Personality, Style, and Interactions 2

22Personality, Style, and InteractionsPersonality, Style, and Interactions

L E S S O N

Types of Personalities and Styles As you’ve grown, you’ve no doubt become more aware that personality is a big part of who you are. Personalityincludes your actions, opinions, beliefs, biases, desires, andambitions. It is the foundation of your attitudes andbehaviors. It’s what you are and what you show to others.

Personality determines what you like to do in school as wellas in your spare time. It determines what you want to do inlife. Your personality is a set of distinctive traits and behaviorsthat make you the person you are. Just as no two people havethe same fingerprints, no two people have exactly the samepersonality. You are different from every other human beingwho has ever existed.

• types of personalitiesand styles

• a basic personalitymodel

• how personality typeinfluences actions

Learn About . . . B

Draw a big circle on a blanksheet of paper. Label the circle“Me.” Inside the circle, write five words that describe yourpersonality. Are you outgoing or shy? Do you like to makeplans or just hang loose? Do you try to analyze otherpeople and events, or are you a “live-and-let-live” kind ofperson? Then pair up withsomeone in your class whoknows you pretty well. See if that person agrees with the personality traits you’vechosen. Which ones would they change? Why?

Quick Write

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Your personality is unique—you are different from every other human being who has ever existed.

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Psychologists, who study the mind and behavior, have longknown that each person is unique. But these experts also know that people are similar in certain ways. They call thesesimilarities personality preferences. A preference is the way youtend to think and act. When personality preferences correspondto an identified pattern, they are called personality types.

A personality type is a recognizable set of traits that psychologistsbelieve can help you understand who you are and, to some extent,predict the kind of life you’ll lead. You could think of it as a modelthat people tend to follow in their thoughts and behaviors.

A personality type isn’t a crystal ball. It doesn’t predict thefuture. It certainly shouldn’t dictate how you must live yourlife. Nevertheless, personality-typing models can be usefultools. They can help you figure out which areas you mightreally like or do well in. For this reason, personality typing canhelp you with important decisions, such as choosing a career.

Think of it this way: Say you like clothes—you enjoyeverything about them. For the time being, that personalitytype might make you a trendsetter. Your friends might turn to you for fashion advice. So it might be natural for you tothink about working as a salesperson or manager in a clothingstore, as a clothing designer, a fashion model, or as a buyer fora retail clothing chain. Or if you enjoy sports, you might wantto choose a career that would put you close to sports. Youcould, of course, aim for a career as an NBA pro. But other,more-realistic choices include coaching, owning a sporting-goods store, or being the pro at the local golf course.

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• preference

• personality type

• extraverted

• introverted

• sensing

• interaction

VocabularyB

• how personalityaffects interactions

• the value of differentkinds of personalitiesand styles

Learn About . . . B

Your high-school guidance counselor might give you an opportunity to take a personality assessment.Courtesy of David Young-Wolff/PhotoEdit

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You feel comfortable doing what you like. That’s why personality typing is useful. It helps you identify your preferences.

A Basic Personality ModelIn the 1940s, Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katherine Cook Briggs, developedthe Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, or MBTI®. They based the MBTI on the work of a Swiss psychologist named Carl Jung. He believed that you could categorizepeople’s personalities based on certain personality traits and on the ways in whichpeople describe their own motivations.

The MBTI helps people identify their personality preferences and therefore theirpersonality types. Businesses use the MBTI when they’re hiring. It helps them know if there’s a good fit between a job applicant and their workplace. Schools and universities use the MBTI for career counseling.

The MBTI is useful for high school students, too. It can help you understand what type of person you are. It can help you better understand your strengths and weaknesses. A counselor at your school might give you an opportunity to take the MBTI assessment. It could help you decide what to major in at college or which career path to follow.

Using the MBTI

To use the MBTI to figure out your personality type, you must first answer four key questions. These questions are called dimensions. For each dimension, you choose one of two options. After you select your four options, you assemble a four-letter code (one letter representing each dimension) that describes your personality type.

Let’s look at the four dimensions and two choices that each dimension provides.

1. Where do you direct your energy?

If you are extraverted (E), you prefer to direct your energy to people, things, activities, or the “outer world.” If you are introverted (I), you prefer to direct your energy to ideas,information, explanations, and imagination, or the “inner world.”

Everyone is a mix of both: There’s no such thing as a complete extravert or introvert.Most people, though, instinctively prefer the outer or the inner world. Which do you prefer?

2. How do you like to process information?

If you’re like the detective who wants “just the facts, ma’am,” you prefer sensing (S). A preference for sensing means you take in the world through sights, sounds, smells,textures, and tastes. You base your thinking and behavior on what’s going on aroundyou. You’re interested in details.


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If you like to think about mysteries rather than actually go out on the streets and solve them, you may have a preference for intuition (N). (Since the letter I has alreadybeen used for “introverted,” the MBTI uses the letter N for “intuition”). Intuitionis a type of knowledge you get from thinking deeply and trusting your inner voice.If you have a preference for intuition, you like to deal with ideas, look into theunknown, generate possibilities, or make guesses. You seek to understand andinterpret. You’re more concerned about the big picture than with details.

Just as no one is a pure extravert or pure introvert, no one is all sensing or allintuition. Each person, however, naturally favors one over the other. Which do you favor?

3. How do you make decisions?

If you make decisions based on logic and analysis, you decide things using thinking (T).You think about things in absolutes: black or white, true or false.

If you prefer to make decisions based on your values and personal beliefs, you decidebased on feeling (F). You see the world in shades of gray. You like to use your own ideasas a basis for decisions.

Both thinking and feeling are in everyone’s personality. You use both kinds of decisionmaking, but you probably have a natural tendency to pick one style over the other.Which is it?

4. How do you organize your life?

If you like your life to be well planned, you prefer to use judgment (J). You organizeyour environment and you are always prepared. You like to sort your baseball cardsand categorize your CDs. You might keep a diary or daily log. You like making lists.You like to make decisions.

If you prefer to be flexible and to take the world as it comes, you are apt to useperception (P). You like to go with the flow. People say you’re open-minded. You seek challenges. When plans change at the last minute, you easily adjust.

Everyone uses judgment and perception to organize daily life. No one could get alongwithout them. But even though you know planning is necessary, it might not comenaturally to you. If so, you might be a P. But if you love making “to do” lists andchecking off each task, you’re probably a J. Which one are you?

Once you’ve chosen your personality preferences in each of the four dimensions, you combine the letters to get your own “unofficial” MBTI personality type.

If you put together the personality types in all their possible combinations, you get 16 four-letter MBTI codes. These 16 combinations are often presented in the form of the following table.

For example, INTJ indicates that you prefer Introversion, iNtuition, Thinking, and Judging.


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A Few Words of Caution

As you’ll learn later, knowledge of your four-letter MBTI code is very helpful. But aswith all such tools, you need to use it cautiously. First, remember that the MBTI modelis based on a person’s own assessment of his or her preferences and styles. It’s difficultto “trick” the test, and you’d only be cheating yourself if you did so. Still, you need to keep that in mind. Second, you should never judge others using the MBTI model.The “either/or” choices that the MBTI provides for each dimension are not a matter of right or wrong. All eight choices are fine.

Finally, the MBTI is a tool and nothingmore. Knowing your MBTI doesn’t meanthat your whole life is set in stone.People just aren’t that simple. You are far more than a four-letter code.


Want to learn your official MBTI type? Look into taking the 93-question test from a certified administrator.Many counselors andpsychologists administerand evaluate the MBTI.

Your personality type can be a useful tool to understand what kind of teammate you are—but you are much more than a type.Courtesy of Tom Carter/PhotoEdit

TABLE 2.1

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ

ISTP ISFP INFP INTP

ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP

ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ

MBTI Personality Types

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How Personality Type Influences ActionsPersonality preferences, as noted above, are the ways you like to think and behave.They define what makes you unique. How do the MBTI personality preferences and styles affect the way you think and behave?

E Versus I

If you are extraverted (E), you’re “outer world” directed. You might tend to:

• act first and think later • feel bored when you’re alone• draw your motivation from people and things • have many different kinds of friends.

If you are introverted (I), you’re “inner world” directed. You might tend to:

• think first and act later• thrive on “private time” and like being alone • get your motivation from ideas and feelings• prefer one-on-one communication and relationships to group situations.

S Versus N

If you are sensing (S), you base your thinking and behavior on what’s going on around you. You might tend to:

• pay more attention to the present than to the past or future • use your common sense to solve problems• decide things based on your experience • prefer clear, concrete information.

If you use intuition (N), you like to deal with ideas, the unknown, possibilities, or making guesses. You might tend to:

• spend time thinking about the future• use your imagination• find it easy to see patterns and connections• make decisions based on a theory or guess.

T Versus F

If you make decisions based on logic and analysis, you decide things using thinking(T). You might tend to:

• search for facts and use logic when you make a decision • notice tasks and work to be accomplished• find it easy to analyze things objectively• accept conflict as a natural part of life.


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If you prefer to make decisions based on your values and personal beliefs, you preferfeeling (F). You might tend to:

• rely on personal feelings rather than on rules• be sensitive to people’s needs and reactions • build consensus and try to find common ground • avoid conflict.

J Versus P

If you like to have your life planned and organized, you prefer to use judgment (J).You might tend to:

• plan as many details as possible before acting• be task oriented• complete one part of a project before moving on to the next • use calendars and routines.

If you take the outside world as it comes, you are more apt to use perception (P). You might tend to:

• be comfortable with making plans on the spur of the moment• do many things at once, both work and play• work best on deadline• value flexibility, freedom, and variety.

How Personality Affects Interactions The preferences you’ve just learnedabout have a big influence on how you behave in interactions. An interaction is a situation thatinvolves you with other people in school, at work, at home, and in social life.

Think about how your personalitypreferences might influence how you behave in some typicalinteractions. For example, you’veprobably had occasion to say toyourself, “I just don’t fit in here.”Now that you have more insightinto your MBTI type, do youunderstand better why you felt uncomfortable?


Your personality preferences greatly affect how you interact with other people.

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Now think about some interactions in which you’ve noticed other people’s behaviors.How might those behaviors reflect their personality preferences? For example, you’veprobably seen instances where someone’s behavior seems inappropriate for thesituation. Perhaps you’ve asked yourself, “Why does Jonathan seem so out of touchwith the other guys on the team?” But in other cases, you’ve noticed that a person’sinteractions seem just right: “Dave seems like a natural-born club president,” youmight say. What is it about Jonathan’s and Dave’s personalities that affected theirinteractions? If the two boys traded places, do you think that your reactions to theirbehaviors would have been the same? Why or why not?

As you observed Jonathan and David, you were taking note—without even realizing it—of personality types in action. In their interactions, people continuouslyrespond to others and others respond to them. You may feel totally comfortable in an environment where someone else is ill at ease, and vice versa. The reasons for these differences lie in personality types and preferences.

The Value of Different Kinds of Personalities and StylesOnce you’re aware of how personality works according to models such as the MBTI, youcan be aware of how others interact with you—and why. Understanding your personalitytype and your style preferences can help you get along with family and friends. It cangive you insight into your relationships with people and help you understand theirmotivations, desires, needs, feelings, and ideas. That understanding can make you moretolerant of others’ differences and can help you be a better team player—in the classroomas well as on the field.


Understanding your personality type can give you insight into other people’s motivations, feelings, and needs.Courtesy of Tony Freeman/PhotoEdit

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Because your personality type affects the way you processand organize information, it has a direct effect on yourlearning style. For example, some people learn better bydoing hands-on assignments—actually getting their fingersinto the work. But other people are more theory orientedand like to think things out in their heads. Some people like to learn on their own; others learn best in groups.Knowing your own personality type and how it affects your learning style can help you be a more successfulstudent or employee.

Because it makes you aware of your decision-making and organizational styles, the MBTI can also help youunderstand what kind of leader you would be. It mighteven help you realize you don’t want to lead at all. Somepeople are better suited—and more comfortable—workingwithin an organization rather than leading it. The worldoffers plenty of opportunities for both personality types.

If you recognize the variety of personality types and theirpowerful effect in everyone’s life, you can understand why some people choose to become artists, writers, or singers while others become doctors, engineers, andscientists; why some choose to teach while others choose to run businesses; why somedesign and some build; and why some want to make laws and some yearn to defendtheir country.

What’s the moral of the personality story? Each individual interacts with the worldand with other people in a different way. These differences are important. They should be valued and understood, not hidden or brushed aside.

Once you recognize theimportance of personality, it’s easy to see why leaders in business, government, and education often use models such as the MBTI. The self-knowledge you can gain and the awareness of “what makes others tick” can give you a deeperappreciation of the wisdom of the old saying, “It takes all kinds to make a world.”


Personality type affects your learning style. Some people like to learn on their own . . .

. . . while others learn best in groups.

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Lesson 2 ReviewUsing complete sentences, answer the following questions on a sheet of paper.

1. List the four dimensions of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the two options under each dimension.

2. What is the difference in the ways introverts and extraverts are energized to act?

3. How does personality influence your actions?

4. In what ways does personality influence interactions?

5. What is the value of having different kinds of personalities and styles?

Applying Writing Skills

6. Imagine that your preferences in each of the dimensions of theMBTI are the opposite of your actual preferences. (To find youropposite, jump over one type diagonally in Table 2.1. For example,if you are an INFP, pretend that you are an ESTJ.) Make a weeklyschedule for your alter ego.What would you think, plan, or do if you were that type of person? How would such a person’s daily interactions differ from yours?

CHECKPOINTS

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