Newsletter #49

In this issue:

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® Step II Facet Scales & the Strong, Part I

About the Strong Interest Inventory®: Social Theme & College Majors

About the FIRO-B™: Team Preferences – Reserved Types

The 16PF®– The 16 Personality Factors: Correlations with Myers-Briggs, Part III - Sensing

Step II Facet Scales & the Strong, Part I

This time we'll begin a look at the relationships between the facet scores on the MBTI Step II Interpretive Report and the six themes of the Strong Interest Inventory. We'll start with the five facet scales involving Extraversion and Introversion. The sample size used was quite small and mostly male engineering students, so we cannot generalize too much from these results. Still, it's interesting to see the patterns.

As a quick review, a correlation might be positive or negative. That means scores either move in tandem or in the opposite direction on the two tests. The direction is not the same as the strength of the relationship. It could be strong or weak in either direction.

Let's start with the Realistic theme. The strongest relationship was positive with the Enthusiastic – Quiet scale, which means someone who was on the Quiet side of the facet scale likely scored on the Realistic theme on the Strong. The only negative correlation was with Initiating – Receiving, which means those who came out on the Initiating side were less likely to show up on the Realistic theme.

The Investigative theme has the greatest positive correlation with Expressive – Contained, meaning those on the Contained side of the facet where likely to show up as Investigative types. The greatest negative correlation was with Active – Reflective, meaning it was less likely for Active types to test as Investigative on the Strong.

For Artistic types, all but one correlation were negative. The greatest was on the Gregarious – Intimate facet, meaning they were likely to be on the Intimate side. The only positive correlation was on the Expressive – Contained facet, which means they were likely to be Contained.

For Social types, all the correlations were negative. The greatest effect was on the Active – Reflective facet, meaning they were likely to be Active. The smallest effect was on the Gregarious – Intimate facet.

Enterprising types had the greatest correlation with Gregarious – Intimate. They tend towards the former. The greatest positive correlation was with Enthusiastic – Quiet.

Finally, Conventional types had all positive correlations, with the Expressive – Contained facet scale the strongest and the Active – Reflective the weakest. Top

About the Strong Interest Inventory: Social Theme & College Majors

The latest version of the Strong was released in December 2004. One study looked at the relationship between themes on the Strong and the college majors chosen by the participants. This issue we'll look at those who scored highest on the Social scale.

Let's start with the men. The top college majors for this group were Psychology, Marketing, Biological Sciences, Political Science, Management, Administration, and Computers & Information Science.

For women, the list included Social Work, Education, Psychology, Sociology, Health & Medical Science, History, Journalism, Administration, and Literature. Interestingly, women made up the first eight and fourteen of the first fifteen spots in the list, so it would appear that in college, Social types are more frequently women than men.

As with all statistics, these results cannot predict how any one individual will respond to the Strong based on his or her major alone. It's also true that people with the same majors had different top themes on the Strong. Therefore, no one should pick or drop a major because his or her top theme on the Strong might indicate it's not as popular with the group. Top

The FIRO-B: Team Preferences – Reserved Types

People vary considerably in their desire to have contact with others, from very little to a great deal of interaction with others. Your Overall Interpersonal Needs score can tell us a lot about how your will likely perform on a team. This month we'll start with those in the lowest range, which is a score between 0 and 15. These types are generally considered reserved.

Common or typical behaviors from people with scores in this range include approaching people individually when working on a problem, instead of bringing it up at a meeting. They are likely to find meetings exhausting, too long, unproductive, and would prefer to avoid them if possible. Generally, people such as these feel there are too many teams in most work places and not enough individual effort. Teamwork is not something they find interesting or rewarding, so they will avoid this too, if given the chance. When obliged to participate in a team, they frequently will look for tasks they can perform alone. They usually prefer to be on small teams, with infrequent meetings, little or no pressure to speak up in meetings, and tasks that can be easily divided among the members. Top

The 16 Personality Factors: Correlations with Myers-Briggs, Part III

Let's look at how the 16 scales correlate to the scale on the Myers-Briggs. A positive correlation means that as the score on one scale goes up, the score on the other scale goes up also. A negative correlation means the opposite. For example, someone with a low score on Factor A is likely to show up on the Sensing side of the MBTI. Someone with a high score on Factor G probably would too.

For Sensing on the Myers-Briggs, here are the correlations from the 16PF:

Factor A (Warmth): Negative

Factor B (Reasoning): Negative

Factor C (Emotional Stability): Negative

Factor E (Dominance): Negative

Factor F (Liveliness): Negative

Factor G (Rule-Consciousness): Positive

Factor H (Social Boldness): Negative

Factor I (Sensitivity): Negative

Factor L (Vigilance): Positive

Factor M (Abstractedness): Negative

Factor N (Privateness): Positive

Factor O (Apprehension): Positive

Factor Q1 (Openness to Change): Negative

Factor Q2 (Self-Reliance): Positive

Factor Q3 (Perfectionism): Positive

Factor Q4 (Tension): Negative

The factors with the greatest positive correlation to Sensing are Q3, G, and N. Those with the greatest negative correlation are Q1, M, and E.