An Introduction to Myers-Briggs Personality Types

Curriculum goal: Students will increase their general knowledge of the arts and sciences.

Lesson objective: Students will be able to understand the four dichotomies of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ® and use this to determine their personality type

Length: 4 class periods (50 minutes each)

Day 1

Just like there are different types of flowers and different types of cars, there are also different types of people. People are different on the outside (height, hair color, etc.) but also on the inside (personality). This week we are going to look at one method we can use to divide people into different types according to their personality.

Personality is different than character. Good character is something that we can all develop. All people can and should be honest and fair. Personality, on the other hand, is not good or bad. It is just different. For example, some people are shy and quiet. Others are loud and talkative. We are all born with a certain personality and although we can develop and change ourselves to become more balanced, certain aspects of our personality will be with us for our entire lives.

Learning more about our personality is useful because it can help us to understand our strengths and our weaknesses. It can also help us to understand that others might be different from us and therefore we might need to communicate with them in different ways.

The system we are going to use to discover our personality type is called Myers-Briggs or MBTI. It is based on a theory developed by a famous Swiss psychologist named Carl Jung. Jung started as a student of Freud but later became his rival. During World War 2, two women (a mother and a daughter named Myers and Briggs) developed a "test" based on Jung's theory that could be used to sort people into 16 different personality types. You are about to take a test similar to the Myers-Briggs test.

Keep in mind that there are no right or wrong answers on this test. This is simply about you and your preferences. You cannot copy off the person next to you! Sometimes you might think that both answers represent you. Choose the one that seems the most natural.

Day 2

[ Note: do not give the test results. Instead, get the students to guess their types as you go through the theory ]

The test you took measures four different aspects of your personality. These are based on four questions, each of which has two possible answers. As I explain each side, try to figure out which one seems most like you. Now, you'll probably think that they both represent you. This is true because we do tend to act differently in different situations. However, try to choose the side that you prefer. This means the side that comes more naturally, feels more comfortable and is used more often. (Think about it like chocolate vs vanilla ice cream -- just because you prefer one, you might choose to eat the other from time to time as well)

T - Thinking

• use their head
• made decisions based on logic
• more interested in things
• treat everybody the same (fairness)
• like a scientist

Day 3

[ Before the next class, compare each student's test results with their self-selections; prepare 2-3 type descriptions for each person to compare and choose from ]

Before handing out the results, emphasize again that there are no good or bad types and that knowing your personality type is not meant to limit you (if anything, it is meant to empower you to grow and improve). Give students some time to read and understand their descriptions. Help them with any difficult words and guide them towards selecting one type that fits them best.

Activity: Put students in groups mixing different personality types. Give them a task such as planning for an activity day. Have them assign roles according to personality strengths. After some time, have them discuss their discussion -- Who took charge? Who talked most? Who wrote things down? etc. See if it matches with their personality types

Day 4

Activity: Put students in groups according to similar personality types. Give them a task such as designing a poster for their personality type or planning a drama to describe their type. Compare the differences in how the groups interacted and what they produced.

Assessment: Include a question on the unit-end test based on the objective of this lesson

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