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Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs

Definition

Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs were mother-daughter psychologists who developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a popular psychological tool used to measure how people perceive the world and make decisions.

Analogy

Imagine them as architects designing a house (the MBTI). Each room represents different aspects of personality; they've created this blueprint to help us understand how we live in our own 'personality houses'.

Related terms

Carl Jung: Swiss psychiatrist who inspired the work of Myers & Briggs with his theory of psychological types - essentially he laid down the foundation for their 'house'.

Cognitive Functions: Basic mental processes that Carl Jung believed were part of everyone's cognitive experience - think about these as the plumbing or electrical wiring within our 'personality house'.

Introversion/Extraversion: Key dimensions in both Jung's theory and MBTI which describe how individuals focus their attention and gain energy - these could be seen as the 'windows' in our personality house, showing whether we look more often to the outside or inside world.