Fit My Spirituality with my Myers-Briggs?

The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, the Enneagram, the True Colors Test:  What do these personality assessments have to do with spirituality?  Are they indicators of one’s spiritual path or development?  How dependable and reliable are they?  As a psychologist who is also a spiritual director, I find that this is an important topic. 

The following is a text version of this posting.

Is your experience of spirituality related to your personality?  Is your personality type an indicator of what spiritual practices are right for you?  These should be easy questions to answer, but despite the research on the connection between spirituality and personality, the conclusions aren’t clear.

In the field of psychology, there are various tests known as personality type indicators.  It’s important to note that these tests are exactly what the name suggests:  they are indicators of personality types.  They only give an indication.  Many psychologists, perhaps most, won’t even use these tests for two reasons.  The first is that the tests don’t have a very high level of both reliability and dependability.  In other words, they may not measure what they claim to measure and they’re prone to provide different results each time the test is taken.  Secondly, when personality type indicators were first developed decades ago, the prevailing view in psychology was that personality emerged in childhood and remained unchanged throughout life.  Today, psychologists commonly recognize that personality can change over the lifespan for a variety of reasons ranging from illness and injury to stress and extreme conditions.  At best, personality type indicators may provide a picture of a person’s personality characteristics at the time the test is taken.  of an individual’s personality characteristics only at the time

Many people who aren’t psychologists, including people working in the field of spirituality, like using personality type indicators.  For instance, they are popular in the workplace as part of team-building exercises.  Some spiritual directors as well as retreat and seminar leaders will use personality type indicators to enable people to learn about their personality type.  Based on someone’s personality type, they’ll suggest one spiritual practice over another.  The assumption is that appropriate spiritual practices should be aligned with personality.

The two most commonly used type indicators by spiritual directors and teachers are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram Personality Test.  (You can search online and find ways to take either of these tests for free.  Try it.  It could be interesting and fun.)  However, research studies have found that for 60% of people there’s no relationship between personality type and spirituality or spiritual practice.  60% is a very substantial finding.   But what about the other 40%?

Psychologists today understand personality in terms of what are called the Big Five Personality Factors.  The Big Five have some overlap with the Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram, but they aren’t the same.  Part of the difference is that they are more dependably measured.  The Big Five include Extroversion, Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism.   What research shows is that people can score high or low on each of these traits and be equally open to spiritual experience and spiritual practices – except for one.  People who score high on neuroticism have difficulty with spirituality and spiritual practices.  Scoring high means that people tend to experience mood swings, irritability, moodiness, and emotional instability. A high score on neuroticism decreased the ability to be focused and calm.

In terms of my personal experience, I’ve taken personality type indicators many times including the Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram.  I’ve seen the differences more clearly with the Myers-Briggs.  For example, I know that depending on the setting where I take the test, I’ll score differently on introversion vs. extroversion.  If I take it alone, my score is high on introversion.  If I take it with a group, my score is high on extroversion.  Other things change as well.  But I know myself well enough to understand that my personality tends toward introversion.  Based on that indicator, contemplative spiritual practice should be appropriate for me.  That’s true, except when it’s not.  I’ve had profound experiences in Native American drumming circles, African drumming circles, Native dancing, and so forth.  Those things would be considered right for someone extraverted and kinesthetically oriented.   

Those who use the Enneagram will sometimes suggest exploring the opposite dimension of a trait because it can be useful.  And it can be.  The Enneagram has other aspects that are more complicated than I can discuss here.

In the end, there is no actual evidence that personality trait indicators will help with your spiritual life.  But they probably won’t do any harm unless taken too seriously.  At best, they can be tools to help you reflect on your own experience.  In my mind, the best insight into the contours of spirituality in our lives comes from reflecting past experiences which we identify as having been spiritual for us.