To introduce ourselves, we normally mention our names, age, hobbies, or hometown. Nowadays, the young especially use MBTI as a representative of their personalities. Once they reveal their MBTI type, nothing else matter. How they comfort others, how they plan their every day, and how much they enjoy hanging out can be explained by only four alphabets. Even,speedy marketers are utilizing MBTI personality types to enchant potential consumers to buy their products. They recommend each product based on various MBTI types. For example, fair-traded coffee is an appropriate gift for INFJ type people as they tend to keep justice and universal principle. In the contents market, MBTI is also a fresh keyword. K-POP idols reveal their personality types owing to their passionate fans through a YouTube video or live broadcasting. Various YouTube channels analyze particular MBTI types’behavior pattern or guess celebrities' MBTI types. Every Friday and Sunday, the Naver webtoon '2020 Favorite Characters' MBTI' is uploaded and currently holds a rating of 9.72 out of 10. Why are we so obsessed with MBTI? What made us trust MBTI more than sincere conversation?
MBTI, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, is a self-questionnaire personality type test. Answering several questions, we can figure how we perceive and behave in the external world. A result is deduced through four letters, which vary by four indicators: Introversion or Extraversion,Sensing or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling, Judging or Perceiving. Katherine C.Briggs and her daughter Isabel B. Myers invented the test based on a psychoanalyst Carl Jung's personality theory. Both MBTI and Carl Jung’s personality theory are examples of personality typology, and they are originated from Greek medical researcher Hippocrates’s ‘Four Fluids Theory.’ He claimed that four primary body fluids (yellow bile, blood, black bile, mucus) determine a human’s personality. If you are a creative, cheerful, and optimistic person, yellowbile prevails over other fluids, and your personality type is a choleric temperament. It was the first attempt to categorize personalities. After him, a Roman doctor Cladius Galen, a modern philosopher Kant, and a psychoanalyst Carl Jung kept developing the theory. Including MBTI, the blood type personality theory, the mythology of zodiac signs, and a host of unauthentic psychological tests on the internet are the result of their painstaking research. Thanks to the theories and researchers, we earn joy and solve curiosity about ourselves.
On the other hand, some researchers criticized the theories and tests for generalizing eight billion people with only a few types. Everyone has distinct personalities, merits, demerits, and background. It's impossible to pinpoint accurate personal traits with ambiguous types and explanation. Also, as they are self-questionnaire examination, the results can be easily dominated by temporary feelings or situations. Another problem is that the results can be easily inferred through questions. This deficiency is related to the inexact test. For instance, a person who wants to be sorted as an extrovert person will choose the sentence "I'm usually located at the stage rather than the edge of the wall in a fancy party".Furthermore, these psychological tests lean on the Barnum effect. The Barnum effect is a phenomenon that indicates individuals regarding the general features of innumerable people as a tailored and original description to themselves. MBTI says that people of INFP types flare up when others meddle,and they grieve over the social minorities. These depictions come to comprehend even if the subject is a 'human.' In practice, the department of psychiatry does not use popular psychological tests to diagnose and understand patients for such reasons.
A survey asking for diverse opinions about MBTI was conducted by 270 Sungshin students on the online community 'Everytime.' According to the result, 89 percent of respondents agreed that MBTI generalizes personalities. Simultaneously, 70 percent of respondents experiences consuming multiple contents using MBTI or matching harmony with others based on MBTI. Why are we still overserving and utilizing MBTI even if it has considerable shortcomings and controversies? We'd like to show off ourselves to achieve recognition. Some do with diamonds, super cars, beauty, or buildings and some do with MBTI. Displaying MBTI types with a phrase 'A Coruscating Entertainer' or 'A Rational Diplomat' in the SNS feed imprints particular personalities that gratify our desire. Furthermore, MBTI is a simple and accessible tool to understand ourselves. Humanity always wonders themselves. This curiosity led us to invent typology and MBTI. The fundamental desires to understand and boast ourselves run in parallel and make us captivated to MBTI.
Although it has weak points and traps to trust unconditionally, MBTI can open unknown sides of ourselves and help to maximize our own strengths. It doesn't require any financial costs or time.Connect to a website and casually answer questions in the subway or cafe. Then you can effectively characterize who you are. Overflowing information and contents about MBTI also offer you developed comprehension and sympathy.However, we should open to doubt this fever on MBTI. Accepting every information about it without verification can intensify misunderstanding. Human mentality requires a prudent and professional approach. MBTI is far more inadequate to be approved as it. Plenty of experts advise to have vigilance at the misuse of MBTI. Kim Jaehyung from the Korea MBTI Institute said"Individual's history can't be put in a type." in an interview with JonngAng Ilbo. He also mentioned that MBTI was devised for the world with wider diversity. Rather than separating people based on artificial sorts, we should use MBTI as a tool to understand ourselves and consider different people.
By Kim Hyeyeong Reporter (hykim567@naver.com)