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| The Myers & Briggs Foundation | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Myers & Briggs Foundation |
| Formation | 1975 |
| Type | Non-profit |
| Headquarters | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Region served | International |
| Leader title | President |
| Leader name | Isabel Briggs Myers (historical founder) |
| Website | (omitted) |
The Myers & Briggs Foundation The Myers & Briggs Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to preserve and promulgate the personality type work originally associated with Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs. The Foundation oversees stewardship of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator intellectual property and supports public access to type descriptions, educational tools, and historical archives related to type theory. It interacts with academic institutions, professional associations, publishers, and testing organizations to promote use of type information in varied settings.
The Foundation grew out of efforts by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Cook Briggs to develop typological instruments influenced by Carl Gustav Jung, Gordon Allport, William James, John Dewey, and early 20th-century psychometricians in United States. Early institutional allies and critics included scholars at Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford University. The Foundation engaged with professional societies such as the American Psychological Association, British Psychological Society, Association for Psychological Science, and training organizations like Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology as typology spread in corporate and educational contexts. Key legal and organizational episodes involved disputes among publishing houses such as Harcourt Brace, McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, and testing firms including Pearson PLC and Educational Testing Service. Historical interactions connected the Foundation to figures and institutions like Briggs family archives, trustees with ties to University of Wisconsin–Madison, and collaborations involving Milwaukee Public Museum and local cultural institutions.
The Foundation’s stated mission includes stewardship of type descriptions, preservation of historical records, and promotion of appropriate use in counseling, vocational guidance, and organizational development. It collaborates with higher-education departments at Yale University, University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, London School of Economics, and University of Oxford for research and curriculum development. Programmatic activities have included workshops with Dale Carnegie Training, Korn Ferry, Gallup, and partnerships for continuing education with American Counseling Association, National Career Development Association, and Society for Human Resource Management. The Foundation has provided archival materials to repositories such as Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, and New York Public Library.
The Foundation curates resources articulating a theory of psychological types tracing roots to Carl Gustav Jung, with subsequent translations and applications by figures linked with Adlerian psychology proponents, analysts influenced by Sigmund Freud, and mid-century personality researchers. It maintains glossaries and typology descriptions referenced in syllabi at Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and professional training at European Federation of Psychologists' Associations. The Foundation’s resources have been cited or critiqued alongside taxonomies such as the Big Five personality traits, models promoted by Raymond Cattell, and inventories developed at Otis Psychological Corporation. Its educational materials are used in programs by corporations like IBM, General Electric, Microsoft, and Google for leadership development and team-building.
The Foundation is governed by a board of trustees drawn from alumni and professionals associated with institutions such as Marquette University, Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, and nonprofit governance networks including Independent Sector. Funding streams historically included donations from private foundations like Rockefeller Foundation, grants from cultural institutions such as National Endowment for the Humanities, licensing fees managed with firms like CPP, Inc., and partnerships with educational publishers including Pearson Education and Wiley. The organizational staff has collaborated with legal counsel from firms tied to intellectual property disputes involving American Bar Association affiliates and with auditing services contracted from firms with links to Deloitte and PwC.
Scholarly critiques have emerged from academics at University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and research centers such as Max Planck Society and National Institutes of Health, who question psychometric properties relative to instruments like the NEO Personality Inventory and meta-analyses by authors associated with American Psychological Association journals. Debates have occurred over commercial licensing, validation studies involving Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, conflicts with corporate clients including Enron-era consultants, and legal actions involving publishers and test distributors. Ethical critiques have been raised by professional ethicists linked to Kennedy Institute of Ethics and human-resources scholars at London Business School regarding use in hiring and high-stakes selection.
The Foundation’s influence spans education, counseling, business, and popular culture, with references in media outlets and cultural institutions including The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, Time (magazine), and documentary producers at PBS. Its typology has informed curricula at Teachers College, Columbia University, executive education at INSEAD, and organizational development programs at McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group. The Foundation’s archives and historical interpretations have been used by biographers of figures such as Isabel Briggs Myers in publications by academic presses like Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
The Foundation oversees or licenses print and digital materials including type descriptions, instructor guides, and historical monographs distributed by publishers such as Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and SAGE Publications. Educational collaborations have produced continuing-education modules accredited by American Psychological Association and course materials used in programs at University of California, Los Angeles, Boston University, and University of Toronto. The Foundation’s materials have been cited and debated across journals including Personality and Individual Differences, Journal of Personality Assessment, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Psychological Bulletin.
Category:Personality tests Category:Non-profit organizations based in Wisconsin