{{short description|American writer (1897–1980)}} {{multiple issues| {{More citations needed|date=April 2022}} {{Primary sources|date=April 2022}} }} {{use American English|date=April 2026}} {{use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Isabel Briggs Myers | image = IsabelBriggsMyers.jpg | image_size = 250px | alt = Isabel Briggs Myers, R, and Katharine Briggs, L | caption = Myers in the early 20th century | birth_name = Isabel Briggs | birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1897|10|18}} | death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1980|5|5|1897|10|18}} | known_for = Myers–Briggs Type Indicator | alma_mater = Swarthmore College (BA) | spouse = Clarence Myers | children = 2 | parents = Lyman James Briggs<br />Katharine Cook }}
'''Isabel Briggs Myers''' (born '''Isabel Briggs'''; October 18, 1897 – May 5, 1980<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.petergeyer.com.au/library/Kroeger.pdf|title=The AJPT Interview: Otto Kroeger|date=June 28, 2004|publisher=Peter Geyer|access-date=March 28, 2006|archive-date=March 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308184257/http://www.petergeyer.com.au/library/Kroeger.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/index.php?id=286|title=Global Citizens All: An Interview With Rebecca Chopp|publisher=Swarthmore College|access-date=December 5, 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081027090513/http://www.swarthmore.edu/bulletin/index.php?id=286|archive-date=October 27, 2008}}</ref>) was an American writer who co-created the pseudoscientific personality test known as the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) with her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs.<ref name= "CAPT">{{Cite web|title=The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers|url=https://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/isabel-myers.html|access-date=23 January 2023}}</ref> The MBTI is one of the most-often used personality tests worldwide; over two million people complete the questionnaire each year.<ref name= "CAPT" /> Isabel Briggs Myers typed herself as an INFP (Mediator).
== Background == Isabel Briggs Myers grew up in Washington, D.C. where she was home-schooled by her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs. Her father, Lyman James Briggs, worked as a research physicist. Briggs had little formal schooling up until she attended Swarthmore College, where she studied political science. During her time at the college she met Clarence "Chief" Gates Myers who was studying law. The two married in 1918 and were together until his death in 1980.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/isabel-myers.htm|title=The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers - CAPT.org|website=www.capt.org|access-date=February 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121092259/https://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/isabel-myers.htm|archive-date=January 21, 2018}}</ref> When Briggs Myers died in 1980 she left the copyright to the MBTI (which was little known at the time) to her son Peter.<ref>[https://eu.themyersbriggs.com/en/About/News/1802-Peter-Briggs-Myers-obituary Obituary on the Meyers-Briggs Company website]</ref>
==Fiction== In August 1928, she participated in a mystery novel writing contest jointly offered by ''McClure's'' magazine and Frederick A. Stokes Company. Her novel ''Murder Yet to Come'' won the contest and was published periodically in the monthly magazine ''The Smart Set'' (which had absorbed ''McClure's'' in March 1929) between August 1929 and January 1930. It was later published in book form by Frederick A. Stokes Company on January 2, 1930.<ref name="Diebel">Diebel, Anne (December 20, 2018). "Simple Answers to Profound Questions". ''The New York Review of Books''. '''65''' (20): 57–59.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=McClure's magazine v.61 no.2 Aug. 1928. |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uva.x030751674?urlappend=%3Bseq=1 |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=HathiTrust | hdl=2027/uva.x030751674?urlappend=%3Bseq=1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=12 August 1928 |title=Books and Authors |page=5 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/08/12/archives/books-and-authors.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftimesmachine.content-tagging.us-east-1-01.prd.dvsp.nyt.net%2Ftimesmachine%2F1928%2F08%2F12%2F118341647.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Myer |first=Isabel Briggs |title=Murder Yet to Come |publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Company |year=1930|oclc=001746769 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Norris |first=J. F. |date=2012-12-01 |title=Pretty Sinister Books: The Enigma of the New McClure's Mystery Contest |url=https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-enigma-of-new-mcclures-mystery.html |access-date=2023-09-23 |website=Pretty Sinister Books}}</ref><ref>The Smart Set Magazine, [https://archive.org/details/pub_smart-set?query=1929&and%5B%5D=year%3A%221929%22 August 1929 - January 1930]</ref>
The contest prize included a $7,500 ({{Inflation|index=US|value=7500|start_year=1928|r=-3|fmt=eq}}) cash award and a contract for a second work of fiction. Briggs Myers fulfilled her obligation by writing the novel ''Give Me Death'', which revisits the same detectives from ''Murder Yet to Come''. In it, a Southern family commits suicide one by one after learning they may have "Negro blood".<ref name="Give Me Death">{{cite book|title=Murder Yet to Come |publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Company, Inc.|oclc=7621206 }}</ref><ref name="Uncovering The Secret History of Myers-Briggs">{{cite web |url=http://digg.com/2015/myers-briggs-secret-history |title=Uncovering The Secret History of Myers-Briggs |access-date=April 4, 2012}}</ref> The novel was published in 1934 and received harsh treatment from critics.<ref name="Diebel"/>
==MBTI personality indicator== {{main|Myers–Briggs Type Indicator}} As WWII broke out, Briggs Myers read an article titled "Fitting the Worker to the Job" and she recognized a need for a "people sorting instrument", especially as US involvement in the war in Europe seemed more likely. She wrote her epiphany in a letter to her mother, who was a staunch Carl Jung enthusiast.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rifkin|first1=Glenn|last2=Carey|first2=Benedict|title=Overlooked No More:Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers, Creators of a Personality Test|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/obituaries/katharine-briggs-and-isabel-myers-overlooked.html|date=14 October 2022|access-date=23 January 2023|website=New York Times}}</ref> Briggs Myers implemented the ideas of Carl Jung and added her own insights. She then created a paper survey which would eventually become the MBTI. The test was to assess personality type and was fully developed after 20 years of research by Briggs Myers with her mother. The three original pairs of preferences in Jung's typology are Extraversion and Introversion, Sensation and Intuition, and Thinking and Feeling. After studying them, Briggs Myers added a fourth pair, Judging and Perceiving.<ref>{{cite web|title=Judging or Perceiving|url=http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/judging-or-perceiving.asp|work=The Myers & Briggs Foundation|access-date=February 19, 2012|archive-date=September 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903204309/http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/judging-or-perceiving.asp}}</ref><ref name="CAPT" /> Isabel Briggs Myers typed herself as an INFP (Mediator) personality and was an explorer of the concept of introversion and extraversion.
In the July 1980 edition of ''MBTI News'', Briggs Myers attributed another reason for creating the MBTI to her marriage to Clarence Myers. Their differences in perceived psychological types inspired her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, to keep studying differences among people and their actions. Her mother had come upon the work of Carl Gustav Jung and introduced it to her daughter who then started studying the psychological types.
In 1945, the dean of the George Washington School of Medicine allowed Briggs Myers and her mother to apply the MBTI to first-year undergraduates. This included about 5,500 students and Briggs Myers studied it for years by looking at patterns among dropouts and successful students.<ref name="The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers">{{cite web|title=The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers|url=http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/isabel-myers.htm|work=Center of Applications of Psychological Type|publisher=Center of Applications of Psychological Type, Inc.|access-date=February 19, 2012}}</ref>
In 1975, Briggs Myers co-founded the Center for Application of Psychological Type with Mary McCaulley. CAPT is a non-profit organization run by the Myers & Briggs Foundation, which maintains research and application of the MBTI, also existing to protect and promote Briggs Myers' ideology.<ref name="Isabel">{{cite web |title=Isabel Briggs Myers and Her Mother, Katharine Cook Briggs |url=http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/isabel-briggs-myers.asp |access-date=February 19, 2012 |work=The Myers & Briggs Foundation }}</ref> Its headquarters are in Gainesville, Florida, and its motto is "Fostering human understanding through training, publishing, and research".<ref name="The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers"/>
{{As of|2022}}, according to the Myers & Briggs Foundation, "research on the MBTI instrument has continued into the present, with dozens of articles published each year."<ref name="Isabel" /> The Isabel Briggs Myers Memorial Research Awards exist to further MBTI and psychological research. These awards are given twice a year, consisting of $2,000 for up to two people.<ref name="Memorial Research Awards">{{cite web|title=Memorial Research Awards|url=http://www.myersbriggs.org/myers-and-briggs-foundation/memorial-research-awards/|work=The Myers & Briggs Foundation|access-date=February 19, 2012|archive-date=March 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170320105554/http://www.myersbriggs.org/myers-and-briggs-foundation/memorial-research-awards/}}</ref> Most of the research supporting the MBTI's validity has been produced by CAPT and published in the center's own journal, the ''Journal of Psychological Type'', raising questions of independence, bias, and conflict of interest.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Science and pseudoscience in clinical psychology |date=2015 |editor=Scott O. Lilienfeld |editor2=Steven J. Lynn |editor3=Jeffrey M. Lohr |isbn=978-1-4625-1751-0 |edition=Second |location=New York |oclc=890851087}}</ref>
{{As of|2022}}, although the MBTI is widely used by businesses, coaches and psychologists, the MBTI has been found to have significant validity issues,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stein |first1=Randy |last2=Swan |first2=Alexander B. |date=2019-01-25 |title=Evaluating the validity of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator theory: A teaching tool and window into intuitive psychology |journal=Social and Personality Psychology Compass |volume=13 |issue=2 |article-number=e12434 |doi=10.1111/spc3.12434 |s2cid=150132771 |issn=1751-9004}}</ref> and is not widely endorsed by academic researchers in psychology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bailey |first1=Richard P. |last2=Madigan |first2=Daniel J. |last3=Cope |first3=Ed |last4=Nicholls |first4=Adam R. |date=2018 |title=The Prevalence of Pseudoscientific Ideas and Neuromyths Among Sports Coaches |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |volume=9 |page=641 |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00641 |issn=1664-1078 |pmc=5941987 |pmid=29770115|doi-access=free }}</ref>
==Publications== * Myers, I. (1980, 1995) ''Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type''. Davies-Black Publishing, U.S. {{ISBN|0-89106-074-X}} ** ''Gifts Differing'' is written by Isabel with her son, Peter Briggs Myers. It is about human personality and how it affects several aspects of life such as career, marriage, and meaning of life. It speaks about all sixteen personality types.<ref name="Rev. of Gifts Differing: Understand Personality Type, by Isabel Briggs Myers">{{cite web|title=Rev. of Gifts Differing: Understand Personality Type, by Isabel Briggs Myers|url=http://innovationwatch.com/gifts-differing-understanding-personality-type-by-isabel-briggs-myers-and-peter-b-myers-cpp-books/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116234221/http://innovationwatch.com/gifts-differing-understanding-personality-type-by-isabel-briggs-myers-and-peter-b-myers-cpp-books/|archive-date=November 16, 2012|work=Innovation Watch|access-date=February 19, 2012}}</ref> * Myers, I. (1990) ''Introduction to Type: A Description of the Theory and Applications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator''. Center for Applications of Psychological Type Inc. {{ISBN|0-935652-06-X}} * Myers, I. and McCaulley, M. (1985) ''Manual: A Guide to the Development and Use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator''. Consulting Psychologists Press. {{ISBN|0-89106-027-8}}
==Further reading== Saunders, F. W. (1991), ''Katharine and Isabel: Mother's Light, Daughter's Journey'', Davies-Black Publishing, U.S. {{ISBN|0-89106-049-9}} (biography of Briggs Myers and her mother)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/isabel-briggs-myers.asp Profiles of Briggs Myers and her mother on the Myers & Briggs Foundation website] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120123194326/http://www.personalitydesk.com/story/story-of-mbti-briggs-myers-biography "The Remarkable Story of the MBTI: How Two Unlikely Theorists Created the World's Most Popular Personality Test"] * [http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/isabel-myers.htm "The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers" on the Center for Applications of Psychological Type website] * [http://www.personalitydesk.com/personality-types Myers Briggs 16 Personality Types Profiles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520081002/http://www.personalitydesk.com/personality-types |date=2022-05-20 }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Myers, Isabel Briggs}} Category:1897 births Category:1980 deaths Category:American mystery novelists Category:Swarthmore College alumni Category:Personality typologies Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:American women mystery writers