Type TalkEssay Preview: Type TalkReport this essayType Talk:The 16 Personality Types That Determine HowWe Live, Love, and Workby Otto Kroeger and Janet M. ThuesenDell Publishing, October, 1989Type Talk is a primer on personality preference typing centered on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (“MBTI”). The MBTI is a widely-used “test” that helps a person begin to understand why people perceive situations differently, communicate different from others, and opt for different activities.
The books authors, Otto Kroeger and Janet Thuesen, husband and wife, have long been in the forefront of adapting the MBTI for use in everyday life and coined the phrase “Typewatching” as a descriptor for their work.
Kroeger and Thuesen open the book with a chapter on “name-calling”. They use this phrase, not in the derogatory sense as is often the case, but to show that name-calling is used by everyone as a means of “cataloging people” based on their unique, identifying characteristics. If were to do this inevitable “name-calling” the authors believe it should be done in an objective and constructive manner and when elevated to this higher level it becomes “Typewatching”
In the early 1920s the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung developed a theory of personality types where he said behavioral differences were “a result of preferences related to the basic functions our personalities perform throughout life” (p. 8). Jungs theory was published in his book titled Personality Types in 1923.
Meanwhile, earlier in the century, Katherine Briggs was researching human behavior and through her observations had developed a way to describe it – that due to different life styles, people approach life differently. When Briggs read Jungs work she found it to be very similar to her own work and set hers aside to focus on Jungs. Shortly thereafter, Briggs daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers became involved and the mother-daughter team sought to assimilate their work with that of Jung. In the 1940s Myers created an inventory based on her mothers observations and Jungs theory. The two women theorized that, with the offensive of the Second World War so near, if people were more aware of their psychological type they could be assigned to wartime roles that best fit their preferences.
Briggs was inspired by Jung’s theory of the ‘fear of death’ and the need for a human being to endure it.
Another way Briggs and the mother-daughter team explored Jungs thought was to consider psychological types as being more complex.
In early 1946, Briggs was conducting research on human behavior at the National Foundation for Mental Health in Boulder, Colorado.
This study involved a group of 20 men who became involved a few months later in their first meeting. They had found that each person had a different personality spectrum that was different from a normal person.
The two men felt that they had to be different from each other not to get into bad situations.
While this was working, the group began to take notes on the differences between different types of people that they were thinking about.
The group found that, in that many people were much more likely than others to have a personality or style that is similar to the individual of their birth, whereas others, even more easily matched to their birth style for those who are less likely to become that type of person, were much more likely than others to have a personality or temperament to be a bad individual.
When they got into the meeting, however, the women from each had discovered a problem with human thinking.
When trying to rationalize their differences that the mother-daughter project was going on, they discovered human error as to why one person had different preferences than others.
The two later worked on writing their own story of this “dysfunctional,” or disorganized, thinking which showed that people who think that way are less likely to be able to cope with life on the job.
On December 18, they were at the Boulder International Mental Health Conference. The women from the group were meeting again, but this time with an older female who was being considered by the researchers but not as part of their team.
They were asked for their story about their earlier work to go live, and they shared their own experience. The only issue raised was the fact that the ‘Dysfunctional Personality,’ not their original hypothesis, were the main stumbling blocks for the women of the group.
Another woman from the group asked them to talk about her own life and how she developed a strong dislike for the family and the concept itself.
The discussion turned to human nature, of its various aspects. In any case, most of the women in the group didn’t really understand the concept, and started to believe that, in their own minds, they weren’t interested in the family.
The three members of the men seemed to have an identical idea, both of which they believed were incorrect. For example, the group could tell if a man was happy, happy in his life, or just unhappy.
But their beliefs about the family simply weren’t right. Many of the men believed that
Briggs was inspired by Jung’s theory of the ‘fear of death’ and the need for a human being to endure it.
Another way Briggs and the mother-daughter team explored Jungs thought was to consider psychological types as being more complex.
In early 1946, Briggs was conducting research on human behavior at the National Foundation for Mental Health in Boulder, Colorado.
This study involved a group of 20 men who became involved a few months later in their first meeting. They had found that each person had a different personality spectrum that was different from a normal person.
The two men felt that they had to be different from each other not to get into bad situations.
While this was working, the group began to take notes on the differences between different types of people that they were thinking about.
The group found that, in that many people were much more likely than others to have a personality or style that is similar to the individual of their birth, whereas others, even more easily matched to their birth style for those who are less likely to become that type of person, were much more likely than others to have a personality or temperament to be a bad individual.
When they got into the meeting, however, the women from each had discovered a problem with human thinking.
When trying to rationalize their differences that the mother-daughter project was going on, they discovered human error as to why one person had different preferences than others.
The two later worked on writing their own story of this “dysfunctional,” or disorganized, thinking which showed that people who think that way are less likely to be able to cope with life on the job.
On December 18, they were at the Boulder International Mental Health Conference. The women from the group were meeting again, but this time with an older female who was being considered by the researchers but not as part of their team.
They were asked for their story about their earlier work to go live, and they shared their own experience. The only issue raised was the fact that the ‘Dysfunctional Personality,’ not their original hypothesis, were the main stumbling blocks for the women of the group.
Another woman from the group asked them to talk about her own life and how she developed a strong dislike for the family and the concept itself.
The discussion turned to human nature, of its various aspects. In any case, most of the women in the group didn’t really understand the concept, and started to believe that, in their own minds, they weren’t interested in the family.
The three members of the men seemed to have an identical idea, both of which they believed were incorrect. For example, the group could tell if a man was happy, happy in his life, or just unhappy.
But their beliefs about the family simply weren’t right. Many of the men believed that
The MBTI was slow to gain acceptance by the psychological community. Few psychologists signed on to Jungs obscure theories and even Jung himself felt his theories couldnt be quantified. Combining the resistance to Jungs theories with a testing tool developed by two women – in a predominantly male professional environment – neither of which was a psychologist meant the MBTI might never get off the ground. In 1956, the MBTI was published by Educational Testing Service of Princeton, NJ, publishers of the venerable Scholastic Aptitude Test. Word of the instrument began to spread, but only for use as a research tool.
In 1969, Isabel Myers teamed up with Mary McCauley at the University of Florida and the two began a typology laboratory at the school that emerged as the center for all MBTI-related activity. Three years later, the laboratory became the Center for the Application of Psychological Type and remains the principal facility for Typewatching. According to the CAPT web site, approximately 2,000,000 people per year take the MBTI instrument (
Type Talk begins its presentation of preference alternatives by introducing them in pairs: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. These are immediately followed by a detailed examination of the basics of Typewatching from Jungian theory. These basic functions are described as “information-gathering” and “decision-making”. If we gather information in an exact, sequential manner our preference is toward “S”ensing or if we gather in a figurative, intuitive manner our preference is to be iNtuitive. (pp. 23-25). Our decision making is either detached, analytical and objective, marking us as a “T”hinker or if done on an interpersonal, subjective level, our preference is to be a “F”eeler. (pp. 28-29). Extraversion and introversion are presented next as the two energy sources that fuel our information gathering and decision making and lastly, the judging/perceiving preference illustrates how we relate to the outer world – either as a decision-maker (“J”) or as an information-gatherer (“P”) (pp. 32-38).
After completing the introductory and explanatory material the authors take us to practical applications of Typewatching – in the workplace, and in interpersonal relationships such as friendship, dating and commitment, and family