Taiwanese author advocates MBTI as practical tool in new book

台灣作家在新書中提倡MBTI作為實用工具

Consultant engages high school student to write book on personality indicators for youth


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In her latest book, “Why Am I Like This?” (我為何會這樣？), psychologist and consultant Wang Kai-lin (王凱琳) promoted Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a practical tool for career development.

Wang wrote in the book that since the book is intended for adolescents, her goal is to inspire them to begin exploring their own personalities as they enter an age where many things may seem uncertain or confusing. By getting to know their preferences and thought processes, adolescents can build confidence in themselves and avoid the dilemma of comparing themselves with others.

In an exclusive interview, Wang told Taiwan News that MBTI “can effectively guide a person’s career choice by understanding one’s cognitive preferences,” which is useful for teenagers to decide what to study in university and what would give them the best chance of long-term success. This is especially important in Taiwan because most students are accustomed to following fixed rules and expectations as they prepare for higher education and their career.

“This usually results in either a waste of time and energy in their education or unhappiness or hard-to-resolve mental stress in their future career,” said Wang.

“Parents must keep in mind that, yes, you can advise them with your life experience, you can coach them to maneuver the path more smoothly, but you cannot change who they are.” She added, “Parents in Asian culture need to learn to respect their children and treat them as individuals who have their own thoughts and might be very different from their parents. They are not the parents’ assets.”

Sophie Chiang (蔣光妍), Wang’s mentee who is currently in high school who also contributed to writing the book, said after learning about the various personality typological methods, she was drawn to MBTI in particular due to its relative complexity and focus on cognitive analysis. While other personality analyses are centered around behavior, Chiang said, “Cognition and behavior aren’t always consistent.”

Chiang said she was exposed to MBTI in her childhood because her mother, who owns a business, uses it as an assessment tool when hiring or assigning tasks. She has also explored different personality typologies such as HEXACO and conducted research under Wang’s mentorship on the correlation between names and personality types, coming to the conclusion that a person’s name affects his or her self-concept and personality while growing up.

MBTI was a major factor that helped Chiang realize what career type suited her. Initially, she had been interested in a career as a cardiovascular surgeon, but through MBTI, she realized that she might not enjoy the lifestyle that came with it, such as having to do repetitive work for long hours without human interaction.

“As a student, as a teenager, I’m still figuring out my place in the world and how other people work. I think MBTI has given me a head start on that. I think I understand myself a lot better than a lot of my peers (understand themselves),” Chiang said. “It really is a lot of self-discovery and exploration.”