What is your type?

Fort Worth, TX

12/10/2008

“What’s your type?” Dr. Linda Moore, Professor of Social Work, asks students in introductory social work classes.

While many might assume she’s referring to a perfect date, they would be wrong. Dr. Moore is talking about students’ MBTI type.

She has been researching the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for more than 20 years at TCU, and has become drawn to its importance in a learning environment.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a tool used to indicate psychological types. Although many psychological tests are used to diagnose pathology, MBTI is used simply as a tool to assess personality differences, not a test.

Dr. Moore explains that many individuals who have taken it have a tendency to want to match themselves with others similar to them, but it should only be used at a key to understanding and self-awareness.

“There are no right or wrong answers,” she explains.

The results of the indicator place individuals into preferences based upon interaction with the external world, how one takes in information, how one makes a decision and how one structures time.

In interacting with the external world, individuals are either extraverts (this is a different spelling from traditional language but is used by MBTI) or introverts, but Dr. Moore is quick to point out that these words should not have the connotation that we put on them normally.

Extraverts are simply people who receive energy by interacting with others, and introverts recharge their batteries by taking time out for themselves.

Dr. Moore explains this in an analogy of two people coming home from a party; an extravert would want to stay up and talk about the night, while an introvert, despite having a wonderful time at the party, would want to simply relax quietly.

In the second category, taking in information, individuals are either sensing or intuitive. In this category, Dr. Moore sees the most conflict between professors and students.

While the vast majority of the population is sensing, including college students, professors are predominantly intuitive.

The conflict often happens during testing, she explains, because professors expect students to respond to essay questions with feeling and expression, while many students –– being sensors ––want to answer questions using concrete reasoning.

This often is shown when the professor asks the student to expand on his or her response, while the student is left baffled that there is anything left to write because all the concrete evidence is present.

Third, individuals are categorized as thinkers and feelers, based on how they make decisions.

“This is the only category in which we see a gender correlation,” Dr. Moore says.

Men tend to be more logical as thinkers (60%-40%), and women tend to be more subjective as feelers (60%-40%).

The fourth category determines how one structures time by labeling him or her as a judger or perceiver, which again should not have any negative connotation placed upon it.

“For judgers, work is work and play is work,” Dr. Moore explains. “They must plan for everything, while perceivers don’t often use a timeline, but the work gets done at the same rate of time.”

Often, students have problems when working together that can be explained because of the differences between judgers and perceivers. One student may want each thing done according to a schedule, while another may work with more flexibility.

So with the information known about learning styles and the MBTI, how should learning environments be set up?

Dr. Moore believes that by understanding the MBTI, professors and students can vary and adapt learning styles to help promote success in the classroom.

She often uses the MBTI in her introductory level courses and a course for incoming students preparing them for college to help students understand their learning styles and accept the learning styles of others.

“If students realize that each person works differently and is aware of how each person learns, the learning environment can be more cohesive, instead of a battle,” she explains.