Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

[Aguadiablo]

I'm trying to assign advantages, disadvantages, quirks or skills to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator categories.

The 16 different personalities are comprised of four pairs of traits.

• Extraversion/Introversion

• Intuitive/Sensing

• Thinking/Feeling

• Judging/Perceiving

This is what I have so far:

Extraversion

• Social Chameleon

• Fearlessness

• Overconfidence

• Gregarious

Introversion

• Talent

• Imaginative

• Dreamer

• Loner

Intuitive

• Intuition

Sensing

Thinking

Feeling

Judging

Prospecting

Any input would be grateful.

[Peaches]

Here's one relevant thread discussing this.

[jason taylor]

You might find it easier reading the actual descriptions of the sixteen types, rather then simply the matrix they are gotten from.

[Adversary]

One non-obvious thing about the Myers-Briggs categories is that intuitive doesn't have its ordinary meaning, but means something more like abstract. After all, its opposite number is sensing. People who are intuitive in the MB sense live more in a world of ideas, people who are sensing live in a world of physical things and sensations.

This might seem to overlap with thinking/feeling, but there is an understandable difference. T people favor logic, analysis, and numbers, F people favor feelings and interpersonal dynamics.

An IT person might be an economist, an ST person a mechanic. An IF person could be a mystic or a counselor, an SF person an artist or singer.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Adversary

One non-obvious thing about the Myers-Briggs categories is that intuitive doesn't have its ordinary meaning, but means something more like abstract. After all, its opposite number is sensing. People who are intuitive in the MB sense live more in a world of ideas, people who are sensing live in a world of physical things and sensations.

Yes. It's very like the meaning of "Openness to Experience" in the Big Five model, which is really about having intellectual, artistic, or other nonpragmatic interests rather than about "experience" in the common sense. N vs. S could really best be captured by buying Per down (for N) or up (for S).

[dfinlay]

Do bear in mind that GURPS mental disadvantages are mostly major psychological issues. Any particular one is not something a large chunk of the population should have. I wouldn't advise putting MB into your games at all, as the system is very imperfect and meant for description not proscription and because any sort of GM-imposed personality categorization causes problems with characters who don't quite fit (see Alignments), but if you are going to do it, roleplay quirks would be the best way.

[simply Nathan]

If you have a personality type strong enough that people familiar with this system will think of you immediately when it comes up...you have a Quirk.

[Antumbra]

For my two cents, you may find this inspiring: https://www.xeromag.com/fun/personality.html

[dataweaver]

How wedded are you to Meyer-Briggs? I ask because one of their students, Keirsey, took the sixteen personality types and grouped them into four broad Temperaments (Artisans = _S_P, Guardians = _S_J, Rationals = _NT_, and Idealists = _NF_), each of which he said had its own kind of intelligence: Artisans are Tactical, Guardians are Logistical, Rationals are Strategic, and Idealists are Diplomatic. He also redefined the two-trait matrix defining them from S/N and either P/J or T/F to “how you communicate” (Abstract or Concrete; analogous to N/S) and “how you approach tasks” (Cooperative or Pragmatic).

Then a student of Keirsey names Linda Berens renamed Keirsey’s Temperaments in an attempt to curb bias (Idealists became Catalysts, Guardians became Stabilizers, Rationals became Theorists, and Artisans became Improvisors) and introduced four complementary “Interaction Styles” (Chart the Course, Behind the Scenes, In Charge, Get Things Going) based on an Initiating/Responding duality (roughly mirroring E/I) and a Directing/Informing duality. Matching the four Temperaments to the four Interaction Styles lead to sixteen personality types that map one-to-one to the sixteen MBTI types, though different dualities are used. (Keirsey also has something like this on his website, with four pairings establishing a binary tree with 16 nodes at the bottom. IIRC, the four pairings he used are Abstract/Concrete, Cooperative/Pragmatic, Directive/Informative, and something to the effect of Initiating/Responding. Berens basically took that, changed some names, and established four types based on the last two dualities.)

If you adopt Linda Berens' model, you need only develop eight “templates” or sets of traits, rather than sixteen: one for each Temperament and one for each Interaction Style.

I might also add a disclaimer: there is no guarantee that any of this accurately reflects the way actual people think. It might, however, be useful in modeling such things where RPGs are concerned. RPGs are notorious for using models that sound good and are simple, but aren't necessarily accurate; they are, after all, games; and it’s entirely appropriate to prioritize simplicity and sounding reasonable over accuracy when dealing with games.

[dataweaver]

You might also want to look into cognitive dynamics, which takes the N, S, T, and F traits, biases each of them toward either e or i, and slots them into different roles of an archetype-driven* framework to define one's personality — think of it kind of like Disney's Inside Out; but instead of five emotions, there are four cognitive function/attitudes playing roles on the stage of one's psyche (and another four in the shadow of the subconscious, handling tasks that the four in the psyche are uncomfortable with).

According to this theory, the cognitive functions manifest differently according to what role they play, and personality is determined by which cognitive function is dominant and which one is auxiliary; everything else flows from those two placements, though every cognitive function has a role to play. The sixteen cognitive types (e.g. Te/Ni, or Si/Fe) map to the sixteen MBTI types; but the mapping is somewhat involved.

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* I say “archetype-driven” because Beebe associates each of the “positions” in the psyche — dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior — with a Jungian Archetype: the Hero or Heroine, the Father or Mother, the Puer or Puella (eternal boy or girl), and the Anima or Animus. I'm sure something could be done with this in a RPG; but I'm not sure what.