The Secrets of

the 16 types
of personalities
from the
MBTI test
 I. Introduction
In these series I will show you:

1. how to t people in the 16 types of personalities ( natural and

fast, without marking their characteristics in your mind )

2. how to use the information a@ained:

2.1. in your relations ( you will understand your family, you

will know why your best friends are late or disappoint
you)

2.2. within your working environment ( you will learn how

to approach your employer so that he can appreciate
your work, how to work with your dicult colleagues )

2.3. when communicating with other people ( you will

always leave a pleasant impression, you will be able to
communicate with various social categories )

2.4. in your personal evolution ( you will know yourself

be@er, you will understand what makes your personality
tick and you will learn how to make yourself more
pleasant to others )

3. how to get rid of your personalitys typology, so as to

become a more balanced and self assured person

If you want to learn all of these things ( and much more ), read
the article series about the MBTI test now, as it will consolidate
your personalitys foundation!
How the MBTI test appeared

In 1921, Carl Jung, a renowned Swiss doctor wrote a book

regarding behavioral prediction. In his book, Jung talks about
the types of personalities, he classies them, but doesnt oer
any tool with which to identify them in people.

Reading his book, Katharine Cook Briggs, started, alongside her

daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, a project which had the precise
purpose of creating a methodology with which to decipher the
pa@erns.

This is how MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) appeared, a

psychological test that classies people within 16 pa@erns.

What I will teach you in the next articles is how to properly

identify the pa@erns in people around you (even in those
youve just met). After all, you cant run with questionnaires
after people on the street to identify their typology.

MBTI step by step

To start with, please take the test by following this link:

www.onlinepersonalitytests.org/mbti

Myers and Briggs split human personalities in 4 dimensions:

energizing, participation, decision and living. For each
dimension we have a preference / direction. It all adds up to 16
combinations, each dening a type of personality.
The 4 dimensions are:

1. energizing: where you get your energy

2. participation: how you take in information

3. decision: how you make decisions

4. living: your desired way of life

For each dimension you have one of the two preferences:

1. energizing

1.1. extroversion (E) you get your energy from the outside
world, from activities, people, things

1.2. introversion (I) you get your energy from the inner
world, ideas, emotions, impressions

2. participation

2.1. sensing (S) you use your senses to determine whats

real

2.2. intuition (N) you use your imagination to sense whats

real

3. decision

3.1. thinking (T) you organize and structure information to

make logical, objective decisions

3.2. feeling (F) you organize and structure information to

make personal, principles oriented decisions
4. living

4.1. judging (J) you like having an organized, planned life

4.2. perceiving (P) you prefer living a spontaneous, exible

life

The purpose of the MBTI test is to identify the preferences that

people have so as the results of the 4 dimensions can oer an
easy identiable typology. With the help of the test you will
improve your behavior, you will learn to appreciate the
dierences between people and you will be able to
communicate in a completely new manner, integrating the way
of perceiving and judging the people with whom you interact.

Now I want to share an extremely important piece of

information:

Many psychologists say that although we can change our

behavior, our preference remains the same.
For years I fell in the same trap.

I took the test and I got ISTJ (the most rigid pa@ern)

And that was it!

I was at a party and didnt want to just sit around.

I am introverted, so its normal for me to go home alone.

A friend needed some emotional support?

You know, I am ISTJ, a completely rational pa@ern, so I cant

oer you the support you need

Not to mention I placed people within certain categories from

the rst seconds we met. (hes like this, the other one is like
that)

And I thought I was right.

(People reading this article and are J will ask themselves whats
wrong with it)

An ISTJ prays like this: God, please help me stop emphasizing

on details tomorrow at 16:32:20

My pa@ern, ISTJ, has become my excuse for everything.

The problem wasnt there. It was exactly next to it, it was

exactly the i I was emphasizing on.

My problem was that I was ge:ing lost in my own pa:ern!

The more I used my pa@ern as an excuse, the more I sunk

deeper into the lake from which I barely got out of (years later)
And yes, you can change your pa@ern!

Want to nd out how?

Write to me here!

If I see that theres an interest for such subjects I will come back
with the rest, an article that will teach you how to identify the
pa@ern of people with whom you interact.
 II. The S/N preferences
Why is it that some people never pay attention and
others talk only about obvious things?

You can nd the rst article in the series here.

Now you will understand why some people seem dreamy, not
paying a@ention, maybe a bit crazy and others tell you
information you already possess, get lost in analysis and cant
see the big picture.

In other words, today you will nd out how to make a

dierence between a person that relies on senses and one that
relies on intuition. Youll see the dierence between people that
cant see the forest from the trees (S) and people that cant see
the trees from the forest (N).

The typology of people you meet in your everyday life.

I met a couple of days ago with an event planner along side

another trainer. She wanted to discuss an event at which I will
lecture: how long it would take, what well be talking about,
what well be needing, etc.

The session started out as very structured: she had the

timetable in her notebook and we split the number of hours
(except brakes and buer time) in hours per trainer. She
showed us the nal results: 130 per trainer with a break in the
middle of the training ( Typical S )

The other trainer said that he can do it with or without the

break, he can manage it either way. When he was asked what
his training will be about, he said that he hasnt decided yet but
hell manage; he wants to set up a training in which people
come up front and talk, he wants to introduce games, etc. (In
other words he had a strong vision but lacked a concrete plan,
typical for intuitive people N)

When it was my turn, a hardcore S, I told her that I had already

sent her the content on email (while she was talking to the other
trainer), I will end the training in an hour and a half and I will
let the students decide whether they want a break or not ( I will
only take the break if I see that they are tired ). I told her that I
have the planning for the training, but Id prefer sending it on
her email rather than discuss it now, although if she wanted to,
we could discuss it step by step (typical S)

Next I will tell you about the preferences of J and P and youll
realize why some people make decisions without asking for
other opinions (like I did) and others (like the other trainer)
talk about the choices they could make (gathering more
information)

(Its fascinating how a training is organized, isnt it? )

The participation Dimension, S and N preferences

You can receive / perceive information in two ways:

1. through SENSES (S): you see, hear, taste, touch, feel (key
words: things, dates, proof, now! practical, focused, results
oriented, plans divided in small steps)

2. and through INTUITION (N): you get it as you go, you cant
gure out where its coming from (key words: in the future,
you get the inter-connectivity, overview, you get how things
t, you dont care that much for precise data, general ideas,
concepts)

Its interesting to see how what S type people think of N type

people, and the other way around.

S/N stereotypes

Imagine being in an empty room.

Youre a person that has relied his entire life on his senses.

You dont make a choice without understanding all of its eects,

without studying it properly, looking up reviews on the internet; you
want to know everything. Youre a practical person, which makes lists
with the things that you want from life and also lists with your tasks.
Youre results oriented.
But theres someone in the room with you.

You called him and he was around 10 minutes late, unbelievable! You
cant rely on him.

You talk to him and when you get into the issue, he tells you that
he got it and tells you to get over it! You think hes not in his right
head and avoid him.

You have no idea what youve lost!

Now put yourself in the other persons head.

Youre in the same empty room.

Youre a person that relied on his intuition his whole life.

Each choice youve made, youve felt as being the right one. You know
that theres something driving you to make choices, and someone that
helps you. When you see a person, you realize if he will play a role in
your life or not, and, without any real reason, your thought becomes
reality.

But in the same room with you theres someone else.

You called him there and he arrived earlier.

He says he has a plan, he explains it and he starts to go into specics,

statistics, studies ofbut all of this is obvious!!

He has a list of minor tasks which he ticks as he presents it to you

Cant he remember things? All the tasks can be deduced from the
project, he didnt have to take them down!

You ask him the general idea and he goes back to technical data OK,
maybe he didnt get it. You ask him what the big picture is and he
answers that he hasnt goOen there yet. But you already know what
you have to do and you already know this project could work!

This guy is way too short sighted, hes stuck, he cant get the big
picture, so you avoid him.

You have no idea what youve lost!

Every person is right, but right in its own way. The two
typologies function on dierent types of data.

S want data, facts, proof

N are intuitive, they get the big picture early on, they cant be
bothered with the details

When N sells something to S, it will be harder for him to oer

data (because data is obvious) and will try to sell the potential
(making S feel uncomfortable)

When S sells something to N, he oers precise data, analysis,

statistics, when N would prefer nding out the potential, what
he could accomplish with the specic solution.

If you try to sell something to an S oriented person, youll have

to oer him precise data, concrete benets, facts/data, results
obtained.

If you try to sell something to an N oriented person, youll have

to give him the overview, what he can do with it, the future.

A senses based person needs proof to act, he gets the motivation

on his own.
The intuitive person has to identify itself with the type of
person he/she wants to be and will make an intuitive leap
towards that specic direction.

When S reads a book, he/she reads it page by page, till the end.

N will browse through the book, will check the content table,
will read a chapter that is of interest, will jump to another
chapter that provides interest (will connect between
information).

The S/N problem is one of communication: you dont get the

information you want.

S are focused on now, on practical information, on facts

N on the future, on potential

Did you like the article?

Would you like me to continue the series?

Please write here an example from your life (maybe

something that happened recently) in which you interacted
with a person whose interests opposed yours, N or S, and
what you found dierent on that person.

If I get enough examples, Ill continue this series.

 III. The T/F preferences
How can someone who counts on logic understand
someone who counts on feelings?

In the previous article I wrote about the two ways in which we

receive information: through our senses and through our
intuition.
After receiving the information, we have to evaluate it (judge
it):

Through logic (T)

Through feelings (F)

Logic and feelings are the most misunderstood preferences

(often because of the sexual element they include).

In books about the MBTI test the general idea is that:

One third of men are F and two thirds are T

One third of women are T and two thirds are F

According to the CAPT institute in the USA:

61% of men are T and 39% are F

29% of women are T and 71% are F

So its about the same thing.

The main problem is the (wrong) supposition that T people

think too much and that F people feel, but dont think.
The truth is that the thought process implies more than the
preference you use to evaluate information. The process also
implies emotions, values, experiences and many more.

And, as in the last articles, there are 2 stereotypes:

The logical guy (strict, logical, rational, objective, likes to

catch on to things, remembers numbers rather than faces,
wants everything to be objective / logical / rational, because
thats how he makes decisions, correctness is important to him,
hes proud, hell tell you if youre wrong, hes internalized, he
cant understand how others feel, he is not empathic)

The woman who feels (makes decisions based on her values

and feelings, wants to know how you feel, doesnt want others
to feel bad, will try to make everyone feel good even if she
doesnt, shes open, correct, prefers not to oend anyone, often
wonders why no one ever asks her how she feels, shes
empathic, she puts herself in your shoes to understand how
you feel, shes good at calibrating feelings, understands
what others think, shes externalized, observes others
reactions, she wants to make you feel satised)

How does a T / F couple see the placement of a vase in the

apartment.

T: Thats it, it doesnt maOer if you like it or not. Well put it there
and how you feel about it is your problem.

F: How do you feel about this? Lets see if we put it there or not. If you
dont like it Ill yield and well put it where you want.

I have to mention that this is about the subconscious. T people

dont deliberately choose to ignore the feelings of others.
The war: logic or feeling?

T sees the F type:

Dramatic

Lacks rationality

Tries to get under your skin

Whimsical

Doesnt have a sense of reality

Cant be counted upon

Easily inuenced by feelings

Unprofessional

F sees the T type:

Rigid

Cold

Distant

Lacks tolerance

Lacks sensitivity

Indierent

Now that we have the stereotypes as well as the sexual element

=> we have war!
The two preferences represent the way in which we judge
(evaluate) information.
Some of us judge based on logic: structured, logical, objective.
Others think based on feelings and according to the values of
those around.

In both cases we judge and feel.

The myth of the robots: people who count on logic do

not feel

In general, T people are in be@er control of their emotions. They

feel, but they have a be@er control on the channel through
which they express their emotions.

I am an ISTJ, the most robotic type of personality. In my social

relationships I tell my friends that my feelings are like a well. I
dont show anything on the surface, but deep down I
experience an entire range of feelings.

In a book on couple relationships, called Men are from Mars

and Women are from Venus, the thought process in women is
described as a waving sea. Waves come, soak you in feelings
and then they are gone only to return, stronger than ever
Why cant we understand one another?

Imagine two boxes: one has the word feeling wri@en on it, the
other logic. When making a decision, from which box do you
choose your reasoning?
From the logic one?
Or from the feeling one?
From both?

The truth is the two boxes are not enough. You need more than
that. You can add intuition, experience and many more others.
Your bi-dimensional choice thus becomes multi-dimensional.

Even though in the MBTI test the choice is reduced to T or F, the

truth is the system is much more complex than that.

Whatever decision you make, you start from a certain premise.

Your logic and rationality lead you toward a conclusion. But
logic has nothing to do with the premises (that are given to us
or that we guess).

If you start from a false premise, no ma:er how good your

thought process is, the conclusion will be wrong!

Tweet!
The dierence between T and F is not in the logic on which
both count, but in the premises that the two types prefer. Logic
and rationality work well enough in most people, but premises
dier.

T start by thinking up ideas in their heads, conceptualize,

draw conclusions according to their ideas

F start with their feelings and continue according to their

feelings

T and F manage when it comes to rationality, but this is not the

dierence between them. The dierence lays in how they begin:
counting on ideas or on feelings.

An F may begin with feelings and follow with a concise logic in

order to draw the right conclusion (counting on his emotions).

Can you change your MBTI preference?

According to Wikipedia, between 39% and 76% of people who

took the test multiple times identify dierence categories. Is it
because the test wasnt taken correct or is it because those
people have changed their preference?

Most psychologists consider that people can change their

behavior, not their preference.

But the dierence between T and F is reduced to only one

thing: the association with your feelings in contrast with the
dissociation from your feelings.
As long as you think youre dissociated from your feelings (or
associated with them) youve limited your options. Youve put
yourself in a box. To get over the circumstances youre in you
have to, rst of all, believe it is possible.

In the following article I will show you the rst step to convince
yourself that your preference can be changed!

To put it in a nutshell

T think and F feel.

The dierence is the preference they have.

T are not usually aware of their feelings. Even if they experience

them, theyre not directly connected to them. (even if you hit
your leg during a match you must keep playing, so you do).
You feel, but youre not focused on what youre feeling.
(Intense) negative feelings are so traumatic that T would choose
not to feel any kind of emotion (instead of feeling those intense
negative emotions).

F experience emotions, both positive and negative. F nd

pleasure in going through a whole range of feelings: positive,
negative, positive again and so on.

Heres something interesting about those who have intense

feelings, who are empathic: you can even observe how they
calibrate what theyre saying. If you tell them something
positive, if you agree with them, youll see how they smile and
are happy. If you disagree with them or are even annoyed with
them, youll see how they shrink away and try to say something
to get out of the respective situation (in which the emotional
conict appeared).

If you try to connect their feelings with a person who has an

abstract way of thinking (T), an F will use all possible
techniques to escape (and will even get annoyed).

Interesting

Now I have to ask you: throughout your life, have you been
in circumstances that determined you to react the way your
opposite preference would?

If youre a T, have there been situations in which you processed

the information through your feelings (perhaps during intense
emotional situations)?

If youre an F, have there been situations in which you

processed information through thought? (perhaps you behave
dierently at work than you do at home).

Leave me a message here with the answer to this question. I

am very curious!
 IV. The J/P preferences

Im glad that youre reading the fourth material of this series. If

you havent already done it, I recommend you rst read the rst
and second articles.

In the second article I spoke of the S / N stereotypes and I gave

an example in which N was late. In one of the messages I
received, Camelia told me: Congratulations for this article!
Perhaps youll also write something about the behavioral dierence
between SP / NP Can some manifest their N side in an activity
and their S side in another? Why is it that all NPs are always late?.

Camelia was right. S / N and J / P behaviors do not occur on

their own. Theyre always in pairs: SJ, SP, NJ and NP. SJ
behavior diers from the SP one and diers *even more* from
the NP one. But in the second article of the series I could not
make these dierentiations because we hadnt talked about

The Judgment and Perception preferences

Information that we receive through our S (senses) or N

(intuition) we process through our T (logic) or F (feeling).
Those with the P (perception) preference will focus on receiving
information (and will postpone its processing) and those with
the J (judgment) will prefer to evaluate information instead of
waiting for more details.

In other words, J like to plan and be structured and P leave their

options open, wait to receive more information.
The relationship of a J and P couple

The rst type of situation:

Andrew is a J, web developer.

Anna is a P, fashion designer.

The two of them have been together for a year and have
decided to go to the seaside together. Once they arrive there,
after a long and tiring road, they would both like to take a stroll
on the seafront before taking a nap.
Its hot and very sunny outside so Andrei (J) tells Anna:
Ill go meet up with our friends at 6 and, in 30 minutes, we
will all go to the seafront.
Anna conrms and starts unpacking.
. 5:40 Anna is unpacking
. 5:50 Anna starts reading a book ...
. 6:00 Anna is still reading

Andrew comes by with their friends and Anna is still not ready.
which is why Andrei gets really annoyed..

J is upset that P is always late and never keeps her word. In

their world people are always ready on time and those who are
late do not respect them.

The second type of situation:

Andrew: Its Wednesday and the weekends almost here, what

if we went to the movies on Friday and to a barbecue on
Saturday?
Anna: I dont know, well see what happens until Friday..
Andrew: Lets make some sort of plan, though. Im sure if we
organize it properly itll be awesome!
 on Friday
Anna: Lets go visit some of our friends. I dont want to go to
the movies!
Andrew: But I already bought the tickets

In romantic relationships P feel controlled by J.

Secret technique: a P person could include its J partner in the

process of rethinking a plan for the new circumstances they
nd themselves in. In this way, the J partner will feel in control
in a situation that seems out of control to him.

Professional relationship between J and P

Lets compare two coworkers: Alex and Allen.

Alex (J) is that person who makes To do lists, who nishes

projects with time to spare until the deadline. He works in an
orderly, logical, coherent and step by step manner. He prefers
structure, order, denitive decisions, respected deadlines and
he gets satisfaction when completing his tasks.

Allen (P) is the complete opposite of Alex. Allen has a messy

oce, prefers to take many pauses, postpones projects until the
last moment and hates routine. In an emergency situation he is
extremely adaptable and works at full capacity (at times he is
even more ecient than his coworkers who take it step by
step). Allen prefers to nish his tasks at the last moment and he
gets satisfaction by only improving tasks or only beginning to
work on them without necessarily nishing them.
(By the way, I used to have a NP client who was extremely
creative. He always came up with ideas to improve, with new
concepts and so on. What did I do, as a SJ? A To do list and a
plan to apply those ideas!)

Alex (J) takes a seat, makes a plan and acts according to it.
Allen (P) jumps right in the middle of things, constantly adapts
and improves his unplanned work.

Alex comes to work a few minutes earlier Allen always

seems to be late.

J people are always whispering during breaks about the

disrespect shown by their P coworkers because theyre
always late.

What would be the atmosphere at work if J wouldnt take it

personally when Ps being late?

A few months ago I organized a boot camp during which I had

to hold a two day training. The training was for students, so
parties were bound to happen in the evenings (that wouldve
lasted until de morning).

While organizing this event I suggested a buer time before the

training itself: breakfast, exercise, coee break. Basically, the
training that was announced for 9 wouldve started 30 minutes
later.
Another organizer said he didnt agree with my method. If a
training was scheduled to start at 9, then it should start at 9 and
its disrespectful to not be on time.

What type do you think he was, J or P?

And Do you think the students were late for the rst
training? :)

The next step

I am a J after all, so we do have to nish this, right? ;)

Imagine youve just read an article that seems very useful.

Youve read it and then you went to get something to eat, you
logged on to Facebook, you went to the STOP!

Can you see where this is going?

Youve processed the information without applying it, without
integrating it into your own life.

Now that youve understood the theoretical part, you need a bit
of practice. Open a notepad or grab a pen and a piece of paper
and write on 2 rows:

Always late

Always on time

Think of 5 friends who t the description on the rst row and of

another 5 friends who t the other description.
Todays challenge is to read this material again and check the
friends who are P as well as those who are J.

Notice how the rst row is mostly lled with P and the second
with J.
In other words, notice how your J friends are always on time
and you P friends are always late.

Congratulations! Youve made your rst step to guessing a

persons personality type. I hope this rst step will help you
not get annoyed when P is late and accept that J sometimes
needs to have more control over things.
First of all, thank you for taking the time to go
through the entire material.
The emails and feedback that Ive received from
the Online Personality Tests community motivate
me to oer materials tailored after the
communitys needs.

If the MBTI test helped you discover yourself

and understand those around you, please
send the link with the test to 2 friends of
yours. The correct link is:
hMp://www.onlinepersonalitytests.org/mbti

PS: If you happen to nd mistakes (expression or

spelling errors) please send me an email here and
point out the wrong sentence and the correct
alternative. I promise to read each and every e-
mail and improve this guide. Thank you very
much.