is by no means the key to unlocking our inner secrets.
Leary notes that the test’s biggest problem lies with its tendency to characterize test-takers as one personality type only to give them a completely different type a few days later. According to a 1993 article by psychologist David J. Pittenger, test-takers had a 50 percent chance of receiving a different personality type on the test after only a 5 week span.
I myself wondered if the test suffers from the danger of “self-reporting.” A sample Myers-Briggs question starts “You feel at ease in a crowd,” where the taker must either choose “yes” or “no.” Perhaps this is the extrovert in me speaking out, but wouldn’t most people want to say yes to that answer? Does anyone want to feel uneasy in a crowd? But Leary says the test generally yields accurate answers from participants, as long as they have enough insight into themselves to understand how they would react in general situations.
Admittedly, the test is not without its flaws. But here’s what I love about Myers-Briggs. No matter how many times I tried to Google “best Myers-Briggs personality types,” no definitive results came up. Unlike most of the implications we give to our descriptors, Myers-Briggs is not a value judgment, it is merely an assessment of personality. It is best used not to compare ourselves against other people but to better understand ourselves.
More importantly, reading my Myers-Briggs made me realize how I had matured as a person—and not merely based on my changed personality type. My few short years as a semi-adult have taught me to discover my flaws and embrace them. While “embracing your flaws” is commonly confused with recognizing that you are imperfect and continuing to practice your imperfection, that is not what I’m referring to. Instead, I discovered my professional flaws.
First and foremost, I am not detail-oriented. Myers-Briggs reinforced this. As an ENFP, I am a big picture person, explaining why I have no trouble grasping large concepts in a literary text but I still can’t seem to remember the Greek word for ‘hand.’ When I worked for a newspaper last summer, I could often handle reporting and writing a story on deadline, but found writing the budget line extremely difficult. How was I supposed to know that you started a Business story budget line not with the intuitive answer, “B,” but instead with the seemingly unrelated letter “L?”
The “embrace your flaws” counterpoint to these sad facts would be to “shake it off” and say, “Hey, I’m perfect the way I am.” But here’s the thing—I’m not. Being naturally detail-oriented may not be in the cards for me, but I can make a concerted effort to pay more attention to the small things. It even turns out that doing this will help me in the long run. Who knew?
Here is where I propose the next step—let Myers-Briggs help you. Personality tests can teach us a lot about the parts of ourselves we either do not want or cannot objectively discover. And it can teach us about those parts of other people, too. One day, when we’re actually working, we can use the Myers-Briggs test to understand our coworkers and ourselves.
My point here is that Myers-Briggs—despite its flaws— is not the death of uniqueness, but instead the birth of understanding. College students tend to search for individuality and yearn for difference. But there’s also something comforting in being part of a group. I feel like I’ve found my people in the ENFP’s. I enjoy reading articles summarizing my personality. Is that so bad? To be validated by a personality test?
Let’s hope not.
Elizabeth Djinis is the Editorial Page Editor and a Trinity junior. Her column runs every other Thursday. Follow her on Twitter @djinisinabottle.
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