A Comprehensive Guide To The MBTI (16 Personality Types)

MBTI says there are 16 personality types in the world. Which one are you? How knowing it can help you? (Here's how it helped me!)

Mar 14, 2025

Hey there!

I recently went down the MBTI (16 personalities) rabbit hole.

And it made me realize a lot of things about myself that I had not known before.

First things first, what is the “MBTI” or the “16 personalities”?

I know a lot of people who aren't aware of this topic, so I'll briefly explain it– before I tell you more about my recent discoveries.

What are the MBTI 16 personalities and why should you know about them?

Firstly, why should you learn about it?

Well, the “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator” commonly shortened as “MBTI” is one of the most widely popular psychological concepts.

You may already have or will come across people who will refer to themself as “ENTJ” or “ISFP”, or a similar combination of four letters.

In a nutshell, what they're referring to is their personality. And knowing which personality type you have, gives you a great advantage as you navigate through your life.

It's a great tool to have- like how you use a compass when you are lost in the woods.

The basics of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

According to the MBTI, there are 16 personality types in this world.

Each is a combination of four of these letters:

I (introversion) or E (extraversion)

S (sensing) or N (intuition)

F (feeling) or T (thinking)

P (perceiving) or J (judging)

Take me for example- I'm an ENTP. This means I lean more towards these attributes: Extroverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

Don't know your personality type?

Don't worry.

You can learn which one of these 16 personality types you have by taking a free test on this website: Free personality test.

One more thing to know, each of these 16 personalities also has another name you can use to refer to them rather than a combination of four letters.

For example, an INTP is also called the “Logician”, an ISFP is also called the “Adventurer” and so on and so forth. (You can look up the others on the internet or just click this link for the full list).

Why two people with the same personality type can be so different?

There are many people who have the same personality type as you. You may already know and interact with someone who does.

But, that doesn't necessarily mean that that person will like the same things as you.

The way you two think may be similar– but your preferences, behaviors, ideals, and stuff will vary. (Although like-minded, you are two different people after all).

Let's say, for example, you're an INFJ.

And you struggle to connect with other people because they seem to be moving too fast for you to keep up. And you find this overwhelming.

You can tell you're feeling this way to another INFJ, and they may find it relatable cause they feel the same way.

But if you tell the INFJ that Apple is better than Samsung, they may not necessarily agree with your opinion and it may even start an argument. (See? Same personality, but different people).

The Assertive trait versus the Turbulent trait

There are also different types within these 16 types.

You may come across people who will refer to themselves with something like, “ENTP-A” or “ENTP-T”.

As we can see, the first four-letter combination is one of the 16 personality types. But what's that “-A” or “-T”?

There are two personality traits each of the 16 types can have. The “-A“ refers to the Assertive trait and the “-T” refers to the Turbulent trait.

Let's say, here we have two people who are both ENTPs. But their personalities are a bit different from each other. Because one of them is an ENTP-A and the other person is an ENTP-T.

You can learn more about the difference between the Assertive and the Turbulent personality traits in this article: The Assertive vs the Turbulent.

One more thing to know, one may not necessarily have just one of these two traits. Many people can be a mix of both Assertive and Turbulent traits.

How does this knowledge help people?

Well, let me tell you how it helped me!

I have a bit too much self-awareness, so I couldn't help but notice the things I'm doing wrong.

I have several traits that would be considered as shortcomings.

For example: being indecisive, not being able to understand others well, and not being able to stick with things.

I have always believed I can self-improve my way to becoming someone without these shortcomings. And I've changed a lot for the better– thanks to that belief.

But these three shortcomings I mentioned earlier– I just couldn't fix them.

I would try, again and again, then it always feels like I just default back to square one.

I started to feel like I just couldn't become someone who was decisive, empathetic, and disciplined– no matter how much I tried.

And I felt bad about myself because of it.

One day, I got curious about my personality type– the ENTPs. And decided to learn more about them through the internet.

I learned that it's common for those with the ENTP personality type to be indecisive, out of touch with their emotions, and have difficulty following through.

And then it hit me. It's not just me who is like this– most people with the ENTP personality type are like this!

And I didn't feel so bad about myself anymore.

Unhealthy and Healthy types

After further research, I learned that ENTPs (or any other personality type) can be two types. (I'll use ENTPs as an example for this). They can either be a Healthy ENTP or an Unhealthy ENTP.

Now, what do I mean by “Healthy” or “Unhealthy”?

Well, an Unhealthy ENTP would let themselves be okay with their shortcomings and expect other people to get used to their unhealthy (or even toxic) selves.

An Unhealthy ENTP would stay indecisive, won't try to follow through with things, and won't try to understand others. They would not realise what they're doing wrong and they can have a negative impact on those around them.

On the other hand, Healthy ENTPs would be more decisive or put constant effort into making faster decisions. A Healthy ENTP would work hard to follow through, and they try to understand others, refrain from giving insensitive responses, and reply in a way that respects others’ feelings– even if they can't empathize with them.

A Healthy ENTP has the power to unite people.

If you'd like to know more about the Healthy and Unhealthy types of the 16 personalities, then I'd highly recommend watching this video. (I found it to be really accurate):

And there you have it! That's everything I know about the MBTI (16 personality types).

I was an Unhealthy ENTP a few years ago. But I think I've gradually turned into a Healthy ENTP mostly. And then I stumbled upon that video about the Healthy and Unhealthy types and I was very surprised to see that my guesses about my shortcomings were right and deciding to try to change was the right choice.

One more thing to know though: not everyone would find the MBTI assessments to be accurate.

You can take the test, get an INTJ as a result, look up information about INTJs, and still find it to be inaccurate or unrelatable.

It doesn't mean that the MBTI concept is false and people are wasting their time looking into it, it just means that this psychological instrument can't be helpful for every single person in this world.

People– are very complex and each of them are unique.

And many people's personality types can change over the years too.

You can try taking the test right now, and take it again a few years later. The result you get years later may either vary or stay the same.

Don't get fixated on changing and get disappointed when you get the same result. And don't get fixated on staying the same and get disappointed when your result changes.

Give yourself the freedom to change and let yourself stay the same. Because both outcomes are good. You can be your better self today than you were yesterday– no matter what personality type you have.

And in my opinion, the MBTI is a powerful tool you can use if you're interested in self-improvement, as it can give you insights about your strengths and shortcomings.

Author's note: For some who have taken the personality test multiple times, their results seem to tip back and forth between two types. Maybe they just have a mix of both personality types. Isn't it interesting?

Out of curiosity, which one (or more) of the 16 personality types do you have? Let me know in the comments!

Harshini writes

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