A Piece of MBTI ^® History

Type Dynamics and team development

Written by Alex Campbell

The main intent of Isabel Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs in developing the MBTI^® tool was to enable individuals to access their Jungian type. Jung held that we use all four mental processes (functions) in both the Extraverted and Introverted worlds some of the time. He also stated that while the bi-polar opposites in early life are initially not differentiated and therefore cannot be used effectively, the Dominant (“Superior” for Jung) function gradually emerges as the guide to one’s personality, and therefore most subject to conscious control, in one’s preferred attitude. While in Psychological Types Jung concentrates on the eight ‘pure types’ he does say that “The goal of a lifetime is to achieve a dynamic balance of the innate opposites and to make this balancing process as conscious as possible.”

Based on this and on another statement by Jung in Psychological Types that “The Auxiliary is different from the Dominant in every way but not in opposition to it” Briggs and Myers then hypothesized that the auxiliary typically operates in the less preferred attitude and they intuitively added a significant contribution to Jung’s theory by clarifying the importance and the balancing role of the auxiliary function, thereby giving access to Type Dynamics and Development. This balancing role takes place in two ways: (1) if the Dominant is a Perceiving function (S or N) then the Auxiliary (“Secondary”) function, which is less conscious than the Dominant, is a Judging function (T or F), and vice versa; and, (2) if the Dominant function is Extraverted, then the Auxiliary function is Introverted, and vice versa.

One of the first applications of type made by Isabel Briggs Myers in January 1974 was the Application of Type to Teamwork. “Good teamwork calls for recognition and use of certain valuable differences between members of the team,” she says, and goes on to talk of the differences that result from the four basic preferences relating to the use of perception and judgment. The preferred combinations of perception and judgment (ST, SF, NF, NT) has much to do with vocational choice. People tend to be attracted to areas that need their particular kind of perception and judgment; they like the chance to use their best developed processes. What people chose to do in a given field is strongly influenced by the remaining two (Jungian) basic preferences: action or ideas. In this respect Myers says that every field of work needs both “experts in action” (extraverts) and “experts with ideas” (introverts).   The contribution of different types to team work is also influenced by the final preferences relating to one’s attitude taken toward the outer world (J or P). She concludes her 1974 article with a few principles:

Any team should include a sufficient variety of types to perform effectively, and with satisfaction, the responsibilities of the team;
Morale and effectiveness will survive intact if the team members recognize that both kinds of perception and both kinds of judgment are essential to a sound solution of a problem;
A well-balanced team can and should contain at least one skilled representative of each (mental) process; and
A healthy respect for one’s opposite makes for peaceful and effective co-existence. It also helps one recognize and cultivate one’s own less developed processes.

In a 1970 letter to Dr. Mary McCaulley, her life-long friend and collaborator, Isabel Myers wrote:

“Type is the cake and type (dynamics and) development is the icing on the cake.  We have too much to do now to establish applications of the cake to spend time on  the icing”.  

Come join Alex Campbell in Ottawa on November 5, 2010 for his advanced workshop “Type Dynamics and Team Development” to enjoy the icing and appreciate just how much spice it adds to an already delicious cake.

￭ If you have a story that you would like to have included in the Psychometrics Quarterly, please contact Dan Costigan at 1.800.661.5158 ext 245 or email.

Alex Campbell  is a trainer for Psychometrics Canada. He has been working with the MBTI tool in a variety of situations across Canada, USA and in South Africa since 1981. Alex has an MA from St. Louis University, USA, and a MEd from Ottawa University.

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A Piece of MBTI ® History

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A Piece of MBTI ^® History