A fun test for those who want to engage in talking about the mystery of personality & its meaning in a fuzzy, gentle sort of way; but not accepted as reliable or useful in the field of professional psychology. For starters, see Wikipedia's article on
Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator; here is an excerpt from the beginning of the "Criticism" section of the article, which is a fairly lengthy section:
The validity (
statistical validity and
test validity) of the MBTI as a psychometric instrument has been the subject of much criticism.
It has been estimated that between a third and a half of the published material on the MBTI has been produced for the special conferences of the Center for the Application of Psychological Type (which provide the training in the MBTI, and are funded by sales of the MBTI) or as papers in the
Journal of Psychological Type(which is edited and supported by Myers–Briggs advocates and by sales of the indicator).
[41] It has been argued that this reflects a lack of critical scrutiny.
[41] Many of the studies that endorse MBTI are methodologically weak or unscientific.
[9] A 1996 review by Gardner and Martinko concluded: "It is clear that efforts to detect simplistic linkages between type preferences and managerial effectiveness have been disappointing. Indeed, given the mixed quality of research and the inconsistent findings, no definitive conclusion regarding these relationships can be drawn."
[9][42]
Psychometric specialist
Robert Hogan wrote: "Most personality psychologists regard the MBTI as little more than an elaborate Chinese fortune cookie ..."
[43]
If anyone (e.g. the OP) wants to defend this treasured chestnut, I ask that you read not just the above, but the entire section on criticisms (it goes on for quite a while) to get a feel for the depth of the problems; and also that that you rely not only on your personal experience but also on at least a bare minimum level of source (I'd consider Wikipedia close to the minimum) with cites for studies or other academic/scientific publications, as recommended by PF in the forum Global Guidelines. Yeah, this is the General Discussion forum, but this is supposedly a "psychological" test, so let's take a shot at being conscientious here.
Speaking of personal experience, here is mine: I think that last quote from Robert Hogan, above, gets it right: the test is fun for reasons similar to why fortune cookies are fun; harmless if you take the results lightly. I took it years ago, and yeah, briefly it was fun, even compelling: many of us at a certain age (I was in my 20s then) yearn for a glimpse into the mystery of our personality; we also yearn for validation, which the test provides as well since each of the various flavors (letter combinations) is described in positive terms.