The logo features four interlocking hands, representing both the four preferences that make up one's personality type and the interdependence of individuals. The logo's apparent motion reinforces the dynamic nature of type, while its similarities to both a flower and a star evoke the lifelong growth and evolution made possible by MBTI tools.
After completing our MBTI(R) Certified Practitioner training (offered by CPP, Inc.) in January 2012, everyone in my class was awarded the beautiful pin shown above. About a year later, while putting together this website and investigating trademark guidelines, I came across CPP's lovely description of their MBTI Certified Practitioner logo which we see on the pin.
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Murphy, Elizabeth. The Chemistry of Personality: A Guide to Teacher - Student Interaction in the Classroom. Gainesville: Center for Applications of Psychological Type, 2008.
Judging from the traffic on my previous post dealing with the Murphy - Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children(R) assessment tool, there is a lot of interest throughout the world in using knowledge of personality type to improve the lives and educational outcomes of children. So I am happy to share another great book by school psychologist and former teacher Dr. Elizabeth Murphy who, together with Dr. Charles Meisgeier, is the co - author of the assessment which bears their names. The PCI and Why Indicator and Trait Instrument Are Animals From Completely Different Species!3/4/2015 If you've taken the Myers - Briggs Type Indicator(R) personality assessment you may have seen numbers like those in the photo above attached to your results. If they were not carefully explained, or if a lot of time has passed, the numbers may have confounded your ability to correctly understand your results. The problem may have been aggravated by the fact that so many number - laden trait assessments are available today.
The results of trait assessments consist of numbers representing the amount or strength of a certain characteristic which is being measured. So after taking the MBTI(R) tool it may seem natural to assume that the numbers attached to the results represent strength of a preference, that you are an extreme Introvert or Extravert, a strong Thinking type, an off - the - wall Perceiver, more or less of a Sensing type than a co - worker, and so on. Such phrases are very common in online discussion groups. But nothing could be more incorrect! Rath, Tom. StrengthsFinder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press, 2007. After hearing much about the StrengthsFinder 2.0 and buying the book of the same name in August 2013, I finally read it and took the online assessment about two months ago. I have found it to be an interesting, helpful tool which should work well with the Myers - Briggs Type Indicator(R) personality inventory. I lived in St. Louis, Missouri from 1982 until 1993 and have always deeply loved it. Therefore I was shocked and my heart broken by the racial unrest taking place there since a black teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer in August of this year. Ferguson, where the violence occurred, is not far from downtown St. Louis. It's even closer to St. Louis University, a fine school from which I received a master's degree in Urban Affairs. Since I have been used to seeing St. Louis in the news in recent years mainly for scientific and medical achievements, it saddens me to think that the world is now developing an undeserved negative view of St. Louis and the people who live there. I'm sure no one ever expects to see a place in which they've happily lived making the national news due to a social tragedy.
While reading one of the many online news reports about the unrest in Ferguson, I saw a photo which particularly caught my eye and heart. This is the third year I've participated in a program called 30 Days of Gratitude, which involves posting on Facebook each day in November about something I am thankful for. It is not only good for me to count my blessings, which can be a challenge on some days, but I gain insight into the personalities of my Facebook friends as I read about the blessings they are counting. I find it intriguing to consider that the things we are thankful for may have something to do with our personality type preferences, which come in pairs such as Introversion and Extraversion. Here are some things people with each personality preference might be thankful for during preparations for a Thanksgiving feast and while enjoying the meal itself and the remainder of the day. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you've probably noticed something unusual about the language I use. You probably aren't alone if you think I sound a bit stilted and stuffy because I sometimes use rather fancy words instead of normal, simple, down - to - earth language. You may be surprised to hear that I thoroughly agree with you! But there are reasons I use the language I do, and it's worth taking a few minutes to explain them.
The first things you may have noticed about my blog are the odd terms I use to refer to the MBTI(R) such as tool, instrument, assessment and personality assessment. Perhaps you are wondering why I don't use the much simpler and more familiar term test, or personality test. The answer to that question is quite simple: it's incorrect, since the MBTI tool is not a test. This is one of its most misunderstood aspects, so I encourage you to read my blog "Why the MBTI(R) Tool is Not a Test." What is a stereotype and how is one born? I hadn't given too much thought to this topic until I recently read Building People, Building Programs by Gordon Lawrence and Charles Martin. My purpose here is not to review the book, which is excellent, but to focus on Chapter 9, "How to Avoid Ethical Pitfalls in Using the MBTI". Despite its professional -sounding title, I believe the material here on how we stereotype people whose personalities differ from ours is of extreme value and importance for everyone, and worth at least the price of the book! Random House Webster's College Dictionary defines a stereotype as "a simplified and standardized conception or image of a person, group, etc., held in common by members of a group: the stereotypes that society has of the mentally ill." This example could just as easily be: the stereotypes that Introverted types have of Extraverted types, or that Sensing types have of Intuitive types, etc.
As Martin and Lawrence point out on p. 177, "We tend to stereotype those who are most different from ourselves because we understand them less - a rule that holds true for differences in type as well as for differences in culture, race, and other characteristics." In my last post I mentioned that people whose personality preferences are the opposite of ours can seem foreign to us, just as E. T. did to Elliott at the beginning of the classic 1982 movie, E. T. the Extra - Terrestrial. Thus the danger of stereotyping such people is great. According to Lawrence and Martin, stereotyping people with personality preferences (such as Introversion or Extraversion) which are opposite to ours takes place because we project onto them our own perception of and way of handling a particular type of situation. It does not occur to us that their way of becoming energized, taking in information, making decisions, and orienting to the outer world may be the opposite of our way of doing so. Since their values seem so different from ours, it is tempting to look down on what we presume to be their motives or level of maturity, or lack thereof. Another way of putting this is that we project onto others the motivations that would cause us to behave a certain way, not realizing that the same behavior could be caused by the opposite motivations in someone else. For instance, people who prefer to use Introversion tend to want their thoughts fully formed before sharing them, while those who prefer to use Extraversion are not only able to complete their thoughts by sharing them with others, but even to draw energy from doing so. Those who prefer Introversion would probably feel shallow if they thought out loud, sharing incomplete thoughts. Thus they may tend to assume that anyone who does so is shallow. They probably don't realize that someone who prefers Extraversion is helped to form and clarify his or her thoughts by sharing them with others, and so they project onto those who prefer Extraversion what such behavior would indicate in themselves. Thus a stereotype is born that those who prefer Extraversion are shallow. Perhaps a contributing factor to their thinking out loud is that those who prefer Extraversion tend to feel awkward with silence, which they often feel compelled to fill. They may tend to assume that everyone else also feels uncomfortable with long pauses during conversations. It may not occur to them that those who prefer Introversion usually find silence, which they use to complete their thoughts before they speak, comfortable and even energizing. So they project onto those who prefer Introversion what would be their own discomfort with silence in social situations. Thus a stereotype is born that those who prefer Introversion are socially awkward and/or have little to say. Once we understand that stereotyping people whose personality preferences differ from ours is a serious problem and a trap that we all fall into at times, how do we know when we have been guilty of it? Language provides a clue, especially the use of terms such as always and never. For example, phrases such as "Extraverts never..." or "Introverts always..." show that an assumption is being made about a whole group of people, without regard to the characteristics of individual members of that group and the other factors in their lives besides personality type preferences which make them unique. These could include factors such as family background, work experience, skills, desires, etc. It's important to remember that stereotyping is not always directed at others. People sometimes stereotype themselves because they believe the stereotypes that others have of them. Stereotyping is probably the culprit when someone uses type as an excuse for behavior, including his or her own. "I (he, she) wouldn't be any good at that since I'm (he's, she's) an Extravert (Introvert)", for instance. Another harmful way stereotyping can be directed at oneself rather than or in addition to others is when someone feels there is something wrong with his or her or someone else's type preferences which therefore must be changed. This indicates a lack of understanding and appreciation of the beauty and gifts of type and the fact that all type preferences are good and healthy. Often people who feel this way have a preference for Introversion, or they prefer Extraversion and are concerned about someone who prefers Introversion. Those who engage in such stereotyping may have been misled by all the talk often heard in our society, or by individuals in their lives, portraying and stereotyping Introversion as bad and unhealthy, and Extraversion as good and healthy, and thus they may mistakenly assume that anyone who prefers Introversion should change. An extreme case of such stereotyping occurred about three years ago when the American Psychiatric Association almost included Introversion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) as a contributing factor in some personality disorders. Fortunately it wasn't included because, of course, Introversion is an indicator of normal personality just as Extraversion is. There is no reason for anyone to feel that a preference for Introversion needs to be changed, since it refers to how we derive our mental energy and has nothing to do with mental health. The fact that the American Psychiatric Association needed to be reminded of this should serve as a wake-up call for the rest of us. Since our society is so full of personality stereotypes and misinformation, this reminder that Introversion and Extraversion are both normal personality preferences is necessary for everyone. The problem of stereotyping is clear. Now how about the solution? What can we do to prevent the unhelpful intrusion of stereotyping into our lives? One way to ward it off is to learn as much as possible about the various personality preferences described in the MBTI(R) tool, while keeping firmly in mind that they do not explain everything about the uniqueness of human beings. It is also very helpful to keep in mind that due to type or other factors, other people's motivations may be the opposite of ours. We also need to remember that people whose preferences are the opposite of ours aren't deliberately trying to get on our nerves. Usually they are just being themselves. When it seems as if they are deliberately trying to annoy us, it can help to spend some time focusing on qualities they have which we can enjoy and appreciate. So if your preference is for Extraversion, what do you appreciate about those with a preference for Introversion? What do those of you with a preference for Introversion appreciate about the Extraverted people in your lives? Writing this post has opened my eyes to my own tendency to stereotype and my need to guard against it. I have only covered the tip of the iceberg of how stereotyping manifests itself between people who prefer Introversion and Extraversion, and have not covered the other six personality preferences (Sensing, Intuition, Thinking, Feeling, Judging and Perceiving) at all! What stereotypes have you noticed, either on the receiving end or in your own attitude toward people whose personality preferences are different from yours? What stereotypes would you like to know more about? While it is written for MBTI practitioners, I highly encourage anyone interested in stereotyping to look at Chapter 9 in: Lawrence, Gordon, and Charles Martin. Building People, Building Programs. Gainesville, Fl: Center for Applications of Psychological Type, 2007. This very helpful book may be ordered from the publisher at www.capt.org for $39.95. And as I said at the beginning of this post, the insights on personality stereotyping you will gain from Chapter 9 just might be worth the price of the book and then some! Does E. T. Stand For Extra - Terrestrial or Essential Truths? Lessons From a Film Festival8/21/2014 Who doesn't love the heartwarming movie E. T. the Extra - Terrestrial? On August 1, 2014, I had the great pleasure of seeing E. T. at the San Antonio Film Festival, probably for only the second time since it came out in 1982. At first I wasn't thrilled to be paying to see a movie I had seen before, and was there mostly to see the post - film question and answer session with one of its actors, Peter Coyote. However, it didn't take long for me to realize what a timeless, moving and emotionally rich movie E. T. really is, a fact which I suspect is much better appreciated by adult than child movie buffs. After all, E. T., which according to Wikipedia was the highest - grossing film of all time until 1993 when Jurassic Park snatched that honor from it, seems to have something for everyone.
One of my favorite Easter activities is an adult egg hunt which takes place at a local craft/antique store. Giant Easter eggs are "hidden" among the merchandise (actually many are left in plain sight), and each shopper who finds one turns it in at the cash registers for a prize donated by a vendor. This store does the same thing at Christmastime, hiding large ornaments instead of eggs.
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Gayle Weinraub is a resident of San Antonio, Texas who has been passionate about
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