Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type

Product Description THE BELOVED CLASSIC FOR UNDERSTANDING PERSONALITY TYPE. Like a thumbprint, personality type provides an instant snapshot of a person's uniqueness. Drawing on concepts originated by Carl Jung, this book distinguishes four categories of personality styles and shows how these qualities determine the way you perceive the world and come to conclusions about what you've seen. It then explains what they mean for your success in school, at a job, in a career and in your personal relationships. For more than 60 years, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tool has been the most widely used instrument in the world for determining personality type, and for more than 25 years, Gifts Differing has been the preeminent source for understanding it. Review Ringing with practical implications, Gifts Differing both educates and inspires.―Judy Waterman, Principal, Career Management Group About the Author The late Isabel Briggs Myers devoted her life to the observation, study, and measurement of personality. With her mother, Katharine Briggs, she authored the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® personality inventory. Peter B. Myers, Ph.D., continues research work on the development and application of personality type. Former staff director of the National Academy of Science, he is currently extending the use of the MBTI® instrument worldwide. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Gifts Differing Understanding Personality Type By Isabel Briggs Myers, Peter B. Myers Nicholas Brealey PublishingCopyright © 1995 CPP, Inc. All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-89106-074-1 Contents Preface, Preface to Original Printing, Publisher's Foreword, Publisher's Note, Part I Theory, Chapter 1 An Orderly Reason for Personality Differences, Chapter 2 Extensions of Jung's Theory, Part II Effects of the Preferences on Personality, Chapter 3 Type Tables for Comparison and Discovery, Chapter 4 Effect of the EI Preference, Chapter 5 Effect of the SN Preference, Chapter 6 Effect of the TF Preference, Chapter 7 Effect of the JP Preference, Chapter 8 Extraverted and Introverted Forms of the Processes Compared, Chapter 9 Descriptions of the Sixteen Types, Part III Practical Implications of Type, Chapter 10 Use of the Opposites, Chapter 11 Type and Marriage, Chapter 12 Type and Early Learning, Chapter 13 Learning Styles, Chapter 14 Type and Occupation, Part IV Dynamics of Type Development, Chapter 15 Type and the Task of Growing Up, Chapter 16 Good Type Development, Chapter 17 Obstacles to Type Development, Chapter 18 Motivation for Type Development in Children, Chapter 19 Going On From Wherever You Are, Endnotes, References, About Isabel Briggs Myers, Full-Size Type Table, Index, CHAPTER 1 An Orderly Reason for Personality Differences It is fashionable to say that the individual is unique. Each is the product of his or her own heredity and environment and, therefore, is different from everyone else. From a practical standpoint, however, the doctrine of uniqueness is not useful without an exhaustive case study of every person to be educated or counseled or understood. Yet we cannot safely assume that other people's minds work on the same principles as our own. All too often, others with whom we come in contact do not reason as we reason, or do not value the things we value, or are not interested in what interests us. The merit of the theory presented here is that it enables us to expect specific personality differences in particular people and to cope with the people and the differences in a constructive way. Briefly, the theory is that much seemingly chance variation in human behavior is not due to chance; it is in fact the logical result of a few basic, observable differences in mental functioning. These basic differences concern the way people prefer to use their minds, specifically, the way they perceive and the way they make judgments. Perceiving is here understood to include the processes of becoming aware of things, people, oc