The person who introduced me to these tests was an ex girlfriend. Also an INTP
The 4 indexes in MBTI are sliding scales, not on/off switches.
Are you an introvert or extrovert?
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The info posted in prior posts and in different articles don’t suggest all but rather a majority of women test as “feelers” over the majority of men testing as “thinkers.”
My personal observation (I know: antidote != data) is that, among those I know who took the test it seems about half are feelers and half are thinkers - regardless of sex.
I haven't read the article that was linked yet, but the opening page suggests that women tested differently due to gender socialization, not an in born preference. Which suggests to me that some people may feel/think that there are right and wrong answers to the questions.
One humorous antidote. A friend of mine (ENFP) who is married to an INTP, once asked her husband how he felt about something. He responded that he didn't know, he hadn't thought about it. She asked me, why does someone have to think about how they feel?
Anyway, she also credits the test for saving her marriage. Said it has helped them both understand what's going on in their spouse's head as well as their own
I haven't read the article that was linked yet, but the opening page suggests that women tested differently due to gender socialization, not an in born preference. Which suggests to me that some people may feel/think that there are right and wrong answers to the questions.
One humorous antidote. A friend of mine (ENFP) who is married to an INTP, once asked her husband how he felt about something. He responded that he didn't know, he hadn't thought about it. She asked me, why does someone have to think about how they feel?
Anyway, she also credits the test for saving her marriage. Said it has helped them both understand what's going on in their spouse's head as well as their own
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
I very much doubt companies make hiring candidate hopefuls take the test. This is something applied well after being hired.
sculptor
Valued Senior Member
long ago and far away, i took the mb "test"---questionnaire
and
what I remember:
It claimed that I would be happy as
the president
or a forest ranger
(quite the spread)
....................
I suspect that on a different day, in a different mood, having eaten different food at different times...etc.....
I would most likely have answered many questions differently.
...............................
is fickle a personality trait ?
and
what I remember:
It claimed that I would be happy as
the president
or a forest ranger
(quite the spread)
....................
I suspect that on a different day, in a different mood, having eaten different food at different times...etc.....
I would most likely have answered many questions differently.
...............................
is fickle a personality trait ?
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
Sure. So?
I'll try to use an analogy.
A body morphology study has, as one of its factors, height. This is surely a valid factor in body morphology.
Asian people are stereotypically seen as shorter than average.
The study results show that, indeed, Asians are statistically shorter than average. And thus, to a certain degree of accuracy, can be used to detect Asian descent.
Does this mean the test is biased?
As above.
You are assuming men and women on average have statistically identical personalities. Who says that is so?
If the test results show an observable difference, that doesn't make it biased.
Is it?
That’s interesting! Come to think of it, I’ve dated guys who have responded in similar ways like “let me think on it,” when asked about something. As an aside, I’ve noticed my go to response is often “I feel that...” and while that could just be semantics, I wonder if our differences in how we respond to various situations, (not just work related) stems from biology or social constructs. Or both. Hmm.
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
Indeed. If you look at your actual results, they show the percentage on the scale from one end to the other.
Most of my values were between 60/40 and 70/30.
Which is why:
So you don't interpret it as "...a cookie cutter composite of characteristics..."
I took it before being hired, and know others who had to take it as part of the interview process. Just my experience.
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
Was it a requirement of your interview? Or did you take it of your own accord, independent of the interview and the job?
Really???
That would have fired off a giant warning flare for me.
Why? Many companies use this during the interview process. I didn't think much about it, honestly, other than it was time consuming and annoying.
A couple of my friends have said that they've taken it as part of a ''team building'' exercise, so I guess it just varies.
I wonder in what position you'd be happiest, though, on a day to day basis?
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
? Some people react with their head, some people react with their gut.
Decades ago I had to take a test as part of the application process for a job. I suspect their test was NOT the MBTI test.
The HR person told my future boss that I was ideal for a career in IT. Agreed. I enjoy programming.
She also said that I was management material... which makes me cringe. Every time a company tries to move me into management, I find a new job.
(The reason I suspect their test was not an MBTI test.)
The HR person told my future boss that I was ideal for a career in IT. Agreed. I enjoy programming.
She also said that I was management material... which makes me cringe. Every time a company tries to move me into management, I find a new job.
(The reason I suspect their test was not an MBTI test.)
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
Yep.
I once worked at a paradise, where they acknowledged the fact that not every skilled employee (especially developers) wants to go into management. They offered alternate paths for advancement, with more creative freedom and responsibility but staying in development.
*sigh* The tech bubble burst shortly after.
To what? Every people reacts both intellectually or emotionally to some situations and in various mixtures of both to various other situations.
When women take a mental short-cut in problem-solving, it;s called intuition. When men do the same things, it's called going with their gut. It just means sub- or semi-conscious pattern-formation, using available sensory data, experience, instinct, logic, and comparison.
Men and women may differ in their methods, criteria and observations and priorities, but not in the relative quantity of thinking and feeling they bring to any particular situation.
The problem with most testing (this is especially true of intelligence tests) is that a standard test can't account for variations in style, so it automatically discounts whatever deviates from the test-makers mode of thought.
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
Yes. Which is why the test's results are on a scale from one end to the other. Mine was about 70% thinking, 30% feeling. Yours will be different.
(In theory, the correctly interpreted results fall - not into one of 16 buckets - but one of 100,000,000 buckets: 100^4.)*
*OK, not quite true. There's only 80 questions. The point is that the test is not funneling nuanced data into generic buckets. The output is as nuanced as the input.
Yes. In both cases, they would score high on feeling.
The test doesn't ask about intuition or gut; it asks how you might react in a given situation. That's you, deciding how much thinking/feeling you do.
What's the problem?
Sure. That doesn't make the test biased. That makes you biased for inferring that 'feeling' somehow targets women and 'thinking' somehow targets men.
1] Is it not a given that "variations in style" are a big enough factor in the test goal: one's personality.
2] Besides, it does account for variations in style. It has a scale with increments of 1/100th.
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If we're honest, this has been an ongoing debate in the media as to why women aren't ''suited'' for STEM jobs, etc. You'd have to be living in a cave to not be aware that this isn't us being biased in this thread, but that there seems to be a cultural/societal bias that women are more suited for jobs outside of STEM. I'm a woman, so I'm not biased; I'm merely sharing what I've been reading over the past few years, about this very issue. This is why many companies are encouraging women to apply for STEM jobs; eventually, that cultural bias will come to an end when women start equaling men in those fields.
DaveC426913
Valued Senior Member
True. Though that's a digression from this topic.
Er. That claim is self-evidently untrue.