MBTI Assesmeny/ Jung - Essay Example

The MBTI System MBTI System Carl Jung’s theory breaks the mind into three separate parts; the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego. Each part shapes each person’s personality in different ways. Katherine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers were intrigued by Jung’s theory and developed the Myer’s-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Jung’s theory breaks apart each person with four different elements. They are: Intuiting, Sensing, Thinking and Feeling. The Myers-Briggs expanded on Jung’s four elements.

They created an examination that would have a person answer one-hundred, twenty-five different questions; as a result, the examinee would be classified as one of sixteen different personality types( Beoree,n.d ). The personality types would be based on which elements are superior to others. Those elements include extroversion as opposed to introversion, sensing as opposed to intuiting, thinking as opposed to feeling, and judging as opposed to perceiving. Because of Carl Jung’s work, Myers and Briggs were able to build a revolutionary system that accurately attempts to discover a person’s personality.

What separates the MBTI from other personality tests its use as a tool that implements theory. The theory must be understood for the test to produce results. The MBTI is an effective tool as opposed to other popular psychology tests such as the Rorschach system (Inkblot test) and the Word Association test. Both the Rorschach system and the Word Association Test can reveal parts of the human personality but the systems both have their flaws. The Rorschach system is considered to be unreliable by most psychologists and usually misleading.

The Rorschach test uses blots of ink on a card. The examinee is supposed to state the first thing that comes to mind when they see each individual card. According to Weiner ( 2009 ), this test reveals personality characteristics that can help a psychiatrist make a differential diagnosis . In fact, this type of test is mostly used by forensic psychologists for the past few decades. A social worker can benefit from using the results this test for counseling if other personality tests are also conducted.

Due to the adverse claims against its reliability, a social worker must be careful in making conclusions and consider other factors when counseling troubled people. Similarly, the Word Association test identifies a person’s current attitude and their thought processes, something that the MBTI is unable to do. The MBTI is able to delve deeper into the subject’s mind and reveal their basic personality. A clinical social worker would be providing counseling services for people which makes MBTI very important.

If a social worker is counseling a youth who finds it difficult to adjust to a new setting, the MBTI could partly explain why this person is different from the rest of the group. At the same time, the MBTI can be used for guiding young people about their choice of vocation along with other tests. The Word Association test has the examinee determine a set of words which can either be positive, neutral, or negative. Based on their answers, a result about their attitude is derived. In 1933, the Word Association test was thought to measure delinquency in a test subject.

The problem with the Word Association test is the subjects’ variability. The Word Association test will not work correctly with non-native speakers of the language being used in examination. A social worker can find this test useful when interviewing individuals who are facing a crisis but find it hard to disclose their feelings. The test can possibly pinpoint current conflicts that the counselee is feeling but reluctant to say. Then, the social worker can help the person to open up and refer to the right professional if psychological treatment is needed.

Part of a social workers job is to counsel people, it is therefore important to have the right assessment tools to render effective counseling so individuals can also help themselves. References Beoree, D. C. (n.d.). Carl Jung. My Webspace files. Retrieved February 22, 2011, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/jung.  Weiner, Irving B. (1999). What the Rorschach Can do for you: Incremental validity in clinical applications. Assessment 6. pp. 327–338.