The history of the MBTI^® assessment

Today, the MBTI tool is the most widely used and recognized personality tool in the world. Around two million people complete it every year, but how did it begin?

Who created the MBTI assessment?

It began with Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, in the United States in the early mid-20th century. 

Briggs was inspired to research personality type theory when she met Isabel’s future husband, Clarence Myers. She noticed he had a different way of seeing the world. This intrigued her enough to start a literature review to understand different temperaments. 

What is Jung’s influence on MBTI theory?

Carl G Jung published Psychological Types in 1921. Briggs read the English translation (1923) and saw similarities between their ideas. However, Jung’s theories of personal difference were much more developed. 

Briggs and Myers thought Jung’s work was so useful that they wanted to make his ideas accessible to a wider audience.

When was the MBTI assessment first published?

World War II was a huge influence on the project’s development. Myers believed that if people understood each other better, they’d work together better and there’d be less conflict. The post-war world could be a better place. 

She was determined to find a way to give people access to their psychological type. This led to the idea of a type indicator, and Myers dedicated the rest of her life to its development. 

She spent the next 20 years developing questions and validating the instrument and the theory. The MBTI instrument was first published in 1962.

Who publishes the MBTI questionnaire now?

The Myers-Briggs Company (formerly CPP, Inc.) has published, researched and updated the MBTI instrument since 1975. It has trained practitioners since 1989.

Today, The Myers-Briggs Company continues to follow Myers’ guiding principle: that understanding personality and difference can change the world for the better.

 

Key moments in MBTI history

1919	Isabel Briggs Myers graduates from Swarthmore College. Isabel’s mother, Katharine Briggs, starts to research personality type theory
1921	Carl Jung publishes Psychological Types: The Psychology of Individuation
1943	Form A of the instrument is copyrighted
1962	Isabel self-publishes Introduction to Type. Educational Testing Services (ETS) publishes research version of the MBTI instrument and the MBTI Manual
1968	Katharine Cook Briggs dies. MBTI questionnaire published in Japan by industrial psychologist Takeshi Ohsawa. It’s the first MBTI translation
1969	Isabel Briggs Myers and clinical psychologist Mary McCaulley start Typology Lab
1975	CPP, Inc. (formerly Consulting Psychologists Press) publishes the MBTI instrument. Typology Lab becomes the Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT). It is the center for research, data collection, information, training and publications
1977	CAPT publishes first issue of The Journal of Psychological Type
1980	Isabel Briggs Myers dies. Peter and Katharine Myers become co-owners of the MBTI copyrights
1985	MBTI Manual second edition published
1990	Form K published. It is the precursor to the Step II assessment (Form Q)
1998	Step I™ (Form M) updated. MBTI Manual third edition published
2001	Step II™ (Form Q) and MBTI Step II Manual published
2007	MBTI Complete launched
2009	Step III™ published
2017	CPP, Inc. buys OPP Ltd
2018	CPP, Inc. becomes The Myers-Briggs Company
2019	New global versions of MBTI Step I and Step II assessments published. New version of MBTIonline launched