Personality Types Based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) & The Four Core Learning Styles in The VARK Model

 Introduction

"Typing people" itself finds understanding as to the way people prefer to use their minds and how they behave. It provides an understanding of how we interact with others. Learning style preferences can balance information providers with receivers. For example, some instructors praise more than challenge their students. Other instructors challenge students to a higher level of performance rather than providing purely positive feedback. We can facilitate a balanced approach to boost learning efficiency and effectiveness. However, "mismatches between teaching and learning styles are inevitable"(Bayne, 1995, p.127) but instructors can continue to work from their strengths while taking the opportunity to address other styles. For instance, intuitive instructors could include more facts in their lessons rather than only relying on internal understanding or intuition. 

In personality typology, the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an introspective self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The test attempts to assign four categories, introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, judging or perceiving. One letter from each category is taken to produce a four-letter test result, such as "INTJ" or "ESFP". Today, the MBTI inventory is one of the most widely used psychological instruments in the world.

Personality Types

Based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), people are identified as having one of 16 personality types. The goal of the MBTI is to allow respondents to further explore and understand their own personalities including their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and possible career preferences. One thing to be clear, no one personality type is best or better than another. It isn't a tool designed to look for dysfunction or abnormality and its goal is simply to help people learn more about themselves. 

Now, let's look at what each letter of the MBTI represents and the senses behind them.

Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I) 

The extraversion-introversion dichotomy is a way to describe how people respond and interact with the world around them. Extraverts tend to enjoy more frequent social interaction and feel energized after spending time with other people. Introverts are inward-turning and tend to enjoy deep and meaningful social interactions.

Sensing (S) – Intuition (N) 

How do people gather information from the world around them? People who prefer sensing tend to pay a great deal of attention to reality, particularly to what they can learn from their senses. They tend to focus on facts and enjoy getting hands-on experience. Those who prefer intuition pay more attention to things like patterns and impressions. They enjoy thinking about possibilities, imagining the future, and abstract theories.

Thinking (T) – Feeling (F) 

People who prefer thinking place a greater emphasis on facts and objective data tend to be consistent, logical, and impersonal when weighing a decision. Those who prefer feeling are more likely to consider people and emotions when concluding.

Judging (J) – Perceiving (P) 

This scale involves how people tend to deal with the outside world. Prefer open, flexible, and adaptable, or not. All people at least spend some time engaged in extraverted activities. 

The MBTI Types 

Each type is then listed by its four-letter code:

• ISTJ - The Inspector
• ISTP - The Crafter
• ISFJ - The Protector
• ISFP - The Artist
• INFJ - The Advocate
• INFP - The Mediator
• INTJ - The Architect
• INTP - The Thinker
• ESTP - The Persuader
• ESTJ - The Director
• ESFP - The Performer
• ESFJ - The Caregiver
• ENFP - The Champion
• ENFJ - The Giver
• ENTP - The Debater
• ENTJ - The Commander

In the next chapter, let's look at a few examples of some types.

An Overview of the INFJ Personality Type

Scoring as an INFJ means your personality type is best described as Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging. Sometimes referred to as the Advocate or the Idealist. They're easy-going perfectionists. Both logical and emotional, creative and analytical. The key INFJ characteristics are compassionate, idealist, organized, and both emotional and logical. This type of person tends to be sensitive to the needs of others and highly creative. They value close and deep relationships and enjoy thinking about the meaning of life. However, being overly sensitive can be a bad thing sometimes. Overly high expectations also make them exhausted.

An Overview of the ESTJ Personality Type

ESTJs are often described as logical, take-charge kinds of people. They are committed to tradition, standards, and laws. The key ESTJ characteristics are they tend to place a high value on tradition, rules, and security. They are usually stubborn and unyielding. Their self-confidence and strong convictions help them excel at putting plans into action. People often describe ESTJs as predictable, stable, committed, and practical. Their strengths are practical, realistic, dependable, traditional, and good leadership skills. However, their weaknesses are insensitive, inflexible, not good at expressing feelings, and even bossy.

An Overview of the ISTP Personality Type

People with ISTP personalities enjoy having time to think alone and are fiercely independent. ISTPs enjoy taking things apart just to see how they work. They are logical and rational but are more interested in practical applications than in abstract ideas. The key ISTP characteristics are results-oriented, enjoying new experiences, prefer to make judgments based upon objective criteria rather than personal beliefs or values, quiet but with an easygoing attitude towards others, and good at keeping a cool head, maintaining their objectivity and coping with crisis. And, as always, there are also strengths and weaknesses. Logical, action-oriented, realistic, practical, enjoying learning new things, self-confident and easygoing are their strengths. However, difficult to get to know, insensitive, and does not like commitment, are their weaknesses.

The Learning Styles

The four core learning styles in the VARK model include visual, auditory, reading and writing, and kinesthetic. Here’s an overview of these four styles.

i. Visual - Visual learners are better able to retain information when it’s presented to them in a graphic depiction, such as arrows, charts, diagrams, and symbols. To teach visual learners effectively, you must give a presentation, and make sure visual learners have enough time to process and absorb visual cues. 

ii. Auditory - Prefer listening to information that is presented to them vocally and also enjoy reading aloud to themselves. To teach auditory learners, it is better to give a lecture and make sure you are addressing your auditory learners directly to get them involved in the conversation. Group discussions, engaging videos, and audio recordings are other great ways to engage auditory learners in your classroom. 

iii. Reading & Writing - Focusing on the written word, reading and writing learners succeed with written information on worksheets, presentations, and other text-heavy resources. To teach reading and writing learners effectively, it is useful to write essays, perform in-depth research, and read textbooks. They prefer more traditional methods of subject matter delivery. 

iv. Kinesthetic - Kinesthetic learners are hands-on and thrive when engaging all of their senses during course work. These learners tend to work well in scientific studies due to the hands-on lab component of the course. To effectively teach kinesthetic learners, it is better to get them up and moving and create learning games that encourage these types of learners.

Reference

Bayne, R. (1995). The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: A critical review and practical guide. London, UK: Chapman & Hall.

Cherry, K. (2021, June 18). What personality traits are characteristic of infjs. Verywell Mind. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/infj-introverted-intuitive-feeling-judging-2795978 

Cherry, K. (2021, July 23). Myers-Briggs Type indicator: The 16 personality types. Verywell Mind. Retrieved April 17, 2022, from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-myers-briggs-type-indicator-2795583