A Validation of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator on Black High School Children
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A VALIDATION OF THE MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR® ON BLACK HIGH SCHOOL CHILDREN by Rea Bachtis DISSERTATION proposed for the degree MASTER of Arts in PSYCHOLOGY in the FACULTY OF ARTS at the RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Dr. H.F. Scheepers October 1999 Dedicated to the memory of my father whose wisdom, faith and love gave me the courage to believe in myself. What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to the following people: Dr. Hennie Scheepers my supervisor, for his support and guidance. Joopie de Beer and her staff, for the interest shown and information given which provided me with a greater understanding of the MBTI® My dearest friend Pat, with whom I have travelled the long journey to education. Her love and support all too often lightened my burden. To my mother who was able, in spite of some very trying times, to continue to give an abundance of love and support. To my brother John, for his love and kindness. My husband Peter, who never doubted my abilities, for his love and support. My daughter Stella, whose caring nature has exhibited a deeper understanding and compassion for mankind, provided me with so much support in both an emotional and practical way. My son George, with whom I share the same "type" for his computer skills, encouragement and interest shown in my work. To the many friends and family members who encouraged and assisted me in one way or another. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction and Problem Statement Introduction 1 1.1 Problem Statement and Rationale 3 1.2 Goal 6 1.3 Definition and clarification of terms and concepts 6 1.3.1 The Stage of Adolescence 6 1.3.2 Personality 9 1.3.3 Type 10 1.3.4 Temperament 11 1.3.5 Functions 11 1.3.6 Attitudes 11 1.3.7 Culture 12 1.3.8 Career Maturity 13 1.3.9 Vocational Identity 13 1.3.10Validation 14 1.4 Structure of the study 14 Chapter 2: The Theory of Carl Gustav Jung Introduction 16 2.1 Biographical Background 16 2.2 The Structure of the Personality 21 2.3 The Psyche 22 2.3.1 The Conscious 22 2.3.2 The personal unconscious 23 2.3.3 The collective unconscious 24 2.3.3.1 The Persona 25 2.3.3.2 The anima and animus 26 2.3.3.3 The Shadow 27 2.3.3.4 The Self 28 2.4 The Dynamics of the Personality 30 2.4.1 Basic Assumptions 30 2.4.2 The Human Being as an Energy System 30 2.4.2.1 The Distribution of Energy 31 2.4.2.2 Interaction between subsystems of the psyche 34 2.5 Attitude of the psyche 35 2.6 Functions of the psyche 36 2.6.1 Irrational or Perceiving Functions 37 2.6.2 Rational or Judging functions 38 2.6.2.1 Superior function 39 2.6.2.2 Auxiliary function 40 2.6.2.3 Inferior function 41 2.6.2.4 Tertiary function 42 2.7 Personality types which develop from combining and handling attitudes and functions 43 2.8 The Development of the Personality 45 2.9 Chapter Review 46 Chapter 3: The Myers Briggs Type Indicator 3. Introduction 47 3.1 Biography — Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers 47 3.2 The aim and uses of the MBTI® 50 3.3 The MBTI 51 3.4 Attitudes and Functions 56 3.4.1 The Attitudes: Orientations to the World 56 3.4.1.2 Extraversion and Introversion 56 3.4.1.3 Judgement and Perception 58 3.4.2 The Functions: Building Blocks of Type 59 3.4.2.1 Sensing and Intuition 59 3.4.2.2 Thinking and Feeling 60 3.5 The 16 Psychological Types 62 3.6 Dynamic Interaction of Preferences 74 3.6.1 The Role of the Dominant Function 76 3.6.2 The Role of the Auxiliary Function 77 3.6.3 The Tertiary Function 79 3.6.4 The Inferior Function 79 3.7 Identifying Type Dynamics 83 3.8 Determining the Hierarchy of Type 84 3.9 Type Development 87 3.10 Test Administration and Scoring 91 3.11 The MBTI® and Career Guidance 95 3.12 Criticism of the MBTI® 97 3.13 Chapter Review 106 Chapter 4: John Holland's Theory of Careers Introduction 108 4.1 Biographical Background 108 4.2 The Theory 111 4.2.1 Basic Assumptions 112 4.2.2 Personality Types 117 4.2.2.1 Development of Type 119 4.2.3 Assessment of Type 120 4.2.4 Subtypes or Personality Patterns 121 4.3 The Environmental Models 125 4.4 Formulations of the Models 125 4.5 People in Environments 129 4.6 Research 132 4.7 Applications of Holland's Theory 133 4.8 Chapter Review 135 Chapter 5: Research Methodology Research Design 136 5.1 Purpose of the Study 140 5.2 Hypothesis 140 5.3 Discussion of Sample 141 5.4 Description of Measurement Instruments 142 5.4.1 Biographical Questionnaire 142 5.4.2 The Myers Briggs Type Indicator 142 5.4.2.1 Reliability of the MBTI® 143 5.4.2.2 Validity of the MBTI® 145 5.4.3 Self Directed Search Questionnaire 148 5.4.3.1 Reliability of the SDS 149 5.4.3.2 Validity of the SDS 149 5.4.3.3 Consistency 150 5.4.3.4 Differentiation 151 5.4.3.5 Congruency 151 5.5 Chapter Review 152 iii Chapter 6: Results Introduction 153 6.1 Frequency 153 6.1.2 Description of the research group 153 6.1.3 Age Distribution 155 6.2 Gender Distribution 156 6.3 Language Distribution 157 6.4 Frequency Distribution of the MBTI® 158 6.5 Distribution of the MBTI® Types of the Total Research 160 6.6 Distribution of the 16 MBTI® Types of Males in the Sample 160 6.7 Distribution of the 16 MBTI® Types of Females in the Sample 161 6.8 Distribution of the Total Scores of the SDS 165 6.8.1 Realistic Scores 165 6.8.2 Investigative Scores 166 6.8.3 Artistic Scores 166 6.8.4 Social Scores 166 6.8.5 Enterprising Scores 167 6.8.6 Conventional Scores 167 6.9 Correlational Analysis 171 6.10 Chapter Review 175 Chapter 7: Discussion of Results Introduction 176 7.1 Discussion of the MBTI® findings 176 7.1.1 Dichotomous Scales 177 7.1.1.1 Extravert-Introvert Scale 177 7.1.1.2 Sensing-Intuitive Scale 178 7.1.1.3 Thinking-Feeling Scale 178 7.1.1.4 Judging-Perceiving Scale 180 7.1.2 Whole Types 181 7.1.2.1 Findings on the whole sample 181 7.1.2.2 Findings on the male distribution of the sample 181 7.1.2.3 Findings on the female distribution of the Sample 182 7.2 Discussion of SDS Findings 183 iv 7.2.1 Realistic work environments 183 7.2.2 Investigative work environments 184 7.2.3 Artistic work environment 184 7.2.4 Social work environment 185 7.2.5 Enterprising work environment 185 7.2.6 Conventional work environment 185 7.3 Factors affecting career identity 186 7.3.1 The effect of Development on Career Identity 186 7.3.2 The Influence of parents on the development of Career Identity 187 7.3.3 The Effect of culture on career identity 188 7.3.4 The influence of Socioeconomic factors and career identity 191 7.3.5 The effects of the socio-political climate on identity development 194 7.3.6 The effect of the mass media on career identity 198 7.4 Discussion of the correlational analyses of the MBTI® and SDS 199 7.5 Chapter Review 202 Chapter 8: Conclusion and Recommendation 8. Introduction 204 8.1 Consolidation of empirical findings 204 8.1.1 Findings on the MBTI® scores 204 8.1.2 Findings on the SDS scores 205 8.1.3 Findings on the correlational analyses 205 8.2 Recommendations 206 8.3 Conclusion 207 Bibliography 209 List of Tables Table 6.1 Description of the Research Group 154 Table 6.2 Age Distribution 155 Table 6.3 Gender Distribution 156 Table 6.4 Language Distribution 157 Table 6.5 Frequency Distribution of the MBTI® Dichotomous Preferences 159 Table 6.6 Distribution of the 16 MBTI® Types of the total Research Group 162 Table 6.7 Distribution of the 16 MBTI® Types of Males in the sample 163 Table 6.8 Distribution of the 16 MBTI® Types of Females in the sample 164 Table 6.9 Correlation between the MBTI® continuous scores and the SDS — Total scores 172 Table 6.10 Correlations between scores of the MBTI® scales and the SDS — Total scores 175 List of Figures Figure 4.1 The Hexagon 123 Figure 6.1 Total Scores — Realistic 168 Figure 6.2 Total Scores — Investigative 168 Figure 6.3 Total Scores — Artistic 169 Figure 6.4 Total Scores — Social 169 Figure 6.5 Total Scores — Enterprising 170 Figure 6.6 Total Scores — Conventional 170 vi Summary The Myers Briggs Type® Indicator is a personality assessment instrument, which is based on the ideas of the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, and was developed by a mother-daughter team. Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Briggs dedicated their lives to type watching and perfecting their instrument.