“College is a time when you find yourself” - this is a phrase you have undoubtedly heard during your time at Mercer University. While once in awhile you may come across someone who has it all figured out, a large percentage of undergraduate students remain undecided or unsure of their major and the direction they wish to take their lives. During this time, learning about yourself is one of the most useful things you can do for you and your future to ensure that you find happiness and meaning in the course of your career.
Although personality tests, at first glance, might appear as trivial and unreliable as a daily horoscope, they have become an increasingly popular way to go about delving deeper into the many underlying layers of who we are and how we relate to our family, our peers and society at large. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MTIB), or Myers-Briggs personality test has become the most widely used and renowned system for categorizing personality of its type. Inspired by Carl Jung and his earlier personality theory, Katherine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Myers, created the test in 1934. Today, the Myers Briggs personality inventory is used across the world to assess personality and it is used by corporations in the hiring process and job placement.
You may be skeptical that a unique personality can be categorized so generally and absolutely, and you’d be right. This is not something that is going to be one hundred percent accurate. However, by testing for individual traits and combining them to form a portrait, the results are almost freakishly accurate.
The personalities are broken into the following four opposing traits: Extroverted versus Introverted, Sensing versus Intuition, Thinking versus Feeling and Judging versus Perceiving. The sixteen different combinations of these traits form sixteen different personality types. However, these traits are not black and white; they exist on a continuum. For example, someone can be almost equally both extraverted and introverted. People with high percentages in one trait of each of the four pairs will find their personality descriptions to be extremely accurate, however others who find themselves in the middle of opposing trait pairs may find that they identify in some way with two or more different personality descriptions.
Although it may not be completely precise, the Myers-Briggs test can help you learn more about yourself and help you better understand your friends and loved ones which can improve your relationships substantially. This enlightening breakthrough in the psychological world helps us to better understand ourselves and to utilize our natural abilities instead of struggling to work against our own very nature. When it comes to choosing a major, knowing yourself and your natural strengths is essential.
Why every undecided college student should take the Myers Briggs Personality Test
