16 Types Part 2: What do the letters in your Myers-Briggs® type really mean?

If you missed Part 1, click here to start at the beginning.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you sign up to receive a free self-typing guide for the 16 Types personality system. This guide will give you examples of each letter we’re going to look at to help you better identify your natural preferences and overcome any preconceived ideas you may already have about what each letter means.

Ok, now that you understand the background of the 16 Types system and how it relates to Myers-Briggs® personality types and the work of Carl Jung, let’s dig into what the four letters of your personality type (ENTJ, for example) really mean. There are a lot of misconceptions!

As you read the basic descriptions of each of the letters below, keep a few things in mind:

  • Each person uses both sides of each dichotomy (such as E vs I) at different times.

  • The description of your preferred side (the letter found in your four-letter personality type) will be true over the course of your whole life—not just for a particular season of life or for a specific role you fill.

  • Stereotypes about the letters can lead to mistyping.

The Dichotomies

Extraversion or Introversion

This letter describes whether you more naturally direct your energy to outer-world (E) activities or to inner world (I) activities. Each person has an introverted side and an extraverted side and must spend time in both worlds to be a functional human.

  • Extraverted (E) activities include being productive or getting things done, being immersed in an experience, brainstorming and building upon ideas with others, or interacting with people.

  • Introverted (I) activities include spending time with your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, memories, and putting together patterns in your mind.

Sensing or Intuition

As a perceiving (or learning) dichotomy, this letter describes the type of information you rely upon most when learning about yourself and the world.

  • Sensing (S) information - This includes observing what’s happening in real time, what you or others experienced in the past, or what your senses tell you. Everyone, regardless of their preferred letter for this dichotomy, uses sensory information to some degree.

  • Intuition (N) information - This includes identifying patterns, overarching themes, future possibilities, running mental simulations, or having sudden insights. Everyone also has some level of ability to learn from intuitive (N) information.

Thinking or Feeling

This judging (or decision-making) dichotomy, describes the kind of information that you ultimately rely upon—and the kind of information you value most—when making decisions. All people think and feel, and all people can consider both Thinking and Feeling data.

  • Thinking (T) data includes impersonal things such as what makes logical sense to you, what’s reasonable, and what’s objectively true.

  • Feeling (F) data includes more personal things such as what you feel, what others feel, your own set of subjective values, or the values of a group of people.

Judging or Perceiving

This dichotomy indicates where you want structure and where you want freedom. However, the J/P dichotomy does not indicate whether you’re organized or messy. It also doesn’t determine if you like to live your life according to a plan or if you’d rather go with the flow. All people like some level of structure and freedom.

  • Judging (J) types have a preference for a judging function (Thinking or Feeling) that relates to outer-world structures. These types prefer to have their structure and organization in their external world and their flexibility, freedom, and spontaneity in their internal worlds. Additionally, “J” types generally put more weight on the external world’s criteria and standards for making decisions—but not always. The placement of a person’s mental functions can impact the way this looks. We’ll look at this more in the next article in this series (Article 3).

  • Perceiving (P) have a preference for a judging function (Thinking or Feeling) that relates to their own inner-world structures. These types prefer to have their structure and organization in their internal world and to have more flexibility, freedom, and spontaneity in their external world. Additionally, “P” types generally put more weight on their inner-world standards and criteria for making decisions—but not always. The placement of a person’s mental functions can impact the way this looks. We’ll look at this more in the next article in this series (Article 3).

Now that you better understand the information provided by the letters of your 16 Types personality, let’s go deeper and look at the mental (or cognitive) functions. Read Part 3 »

16 Types (Myers-Briggs)Leslie McDaniel