Introduction The Types The Test Statistics

One of Jung's singificant contributions was the definition of psychological types, a way of determining how a person views and deals with the world. The same dream, or same set of symptoms, might affect different types of person in quite different ways. By determining what type of person you're dealing with, then, it follows that they can be more effectively treated.

This intrigued me. As a roleplayer I've always been interested in systems that attempt to mimic or model real life. But all the game systems I used fell down in one area or another; could one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis do any better?

Simply put, yes. Back at the beginning of my flirtation with C.G, I was sceptical. Like most fairly free thinking people, I object on principle to being pigeon-holed. But as I read a bit more, it seemed to make sense. You really can determine whether a person is extraverted or introverted quite easily. And knowing that does help you deal with them effectively and cooperatively. It also helps you to develop the areas in which you are weakest.

So What Are The Types?

Jung described four areas, in which there were two opposing types of person. Of course, this is a simplification of the real world, where people exist along a sliding scale between these arbitrary extremes. But it is possible to identify the major traits using this system, and apply any modifications afterwards.

First and most important is the attitude with which the person apprehends the world. This can outward- or inward-looking, and Jung classified people with these traits as extraverts or introverts respectively.

Next is how the person gets their information about the world. Here the possibilities are by intuition or by sensing - either internally or externally.

How does the person process this information? They can either think about it, or they can get a feeling for the data.

Finally the person must have a means of assessing the value of the information she has received. This may be by perception or judgement - weighing the data against itself or against internal ideals.

Having made these four tests, the results can be combined into sixteen different combinations - a sort of psychological tetragrammaton - which goes some way to describing the general type of person we are dealing with.

Finding Out What Type You Are

But how do you determine what type of person you are? Well, some things are pretty obvious - the "life of the party" is usually an extravert; people who get a lot of hunches are intuitive, and so on. A number of tests exist to determine the type of a person; these are basically extended question-and-answer sessions. While nowhere neat as reliable as a psychoanalyst, they do offer some guide.

The test I favour is this one, which is quick, straightforward and seems pretty accurate. It is part of the Online Psych> website (a splendid resource - check out their other mind games pages). The test only takes about twenty minutes to complete.

By the way, if you enter nothing on the test - absolutely nothing at all, you come out as type ESTJ, "The Administrator." Sound like your boss?

Psychological Pstatistics

All things being equal, the population should contain just over 6% of each type. But all things aren't equal, and wouldn't be interesting if they were. This is where I get all interactive. What I want you to do is do the test and report your findings to me. As results come in, I'll build up some statistics and we can see just what kind of folks you really are.

In addition to your type (as reported by the test) there are a few other things I'd like to know. Are you male or female? Did you think the test gave an accurate result? What kind of things do you do - especially if you're an IT or occult person? Are you particularly "green"?

All the details will be stashed away offline and only the statistics will be published. Let's see if all wiccans are intuitive, or all IT people thinkers. Is there a gender split between extraverts and introverts? Here's how to find out!

Results So Far: Well, I've only just got this page up so I don't have a huge body of results, but hopefully soon I'll have enough to draw some conclusions. Until then I'll track the distribution of types that are reported to me in this chart. Watch this space!