About the FIRO-B™: The Control Scale and Myers-Briggs® Thinking - Feeling Scales

One of the interesting aspects of using different measurement tools is to see if there are correlations among them. Let's look at the Control scale on the FIRO-B compared to the T-F scale on the Myers-Briggs.

As many of you might suppose, there is a greater tendency for those who had high scores on Expressed Control to be Thinkers. In one study, 61% of those who had high scores on the Expressed Control scale were Thinkers (Feelers were 4%). Conversely, 78% of those with high scores on Wanted Control were Feelers.

However, with any study, you have to be careful in reading the numbers. In this case, only 11% of the Thinkers had a high score for Expressed Control. Of those with high Expressed Control, 61% were Thinkers. In general, only about 7% of this sample had a high Expressed Control score.

On the other hand, only 3% of the Thinkers had high Wanted Control scores, while 62% had low scores. Feelers had low Expressed Control scores 76% of the time is this study, and 47% had low Wanted Control scores.

All of this might be a bit confusing. The numbers show how people scored on the FIRO-B scale and their Myers-Briggs scale. The main point to remember is that it's likely that a high scorer on the Expressed Control is a Thinker and a high scorer on the Wanted Control scale is likely to be a Feeler. Of course, as with any measurement tool, there are patterns and individual results. They do not have to match. It's okay to be a Feeler with a high Expressed Control score on the FIRO-B. Your FIRO-B scores are unique to you and do not have to follow the statistics or any set pattern. It's good to use the information from your report to understand your unique way of dealing with others.