Wednesday, March 26, 2008

What happens after Spring Break?

You get a bunch of exams! That's right! I've had three, one last week and two this week. I actually forgot about the one today until this morning. Fortunately for me it was only PD1 (Professional Development I) which asked all sorts of questions about the MBTI and which personality traits indicate which MBTI type, conflict management, and team performance models. I believe most of us engineers find this both easy and boring. Or, if we don't find it easy, we at least find it boring.

Speaking of which, have you ever heard of the MBTI?
That is an acronym for the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator. It is based on four dichotomies or scales that sort of go like this:

Extrovert--------Introvert

Sensing----------Intuition

Thinking---------Feeling

Judging----------Percieving


Each of those is a dichotomy. A person is measured by this and get a combination of four letters, each standing for the characteristic he most prefers.
A couple of things must be said first so you don't get the wrong idea.
First, the words up there don't mean what we use them to mean in our normal lives. They actually have different meaning, the last two dichotomies in particular.
Second, most people fall more in-between the two sides of each dichotomy. But there is usually one side they prefer a little more than the other. And by preferring, I mean which they naturally fall into, not which they choose to be (e.g. I may wish I was an extrovert, but I'm not. I'm an introvert. I "prefer" the introverted side more often that not)

So perhaps you are wondering now what each means (since I told you they don't mean what you think they do)?


Well, I guess this post is long enough. Maybe I'll post the rest later.

2 comments:

Faith said...

Oh neat! our church gives this when members take the ministry class about what our giftings (spiritually) are and where we would best serve. Dave LOVES this test...I don't think it is a great indicator..it often tells me I am in introvert and that is so not true! LOL

Homemanager said...

I think the reason so many people enjoy taking these types of tests is because it reflects how different we are. How unique the Lord has made us. At least that is what draws me to take them.
I have forgotten what I ended up with... :-)