7 Paths to Your Secret Self

Plot yourself on seven of the major personality typing systems

There are many more typing systems, ancient and modern, than the seven we look at here. But except for Human Design, which is relatively new, these are among the best known and most representative varieties. For explanations that go well beyond the brief descriptions here, consult the books and Web sites at the end of each entry.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®

Probably the best known and most widely used typing system, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed in the early 1940s by Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, modifying a typology developed by Carl Jung. By means of questions, it assesses the test-taker's personality on the basis of four pairs of variables:

Extraversion-Introversion: E/I

This is a measurement of psychic energy flow: where it goes and how it is replenished. In the extraverted attitude, psychic energy streams outward toward the world, society, and others -- toward what psychologists call the object. The extravert tends to be optimistic and to adjust well to social norms -- running the risk, however, of unquestioning conformity. The extravert is typically uncomfortable with the inner world and with being alone. The presence of others helps the extravert recharge.

In introversion, the psychic flow is inward, toward the subject, that is, the world of the self, emotion, and thought. The introvert tends to prefer his or her own company to that of others, to have a small and quite select set of friends, and to be prey to pessimism, self-doubt, and self-absorption. Though not necessarily socially inept (any more than the extravert is necessarily incapable of deep thought and reflection), the introvert tends to recharge his or her batteries in solitude.

Jung pioneered this important pair of categories, and despite widespread resistance to psychological typing in mainstream psychology, E/I has gained wide acceptance there. Jung developed it in part as a response to the historic rift between Sigmund Freud and his student Alfred Adler. Freud claimed that neuroses arose out of sexual conflict; for Adler they grew out of an individual's relationship with society and power.

Pondering the difference, Jung decided that it was based on the fact that Freud was an extravert and Adler was an introvert. Thus Freud saw the outward-aimed sex instinct as primary, and the thwarting of that instinct as the problem, and Adler viewed the psyche's basic move as an attempt to protect itself from the outer world, even at the risk of isolation and suffocation.