As I’ve said in a previous post, I’m a great fan of MBTI and have used it extensively with individuals, teams and in development programmes. One of the challenges I have most frequently heard from sceptics is along the lines of: “understanding personality types is all very well but unless someone tells you what theirs is, or we all wear a badge with ours on, what practical use is it?”
Part of my stock answer is that you don’t need to know someone else’s ‘type’ to use MBTI to influence more effectively or build better relationships. If what you’re doing isn’t working, make some assumptions about how their type might differ from yours and try another approach. If you’ve been giving lots of detail and they seem to glaze over, see if starting with the ‘big picture’ headlines gets them more interested. If you’ve bombarded them with a host of brilliant, logical reasons why your solution is best, and they still don’t get it, ask how they feel about it and try to find out about, and connect with, their values. You don’t need to know whether they’re Sensing (S) or Intuitive (N), Thinking (T) or Feeling (F), just that you need to try a different approach (after all, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got“).
But you can also pick up clues if you observe and listen carefully. In fact with some people (mostly Extroverts of course) you don’t even have to listen that carefully. As well as being a great fan of MBTI, I’m a great fan of Doctor Who. Not a nerdy, techie, go to conventions dressed as Colin Baker type of fan, I hasten to add (with due apologies to any nerdy, techie convention-goers), I just think it’s brilliant television. So I’ll use his current incarnation, as played by Matt Smith, to illustrate the point.
Whether the Doctor is an Extrovert (E) or Introvert (I) is easy enough. He tends to speak or act first then (maybe) reflect, he thinks out loud all the time and clearly draws energy from those around him (although not in the literal way some of his adversaries might). Take this exchange from episode 5 (‘Flesh and Stone’):
Father Octavian: “Doctor, we’re too exposed here. We have to move on.”
Doctor: “We’re too exposed everywhere and Amy can’t move and anyway that’s not the plan.”
River Song: “There’s a plan?”
Doctor: “I don’t know yet, I haven’t finished talking”.
Of course, the Doctor doesn’t really do plans. Flexibility, spontaneity and adaptability are more his things. He does his best work to tight deadlines and under last minute pressure. Undoubtedly Perceiving (P) not Judging (J) then – and only a ‘P’ could have such an elastic grasp of the concept of time.
What about Sensing or Intuitive? I would say he’s very much a ‘big picture’ person (ok, Time Lord). Great at making connections and seeing possibilities but not always entirely practical, down to earth and grounded in reality (let’s face it, he is fictional). Definitely bored by detail, too. So we have E, N and P but what about Thinking or Feeling?
The Doctor can certainly do reason, logic and analysis – but MBTI is about preference not capability. What is his preferred basis for making decisions? Does the Doctor prefer to decide with the head or the heart? Well, his sentimental devotion to a small, insignificant planet and, for all their flaws, to the ‘human race’ that lives there, gives me a clue. I would also say that his decisions are often ‘values driven’ – and if you offend those values you’re in trouble. In episode 6 (‘the Virgins of Venice’) he tells Rosanna Calvierri, Queen of the Saturnyrians (or ‘big fish from space’), ‘I’m going to tear down the house of Calvierri stone by stone’. The specific reason for his anger? She didn’t know the name of the girl she had just executed. Anyway, he’s a Time Lord. One head, two hearts. I rest my case. So I have the Doctor down as ENFP. Now, what about the Daleks?
Not everyone gives as many clues as the Doctor – and complex though his character is, real people are rather more complex than a fictional Time Lord, no matter how well scripted and acted the series may be. But if you’re not quite connecting with someone, and you’re armed with good listening skills and a reasonable understanding of MBTI, you should be able to pick up clues about how their type might differ from yours. You can then test these assumptions by adapting your style a little to see if that makes a big difference to how you connect with them.
Really nice way of illustrating MBTI Tony. I suspect the Doctor would have something to say about your analysis, if not the tool itself! By the way, quoting from specific episodes and the precise naming of characters does tend towards the nerdie …. be careful to stay on the right side of the line. Not say that there’s anything wrong with being the other side of the line of course ………..
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MBTI is a great tool, and nice analysis.
The Doctor was not the focus of your article…he was an example, but I am a bit confused and would like to take a sideline.Doesn’t the doctor’s personality change somewhat after every re generation? His altruistic essence is constant, but the MBTI is about personality: that part of the psyche that bridges a person with his environment. Every and any type can be altruistic.
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I think that the Doctor is actually some kind of balance of T and F, an ENxP. it seems to me like he keeps switching between Fi and Ti as his auxiliary function: as if many times, when he goes into situations, he starts off with the Ti, the strong and constant drive to analyze and understand the situation, and then something pops up to spark his Fi (strongly held personal values and raw emotion? check), which drives him for the remainder of the time (although he is still very logical in his problem-solving). I originally thought he was an ENTP, because he usually reacts first as a T (and I, as an INFP, usually react to things first as an F), and maybe that was me confusing T analytical behavior with his dominant Ne desire to understand. I still find it hard to believe that he’s mostly F, and if anybody would be both T and F it would be him. the “ongoing analysis” of Ti just sounds so much like him.
Being both a Time Lord and (dare I say it?) fictional, perhaps the Doctor isn’t bound by the ‘rules’ of Jungian type theory and MBTI so that he can, indeed, hold both the T and F preferences together. However, regardless of our preference we all use both Thinking and Feeling so another explanation might be that his initial T reaction reflects learned behaviour consistent with the expectations of his job description (and deeply ingrained over many millenia) whilst he has also forced himself to hide or bury some of the emotional traits consistent with his F preference.
And he has two hearts.
Either way, thanks for an excellent comment/analysis.
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i don’t think the doctor is extroverted at all. he broods and rejects companionship or of anyone getting too close at times. he has a few very good friends throughout all time and space. He is secretive about his own identity and past, extroverts are rather open about themselves and their past, introverts – only with a few (only River knows his name). when things go wrong he is very hard on himself. some introverted types talk out loud to get in touch with their logic better or to fuel the creative process (INFPs are notorious for this – extroverted thinking). While he is adventurous, he does have a hard time with some changes, particularly good-byes.
This seems to be the common consensus of the Myer Briggs type of each Doctor Who:
William Hartnell First Doctor: INTJ (Scientist)
Patrick Troughton Second Doctor: ENTP (Visionary)
Jon Pertwee Third Doctor: ESFP (Performer)
Tom Baker Fourth Doctor: ENTP (Visionary)
Peter Davison Fifth Doctor: INTP (Thinker)
Colin Baker Sixth Doctor: ENTJ or ENFJ (Executive/Giver)
Sylvester McCoy Seventh Doctor: INFJ (Protector)
Paul McGann Eighth Doctor: INFP (Idealist)
Christopher Ecclestone Ninth Doctor: INTP (Thinker)
David Tennant Tenth Doctor: ENTP (Visionary)
Matt Smith Eleventh Doctor – ENTP (Visionary)
Peter Capaldi Twelfth Doctor – INTP (Thinker)
Jodie Whittaker Thirteenth Doctor – ENFP (Inspirer)
Roger Delgado Master: INTJ (Scientist)
Peter Pratt Master: INTJ (Scientist)
Anthony Ainley Master: ENTJ (Executive)
Eric Roberts Master: INTJ (Scientist)
Derek Jacobi Master: INTP (Thinker)
John Simm Master: ENTJ (Executive)
Michelle Gomez Missy: ENTP (Visionary)