Swiss 16 PT Personality Test

4 Dimensions of Personality

Swiss 16 PT Personality Test is based upon the work of Carl Gustav Jung as extended by Isabel Briggs-Myers and Katharine Myers. According to their theory of personality, we can define personality according to four dimensions. Each dimension has two opposing extremes.

In terms of the four dimensions this means:

• Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)
• Sensing (S) vs. iNtuition (N)
• Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)

The “Extroversion-Introversion” dimension describes what you primarily focus on: You either focus primarily on external or internal events.

Sensing (S) vs. iNtuition (N)

The “Sensing-Intuition” dimension describes the way you take in information: You either rely on pure present facts or you take information from patterns, big pictures and ideas.

Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)

The “Thinking-Feeling” dimension describes the way you make decisions: You either make decisions based primarily on logic and objective analysis or you make decisions based primarily on your subjective evaluation, values and feelings.

Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

The “Judging-Perceiving” dimension describes your need for certainty and final evaluation: You either prefer certainty and quickly categorizing things or you prefer adventure and leaving things open.

Growing your Strengths & Lessening your Weaknesses

Inherent strengths and weaknesses are associated with each personality type. When you know your personality type, you can take advantage of these inherent strengths and downplay the inherent weaknesses. In addition, you can use this knowledge when selecting a career or partner.

Anticipating Challenges

When you know your personality type, you can prepare for the challenges of life. You can learn to modify your natural behavior when the situation dictates a more appropriate and effective response. For example, if you are a "thinking" person and the situation calls for you to comfort a friend who has lost a parent, you should recognize that you need to show "feeling" rather than merely apply logic. Likewise, if you are a "feeling" person and the situation calls for you to make an important financial decision, you should recognize that you need to use your "thinking" skills rather than relying solely upon your intuition.

You should never fall into the trap of justifying inappropriate behavior because of your personality type. If you are introverted, you should challenge yourself to interact with others rather than rudely avoiding them. And, if you are extroverted, you should challenge yourself to let others speak rather than dominating a conversation.

Also, challenges lessen when you know and understand the personality type of others, their strengths and weaknesses. For example, if you know a person of type ESFJ (caregiver), you can conclude that you can deal best with that person by complimenting rather than criticizing.

Selecting Tasks, Career and Partners

When you know your personality type, you are more likely to choose actions, a career and a partner that are best suited to your personality.

For example, if you starting a company and you are social (extroverted) and adventurous (perceiving), you might look for a partner who has a structured (judging) personality. Whether your partner is extroverted or introverted is not as important as having a counter-balance or complementary personality to your adventurous side.

Be aware, however, that a complementary but opposite personality type can pose challenges as opposite personality types may have difficulties in communicating and understanding one another.