Jungian Type Index

The Jungian Type Index (JTI) is an alternative to the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Introduced by Optimas in 2001,^[1] the JTI was developed over a 10-year period in Norway by psychologists Thor Ødegård and Hallvard E: Ringstad. The JTI was designed to help capture individuals' preferred usage of the psychological functions identified by Carl Jung in his book Psychological Types, such as thinking vs feeling and sensing vs intuition.

The JTI's questions and methodology for identifying the preferred functions differs from the MBTI. For example it eliminates word pairs, which can be troublesome to translate from English into other languages. In many languages, the sentence context frames the meaning of a word, while in English the words themselves may denote more meaning.

Overview

Similar to the MBTI, the JTI identifies 4 categories from which the 16 types are formed: Extraversion/Introversion, Intuiting/Sensing, Thinking/Feeling, Perceiving/Judging. A personality type is reached through an examination or introspection about these categories. For example, an Intuiting, Thinking, Judging Extrovert would be classified as an ENTJ. However, further complexity lies below this surface-level classification. Each personality types has its associated Jungian cognitive functions, which aim to further explain the ways in which each type perceives and interacts with reality. Each type has all 4 of the cognitive functions (Thinking, Feeling, Intuiting, and Sensing) arranged in a different order and with different levels of introversion/extroversion. Of the two middle letters of any type, one will be the primary function with which they interact with the world, and one will be the auxiliary. For example, an ENTJ's primary function is (extraverted) Thinking, and their secondary function is (introverted) Intuiting.^[2]

Differences from MBTI

Albeit quite similar, there are some key differences between the MBTI and JTI. The main difference between the two is that JTI sees the different categories as continuous rather than discrete.^[3] In the MBTI, one is either an introvert or an extrovert; in the JTI, you can have different levels of introversion. Furthermore, the JTI takes into account the observation that opposite types tend to be inversely correlated; for example, one who scores high with Thinking is quite likely to score low on Feeling. This observation further supports the idea of a continuous model. ^[4]

Commercialization

Though it is relatively unknown in the United States, the JTI has almost completely replaced the MBTI in Denmark, since the main Danish re-seller, Center for Ledelse, stopped licensing the MBTI at the end of 2004. Instead it licenses the JTI, which is asserted to be a qualitative improvement over the MBTI.^[5] As an emerging product, the JTI is also cheaper to license. In Norway and Sweden,^[6] the JTI is also gaining users, in conjunction with other tools that complement the JTI for career development and coaching. It also has distributors in the Netherlands, China, and Germany.^[7]

See also

• Analytical psychology
• Keirsey Temperament Sorter
• Socionics
• Jungian cognitive functions

References

External links

• Optimas home page in English