Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Strong Interest Inventory, and Firo B
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an assessment produced to measure different psychological preferences about how people make decisions and perceive the world. The MBTI consists of a psychometric questionnaire. Carl Gustav Jung proposed certain typological theories in his book, ‘Psychological Types’, published in 1921 with the English edition appearing in 1923. According to Jung, we experience our world through four basic psychological functions. These four functions are sensation, feeling, thinking, and intuition. He maintained that one of the four functions would be dominant in a person most of the time.
However, the principles propounded by Jung became a process of psychological assessment, especially as a career assessment test, when Katherine C. Briggs and Isabel B. Myers, daughter of Katherine studied the work of Jung extensively and developed their own MBTI assessment. Their main purpose in creating the MBTI indicator was to help women who desired to join the industrial workforce. This was necessary since World War II was going on at that time and many women were required to join various types of jobs. Briggs and Myers felt that the MBTI assessment would help the women identify the most effective and comfortable jobs suitable to them during the war time. They expanded the initial questionnaire into the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and published it in 1962.
Another career assessment test that many recruiters recommend along with MBTI is Strong Interest Inventory (SII). The Strong Interest inventory is useful in assessing and getting an insight of the interests of a person. This helps a career aspirant in deciding the most suitable career exploration pathways. E.K. Strong, a psychologist, developed this method and test in 1927. David Campbell and Jo-Ida Hansen revised the Strong Interest Inventory later. However, the latest version developed in 2004 is widely in use at present. This version is based on Holland Codes, a typology that John L. Holland, a psychologist, developed.
The original Strong Interest Inventory had 10 occupational scales. Campbell revised the first version of Strong to include 124 occupational scales, though he continued the 23 basic interest scales that he had created earlier. He also added 2 special scales for measurement of the dimensions of introversion/extroversion and academic comfort. The latest version of the Strong Interest Inventory contains 291 items, namely 107 questions on occupations, 46 questions on subject areas, 85 questions on activities, 28 questions on leisure activities, 16 questions on people, and 9 questions on the characteristics of the individual answering the questionnaire. The advancements in technology and creation of new jobs have necessitated constant updating of the Strong Interest Inventory.
The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (Firo B) is a theory that William Schutz developed in 1958. This theory states that people look to obtain three major interpersonal needs when they become a group. These needs are Affection (sometimes listed as Openness), Inclusion, and Control. Schutz named his measuring instrument the FIRO B and it contains six scales with nine questions in each one. The FIRO B is scored from 0 to 9 in graded scales that measure wanted and expressed behavior of people when in a group.
CareerAssessmentSite.com provides the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) career assessment test, Strong Interest Inventory (SII) assessments, and FIRO B test to persons pursuing career exploration. The focus of the organization is to function as effective career consultants and offer all available resources to aspirants of a prospective career.
