Diurnal Changes on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: A Pilot Study
11 people took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator on two consecutive workdays. They took it in the morning upon awakening, in the afternoon while at work, and in the evening after finishing the day's work, with the instruction to take it each time as though they had never seen it before. Analysis indicated that the data were not free of diurnal changes. Individuals differed in amount and on dimensions of significant change. Diurnal changes were most consistent on Extraversion, Introversion, Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing, Intuition, and Sensing-Intuition, and least consistent on Thinking, Feeling, and Thinking-Feeling. As interview and observation suggested that the variations reflected genuine changes in the individuals, diurnal changes on personality tests should be studied further; tests should be given a person several times to obtain a profile of the person; and classifications should be viewed as reflecting the person at a specific time and in a specific setting.