Over the years, the JPT-RD has included a number of research articles that incorporated the MBTI^® instrument or system into machine learning—an increasingly popular topic, and we anticipate seeing studies using AI in the near future. This year we highlight an article from An, Shin, and Lee on machine learning that did something novel: analyses of Glassdoor reviews of companies to produce an MBTI personality type of the organizations themselves.

Furnham published a few articles on the MBTI instrument last year, and we selected one that correlates MBTI results with aberrant personality traits from a large database in the UK. Not only do we highlight the interesting correlations between personality disorders and MBTI preferences, but we also offer an insight into the consideration of Jungian theories of overcompensation, type, and aberrant traits.

Gurrola offers us a master's research project on student leaders' self-awareness through the MBTI instrument and the impact on their leadership styles. Results indicate an impact we have come to expect from the MBTI instrument: positive insights and increased confidence in leadership style from awareness of one's personality type.

Hughs-Baird published a dissertation that correlates the Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children^® instrument with two additional assessments in a gifted student population. We highlight just a few significant correlations between the MMTIC^® assessment and the Overexcitabilities Questionnaire-Two (OEQ-II), an assessment measuring emotional intensity, from among a wealth of analyses in her work.

As always, we are interested in hearing from you about these articles or research you find important that is not included in this Digest. Each article summary ends with a link to reach our librarian with comments or requests for material. We hope to hear from you.

Using the MBTI^® system for personality detection from text has been popular in research for several years and covered in past issues of the Research Digest. Using a computer to analyze text from social media posts to determine a person's psychological type has been attempted using several different methods. One of those methods is known as BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), a machine learning framework for natural language processing.

In this study, An et al. used a Sentence-BERT (SBERT) algorithm to try and determine the personality type of an organization rather than an individual. The dataset used was comprised of 1,329,264 employee reviews from 1,241 companies listed on Glassdoor, a global platform that gathers reviews from users who have previously been or are currently employed with an organization. To find a company's personality type, the study analyzed the similarities between two types of SBERT vectored text: Glassdoor company reviews and descriptions of an organization's character.

The first finding was that ENTJ, ENTP, and ENFP were found to be the top three organizational personality types, with ENTJ occupying more than 34% of companies. Also, EJ and NT types of decision-making temperament were dominant. Furthermore, companies belonging to the same industry tended to have similar organizational characteristics. The authors hope to explore more companies and industries internationally in the future; a cross-cultural examination may indicate differences in culturally favored types, such as ENTJ being favored in American culture.

Because the MBTI^® instrument measures normal and healthy personality preferences, it is not typically used with pathological or clinical populations. The current study correlated MBTI preferences with aberrant traits, which are defined as subclinical traits that impair daily functioning.

The study utilized a large database (n = 8,330) from a consulting firm in the UK, where respondents took the MBTI Form G and the NEO-PI-R (which can calculate results for 10 personality disorders based on aberrant personality dimensions). Broad results indicated that a preference for Extraversion was associated with Histrionic, Paranoid, Narcissistic, Schizotypal, and Obsessive-Compulsive disorders, whereas a preference for Introversion was correlated with Schizoid and Avoidant disorders. In a regression analysis, aberrant personality dimensions accounted for a minimal amount of the variance on the preferences except for the Thinking-Feeling scale, where aberrant traits accounted for 23% of the variance in results, indicating that this preference dichotomy, and in particular the Feeling preference, was most associated with personality disorders.

The authors detail where the results of this study differ from similar studies in the past. In our review, we wondered about aberrant personality dimensions being associated with an exaggerated dominant function or with the inferior functions. That is, if we look at aberrant traits and personality disorders from a Jungian perspective as signs of lopsided, overcompensated, or shadow expressions of type, would they be more associated with an over-use of the dominant preference or an eruption of the inferior preference? Fascinating future research!

The purpose of this research study was to explore how student leaders’ self-awareness of their leadership styles changed through engaging in self-reflection. This project was a small qualitative study including 4 student participants that provided the MBTI^® instrument with feedback results and leadership. Participants completed two surveys and an interview. The research questions were: (1) What do students know about their personality and leadership style after having taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® (MBTI) instrument, and (2) Can engaging in self-reflection impact leadership?

Students shared that they learned how certain aspects of their personality dominate their lives, saw how they go about leadership in different ways, realized why they prefer to be around different people with varying traits and the value of that, rediscovered their strengths and weaknesses and why awareness and self-improvement are important, and provided insight on who they are as a leader and how it drives them.

This study showed that engaging in self-reflection can and does impact leadership. One participant stated, "I would say that I am more confident in my leadership because I know a huge part of it is my personality and I never want to change who I truly am." Another student shared, "I think that I am more observant on the leadership styles of others and how that influences the dynamic of the team." A third participant felt that participating influenced their leadership because it pointed out strengths and weaknesses. Results indicate that participants confidently articulated their leadership style, engaged in more self-reflection, increased self-awareness, and enhanced leadership development.

Historically, it has been generally accepted that students within the top 1% of general intellectual ability (GIA) have unusual academic abilities and educational needs; however, the unusual social-emotional needs of students within this group are not universally recognized or well understood. The purpose of this exploratory quantitative study was to examine the personality characteristics of elementary school students within the top 1% of GIA in relation to general education students using three personality measures.

A sample of 3rd to 5th grade students (n = 100) was split into a treatment group of gifted (top 1%) students (n = 42) and a control group of general education students in a regular class (n = 54). Data were collected using a self-report survey instrument comprised of the fourteen subscales from the Big Five Indicator for Children (BFI-C), the Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children^® (MMTIC^®) instrument, and the Overexcitabilities Questionnaire-Two (OEQ-II) personality measures.

The author notes that the Big Five assessment had typical correlations with the MMTIC assessment for the students—both groups—as the Big Five does with the MBTI^® instrument in adult populations. For our purposes here, the most interesting correlations were between the gifted students’ MMTIC results and OED results.

A preference for Intuition was highly correlated with the OEQ Imaginational Overexcitability scale, as was a preference for Feeling. These results confirm past studies of varying designs that correlate Intuition and Feeling (NF) with heightened imagination in adults. More surprising, however, from a type perspective, was a correlation on the OEQ scale Emotional with a preference for Intuition.