Question

The MBTI has been used in a wide variety of settings such as counseling, health care, and organizational psychology. Give an example of how an understanding of someone’s temperament could be helpful in a setting other than career counseling.

Answer 1

• Temperament describes individual styles or the “how” of behavior. These personal characteristics can be seen when children are playing with friends, doing their math assignment, or watching television.
• Parents who understand their child's temperament can avoid blaming themselves for issues that are normal for their child's temperament. They can anticipate issues before they occur and avoid getting stuck in parenting approaches that work for other children, but not this one.
• For preschool teachers, understanding children's temperament is almost a survival skill. Like parents, they can identify issues likely to arise: separation problems at the preschool door, the length of time a new child needs to "warm up" on entry. In the primary grades, teachers can better manage the class clown, the insistent talker, the reluctant participant.
• For doctors, understanding a child's temperament helps gauge how compliant a child will be in taking prescribed medicine.
  
• For employers, temperament concepts have been used to see how well an applicant fits the characteristics of a particular job.