Newsletter #50

In this issue:

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

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

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

The 16PF®– The 16 Personality Factors: Correlations with Myers-Briggs, Part IV - Intuition

Step II Facet Scales & the Strong, Part II

This time we'll continue looking at the relationships between the facet scores on the MBTI Step II Interpretive Report and the six themes of the Strong Interest Inventory. This month it's with the five facet scales involving Sensing and Intuition. 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 Realistic - Imaginative scale, which means someone who was on the Imaginative side of the facet scale likely scored on the Realistic theme on the Strong. This is not what we would expect to find. The only negative correlation was with Traditional - Original, which means those who came out on the Original side were less likely to show up on the Realistic theme.

The Investigative theme has the greatest positive correlation with Traditional - Original, meaning those on the Traditional side of the facet where likely to show up as Investigative types. The greatest negative correlation was with Experiential - Theoretical, meaning it was likely for Theoretical types to test as Investigative on the Strong.

For Artistic types, all but one correlation were positive. The greatest was on the Practical - Conceptual facet, meaning they were likely to be on the Conceptual side. The only negative correlation was on the Traditional - Original facet, which means they were likely to be Traditional. This is not what we would expect for Artistic types.

For Social types, all the correlations were negative. The greatest effect was on the Traditional - Original facet, meaning they were likely to be Traditional. The smallest effect was on the Concrete - Abstract facet.

Enterprising types had the greatest correlation with Realistic - Imaginative. They tend towards the former. The greatest positive correlation was with Experiential – Theoretical, and they towards the latter.

Finally, Conventional types had all negative correlations, with the Traditional - Original facet scale the strongest and the Experiential – Theoretical the weakest. This means Conventional types are likely to come out as Traditional and Experiential. Top

About the Strong Interest Inventory: Enterprising 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 Enterprising scale.

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

For women, the list included Marketing, International Business, Management, Communications, Administration, Finance, Journalism, and Accounting.

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 – Cautious 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 look at those in the medium range, which is a score between 16 and 27. These types are generally considered cautious.

Common or typical behaviors from people with scores in this range include trying to avoid team situations when possible, feeling drained after a week of meetings, feeling that teams are generally better than working alone, but needing role clarification before agreeing to work on a team. These types often report they are enthusiastic team members when there are suitable rewards, but they tend to hold back if there are no rewards. Sometimes they can act quite reserved, but this depends a great deal upon the team and the tasks. In meetings, they are likely to speak less rather than more than others. Teamwork will likely need to be balanced with individual assignments. Top

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

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 Intuition side of the MBTI. Someone with a high score on Factor B probably would too.

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

Factor A (Warmth): Negative

Factor B (Reasoning): Positive

Factor C (Emotional Stability): Positive

Factor E (Dominance): Positive

Factor F (Liveliness): Negative

Factor G (Rule-Consciousness): Negative

Factor H (Social Boldness): Positive

Factor I (Sensitivity): Positive

Factor L (Vigilance): Negative

Factor M (Abstractedness): Positive

Factor N (Privateness): Negative

Factor O (Apprehension): Neutral

Factor Q1 (Openness to Change): Positive

Factor Q2 (Self-Reliance): Negative

Factor Q3 (Perfectionism): Negative

Factor Q4 (Tension): Positive

The factors with the greatest positive correlation to Intuition are Q1, M, and I. Those with the greatest negative correlation are Q3, G, and L