HOW DID JUNG’S EIGHT TYPES BECOME MYERS’ SIXTEEN TYPES? Myers and Briggs considered their work as an extension of Jung’s emerging theory. He had mentioned a secondary or auxiliary function in just one paragraph of Psychological Types as well as what he called the inferior function which is likely the least developed of the eight functions. Jung's Eight Types   Extraverted Sensing Introverted Sensing Extraverted INtuition Introverted INtuition Extraverted Thinking Introverted Thinking Extraverted Feeling Introverted Feeling Jung’s descriptions focused only on the dominant function. Myers and Briggs developed a way of revealing not only the dominant but also the preference order for the four basic functions. The two women developed a structure of sixteen types based on four dichotomies which result in the well-known 4 letter types. Each question in the MBTI® assessment asks you to make a choice between preferences. Each answer is like a vote.  Extraversion or Introversion Focus of Energy  Sensing or iNtuition Preference in taking in information  Thinking or Feeling Preference in coming to conclusions  Judging or Perception Preferred attitude in the outer world If we prefer Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging, we speak of ourselves as preferring ESTJ. There are 16 combinations of these eight preferences, thus sixteen types. Isabel Myers wrote descriptions of each of these types. Click here for a brief description giving characteristics frequently associated with each type.             See if one seems more like you than the others. If you have not taken the MBTI® inventory, you may like to do so through a career counselor, your local college, HR department, or religious institution. Just be sure that the MBTI® instrument is an official version and that you receive person-to-person feedback. For another option, go to www.capt.org.  Click on Take the MBTI® instrument. back to top