Research & White Papers
The goal of Research is to keep The Myers-Briggs Company at the leading edge in providing instrument products and solutions. We do this by collaborating with publishing to develop instruments that meet the highest professional standards of accuracy and utility and by leading the development of instruments and services that address the needs of our customers.
When it comes to making a choice for an instrument, you want to know that it is reliable and valid and backed by volumes of data. The Myers-Briggs Company wants to help make this choice as easy as possible for you.
Whether you are currently using these instruments or want to add one to your portfolio, here you will find all the information you need.
The Myers-Briggs Company’s Research offers:
- Easy-to-access reliability and validity data for each of our instruments
- White Papers presenting best practices when using an instrument within certain applications
- Groundbreaking research reports from The Myers-Briggs Company’s research team
- Updated supplemental data on norms based on demographic data to stay current within the general population
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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) instrument is the best-known and most trusted personality assessment tool available today. As many as 1.5 million assessments are administered annually to individuals. The assessment is used 115 countries and is available in 29 languages. 88 of the Fortune 100 have used the MBTI® assessment within the past 5 years.
The MBTI® instrument has been revised several times since it first appeared in 1942. New item formats and scoring methods were developed and tested first by Isabel Myers and later by professional psychometricians, with each revision leading to technical improvements over the previous form. The most recent forms are Form M and Form Q, both of which use item response theory (IRT)-based scoring and item selection. Validity of both Form M and Form Q has been examined through behavioural observations, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, correlations with related measures, and even brain scans.
The research below supports the reliability and validity of the MBTI® instrument, as well as best practices and industry trends when applying the assessment results in different settings. You will also find information on ways to pair the instrument with other assessments for maximum effectiveness.
MBTI® Global Manual Supplements
- Australia (North American English) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Canada (Canadian French) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Canada (North American English) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- China (Simplified Chinese) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- China (Traditional Chinese) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- France (French) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Germany (German) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Ireland (European English) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Japan(Japanese) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Korea (Korean) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Mexico (Latin American Spanish) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Russia (Russian) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- South Africa (Afrikaans) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- South Africa (North American English) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- Spain (European Spanish) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- United Kingdom (European English) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- United States (North American English) Supplement to the MBTI® Manual for the Global Step I™ and Step II™ Assessments
- LGBTQ Population Sample Technical Brief for the MBTI® Global Step I™ Assessment
Reliability and Validity
- History, Reliability, and Validity of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® Instrument
- MBTI® Form M Manual Supplement
- MBTI® Step II™ Manual Supplement
- MBTI® Step I™ European Data Supplement
- MBTI® Step II™ European Data Supplement
- MBTI® Step I™ Data Supplement - French
- MBTI® Step I™ Data Supplement - German
- MBTI® Step I™ European Data Supplement - Polish
- MBTI® Step I™ Form M Measurement Properties in Indian Samples
- MBTI® European Step II™ Type Summary - Switzerland
- Technical Brief for the MBTI® Form M and Form Q Assessments - Australia
- Technical Brief for the MBTI® Form M and Form Q Assessments - New Zealand
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q - Afrikaans
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M - Arabic
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M - Bahasa Indonesia
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q - Brazilian Portuguese
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q - Hebrew
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q Assessments - India
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q - Korean
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M - Latin and North American Spanish
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M and Form Q Assessments - Malaysia
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M Assessment - Mongolia
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q Assessments - Philippines
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q - Simplified Chinese
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M and Form Q Assessments - Singapore
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q Assessments - Thai
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M - Thai
- Technical Brief: MBTI® Form M & Q - Traditional Chinese
- Technical Brief: MBTI® European Step I™ and Step II™ - Turkish
- Technical Brief for Updated MBTI® Career Report
Research and White Papers
- Type and Entrepreneurship: A research study from OPP
- Myers-Briggs® Type and Social Media Report
- The Myers-Briggs Company Global Human Capital Report: Workplace Conflict and How Businesses Can Harness It to Thrive
- The Myers-Briggs Company Global Human Capital Report: Workforce and Succession Management in a Changing World
- Applying the Psychology of Personality Type to Enhance Workplace Safety
- Indicators of Stress for Top Professions
- Coaching Transformational Leaders with the Myers-Briggs® Assessment
- Talent Assessment Strategies - A Decision Guide for Organizational Performance
- Well-being and MBTI® Personality Type in the Workplace: An International Comparison
- Well-being in the Workplace: Why it matters for organizational performance and how to improve it
- Type and the gig economy: A research study from The Myers-Briggs Company
- Type and the 'always-on' culture: A research study from The Myers-Briggs Company
- Personality and self-awareness: A research study from The Myers-Briggs Company
- Type and email communication: A research study from The Myers-Briggs Company
- Type and work environment: A research study from The Myers-Briggs Company
- Type and cyber-security: A research study from The Myers-Briggs Company
- How personality influences virtual teamwork: A research study from The Myers-Briggs Company
- Psychology of Change in the Hybrid Workplace
- Remote and hybrid working: A research report from The Myers-Briggs Company
- Psychology of Conflict in the Workplace
- Conflict at Work Research
- Inclusion Delusion Report
- Type, Teams and Team Performance Research Report
- Psychology of Teams eBook
- MBTI type and neurodiversity research
Use with Guides: Pairing the MBTI® Instrument
- Using FIRO Business® in Key Business Applications and with the MBTI® Instrument
- Using the CPI 260® Instrument with the MBTI® Assessment
- Using the MBTI® Instrument with the Strong Interest Inventory® Assessment
- Using the TKI® Assessment with the MBTI® Instrument
- Using the Myers-Briggs® Instrument with the Bar-On EQ-i® Instrument
- Using the Myers-Briggs® Instrument with the Blanchard’s Situational Leadership® II Assessment
- Using the Myers-Briggs® Instrument with the Gallup StrengthsFinder 2.0 Instrument
- Using the Myers-Briggs® Instrument with Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team Model
- Using the Myers-Briggs® Instrument with the Lominger Book You: Being More Effective in Your MBTI® Type
- Using the Myers-Briggs® Instrument with LPI®
- Using the Myers-Briggs® Instrument with the DiSC® Instrument
- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and Everything DiSC® Assessments Comparison Guide
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Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation®
The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior™ (FIRO-B®) instrument was created by William Schutz, Ph.D. Schutz developed the FIRO-B® theory to aid in the understanding and predicting of how high-performance military teams would work together.
Schutz began with the premise that “people need people,” and used the term interpersonal to indicate any interaction, real or imagined, occurring between people.
The current norm sample for the FIRO-B® instrument includes a U.S. national sample of 3,091 individuals who took the assessments in 1997 (Hammer & Schnell, 2000). In examining the internal consistency reliability of each measure for the national sample, results indicate that reliability coefficients for all measures are good, ranging from .85 to .96. Test-retest reliability coefficients also demonstrate good reliability – ranging from .71 to .85 – for three different samples reported in the FIRO-B® Technical Guide (Hammer & Schnell, 2000).
Research results also support the validity of the instrument. A number of studies have shown the FIRO-B® instrument to be related to measures of leadership, personal value and relationships/friendships. Additionally, relationships are also found with instruments such as the MBTI® Form M instrument and the CPI™ instrument (Hammer & Schnell, 2000).
The FIRO-B® Technical Guide provides the FIRO-B® practitioner with current information on the theory, construction, interpretation, research, statistical underpinnings and uses of this widely used instrument. Below you will find the research to further support the reliability and validity of the FIRO® tools, as well as best practices and industry trends when using and applying the assessment results in different settings. You will also find information on ways to pair the instrument with other instruments for maximum effectiveness.
Reliability and Validity
Product Research Reports
Use with Guides: Pairing the FIRO® Instrument
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Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI®) has been used for 40 years and is the leading measure of conflict-handling behaviour. In 2002, the TKI® instrument became available online using The Myers-Briggs Company’s online assessment delivery system. With online administrations, data are collected as part of The Myers-Briggs Company’s ongoing commercial operations.
Over time, these operations created a large archive of completed TKI® assessments, as well as a vast pool of participants from which a large representative norm sample could be developed. This has made it possible for The Myers-Briggs Company’s Research Division to develop updated norms for the instrument to use as the basis for scoring and determining results.
The updated norms, developed in 2007, were based on a sample of 4,000 men and 4,000 women, ages 20 through 70, who were employed full-time in the United States at the time they completed the assessment. Data were drawn from a database of 59,000 cases collected between 2002 and 2005 and were sampled to ensure representative numbers of people by organisational level and race/ethnicity.
Below you will find the research to support the reliability and validity of the TKI® tool, as well as best practices and industry trends when applying the assessment results in different settings. You will also find information on ways to pair the instrument with other instruments for maximum effectiveness.
Reliability and Validity
Product Research Reports
White Papers
Use with Guides: Pairing the TKI® Instrument
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California Psychological Inventory™
The goal of the CPI 260® instrument, which is derived from the full 434-item California Psychological Inventory™ (CPI™) instrument, is to give a true-to-life description of the respondent in clear, everyday language (Gough & Bradley, 2005).
The scales of the CPI 260® instrument were developed empirically - that is, scale items were selected on the basis of associations with external or non-test specifications of the attribute to be assessed. This method emphasises validity over reliability and was used to design scales capable of predicting important criteria such as managerial performance and an employee’s dependability.
As discussed in the manuals for the 434-item inventory (Gough & Bradley, 2002; Gough & Cook, 1996), abundant empirical theoretical source material exists for the CPI® instrument, which enjoys more than 55 years of usage, translations and study in more than 40 languages and a bibliography of approximately 2,000 titles.
The CPI™ Manual reports internal consistency (alpha) coefficients for the CPI™ assessment scales based on a random sample of 3,000 males and 3,000 females ranging from .36 to .86 with a median of .75. Test-retest correlations for high school students over a one-year interval range from .51 to .73 with a median of .66. Test-retest correlations for adults over a 10-year interval range from .49 to .85 with a median of .77. The CPI 260® Manual is a technical product that offers a clear view into the construction and interpretation of the CPI 260® instrument.
The research below further supports the reliability and validity of the CPI 260® instrument, as well as best practices and industry trends when applying the assessment results in different settings. You will also find information on ways to pair the instrument with other assessments for maximum effectiveness.
Reliability and Validity
- CPI 260® History, Reliability, and Validity
- CPI 260® Technical Brief
- CPI 260® International Technical Brief
- CPI 260® in India Technical Brief
- CPI 260® Validity: Comparing Leaders in Three Countries
- CPI Comprehensive Bibliography
- Evidence of Factorial Similarity Across Cultures Using the CPI 260® Assessment
- CPI 260® US Workforce Norms
Product Research Reports
- The Myers-Briggs Company Global Human Capital Report: Workforce and Succession Management in a Changing World
- The CPI 260® Coaching Report for Leaders: Strengths and Developmental Opportunities
- Personality Profiles of North American Professional Football Players
- Gender and Ethnic Differences on CPI™ 434 Scales
- Comparing the CPI 260® Instrument to the Benchmarks® Scales: An Initial Validity Study
- Persistent Personality Differences on the CPI™?
White Papers
Use with Guides: Pairing the CPI™ Instrument
- Using the CPI 260® Instrument with the Bar-On EQ-i® Assessment
- Using the CPI 260® Instrument with the Watson-Glaser™ II Critical Thinking Appraisal
- Using the CPI 260® Instrument with the Wesman Personnel Classification Test
- Using the TKI Assessment with the CPI 260® Instrument
- Using the CPI 260® Instrument with the MBTI® Assessment
- Using the CPI 260® Instrument with the Strong Interest Inventory® Assessment
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Strong Interest Inventory®
The Strong Interest Inventory® (Strong) instrument measures career and leisure interests. It is based on the work of E. K. Strong Jr., who originally published his inventory on the measurement of interests in 1927. The instrument is often used to aid people in making educational and career decisions.
The current General Representative Sample (GRS) for the Strong consists of 2,250 individuals (50% men, 50% women) and is representative of the gender, racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. workforce (Donnay, Morris, Schaubhut & Thompson, 2005). All scales are measured using the GRS, except the Occupational Scales (OS).
Internal consistency reliabilities of all scales are high. General Occupational Theme (GOT) reliabilities range from .90 to .95, Business Interest Scales (BISs) from .80 to .92 and Personal Style Scales (PSSs) from .82 to .87. Internal consistency reliability is not appropriate for the OSs because the scales contain items with heterogeneous content and are empirically derived.
The Strong Interest Inventory® Manual is the most comprehensive guide to administering the Strong instrument and features information on the tool’s reliability and validity, detailed descriptions of the scales and O*Net™ codes. Below you will find the research to further support the reliability and validity of the Strong instrument, as well as best practices and industry trends when applying the assessment results in different settings. You will also find information on ways to pair the instrument with other instruments for maximum effectiveness.
Reliability and Validity
- Validity of the Strong Interest Inventory®
- Strong Interest Inventory® Manual Supplement
- Strong Technical Brief
- Strong International Technical Brief
- Strong Technical Brief - Australia
- Strong Technical Brief - Singapore
- Technical Brief for the Strong Interest Inventory® Assessment - Simplified Chinese
- Validity of 2004 Strong Interest Inventory®: Gender and Ethnicity Effects
- Revised Strong Interest Inventory® Assessment: Content, Reliability, and Validity
Product Research Reports
White Papers
- Vocational Interests in the United States: Sex, Age, Ethnicity, and Year Effects – published in The Journal of Counseling Psychology and based on a sample of 1.2 million US residents
- Selecting Career Assessments
Use with Guides: Pairing the Strong Instrument
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