Written by the creator of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator inventory, this text distinguishes four categories of personality styles and shows how these qualities determine the way people perceive the world and come to conclusions about what they've seen.
Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type
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About the Author
The late Isabel Briggs Myers devoted her life to the observation, study, and measurement of personality. With her mother, Katharine Briggs, she authored the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® personality inventory. Peter B. Myers, Ph.D., continues research work on the development and application of personality type. Former staff director of the National Academy of Science, he is currently extending the use of the MBTI® instrument worldwide.
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52 of 53 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book gives an overview of the history and theory behind the widely used Myers-Briggs personality type inventory, and briefly but thoroughly summarizes the characteristics of each personality type as well as the "groups" of related types. This is straight from the horse's mouth: Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother, Katharine Briggs, developed the inventory based on Jung's theory of psychological types, and tested it extensively before it became widely used. The book is generally well organized, easy to read, and clearly written, with occasional touches of humor. But it won't help you identify your type if you don't already know it -- I recommend Kiersey's "Please Understand Me" for that. Still, it's a good resource if you already know your type and want to find out more about it. (Incidentally, you don't have to swallow Jung's psychological theories whole in order to find the Myers-Briggs useful!)
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By T. G. Borg
Format:Paperback
For me, reading this book unlocked some of my difficult relationships in work - it helped me to identify my type out of 16 possibles (felt a shock of recognition first time of reading)) and to make a good guess at the types of friends and colleagues. This brought the insight that different people have different ways of seeing and behaving and that they are all - shock - of equal value, to be respected and nurtured.
A highly recommended book written with clarity, compassion and understanding and readily accessible whether you know about the MBTI method or not.
A highly recommended book written with clarity, compassion and understanding and readily accessible whether you know about the MBTI method or not.
75 of 82 people found the following review helpful
By Nigel Seel
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I recommend this book as the first book to read for people who need to understand what type theory is *really* about.
Many of the popular books treat type theory as a flat space of 16 static types. Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers understood and developed Jung's theoretical framework, and the dynamical theory is very clearly explained in Chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 3 outlines the original MBTI empirical research, showing the impact of type on chosen occupations - this is still striking. Part 2 of the book is a systematic examination of the four dimensions of type theory, and includes familiar portraits of the 16 types. Parts III and IV of the book are what you might call 'applications of type theory'. Other reviewers have dismissed these as an eclectic collection of dull chapters: I can only say that I found them an illuminating example of the power of type theory to shed light on many areas of life which appear at first sight to lack unifying features.
If you read this book first, it is then worth looking at David Keirsey's "Please Understand me II" for the encyclopedic number of insights he documents. Hower, with Keirsey you get the empiricist rejection of the Jungian paradigm as somehow "unscientific". (Keirsey's approach seems reminiscent of the view from physics: a computer science or AI approach has considerably fewer conceptual qualms with the kind of internal personality "architecture" presupposed by the Jungian paradigm).
Beyond Keirsey there is "Personality Type : An Owner's Manual" by Lenore Thomson. This is like the post-grad version of "Gifts Differing", and additionally includes a Jungian critique of Keirsey's work and Temperament Theory. After the obligatory low-powered introductory chapters, it's hard going, but essential.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A life changing book - amazing
This is a very easy style of writing and once you start you will finish the book. Gifts Differing will help you understand why people do what they do in a work environment, why... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Heath Leavold
4.0 out of 5 stars
A classic, scholarly guide to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator's...
Isabel Briggs Myers, who had no training as a psychologist, broke new ground when she applied Carl Gustav Jung's psychological types to healthy individuals. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Rolf Dobelli
1.0 out of 5 stars
Money grabbing fat cats
How is the eboook 9 quid??? Amazon, I already gave you lots of my money when I bought the kindle. Stop being so greedy. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Camille
5.0 out of 5 stars
All you need
This book will meet all your needs if you are seeking to learn about Personality typing. This book is a good book to have in your office drawer!
Published on 28 Nov 2010 by U. Healy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating
Fascinating, and full of "aha" moments as I read about myself, my parents and various friends, who leapt out of Myers' descriptions at me. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2010 by Miss Layton
4.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful Tool for Personal Development
While there is no definitive volume on Jungian type theory (sorry authors!) this is the place to start. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2010 by asp
4.0 out of 5 stars
for use after having discovered your type
Having ascertained your type, and more beneficial if you know types of friends, work colleagues and partner..A great insight into the workings of minds, including your own.. Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2009 by mark fitzpatrick
2.0 out of 5 stars
Big Disappointment
_Gifts Differing_ sets out to explain the theory behind the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). I was looking forward to reading this book, because I hoped that it would expand... Read more
Published on 30 July 1999
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