fei75766_ch04_107-148.indd 141  02/19/20 09:00 AM
Chapter 4    Jung: Analytical Psychology141
theoretical framework ortool,andtherefore ought tobescrutinized carefully forits
usefulness inassisting ourunderstanding ofhuman psychology (seeTable 4.2).
Theoretical Criticism
Stern andSwan (2019) critique twoadditional theoretical features oftheMBTI. 
First, theMBTI purports tomeasure “true type,” implying thatpeople’s person -
alities havesome authentic, or“true” features andsome inauthentic and“not
true” ones, andthattheMBTI canferret outthe“true” features. However, such
anotion islikely more metaphorical thanactual, andsurely highly subjective for
each individual. Second, Stern andSwan (2019) critique theclaim thatpersonality 
typeisaninborn cause ofobserved behavior. Little evidence exists tosupport any
Shaw and Costanzo (1982)  
evaluation criteria Key points
Agreement withknown 
dataandfact•Jungian theory isnotgrounded inempirical data.
•MBTI theory leans onunsupported assumptions about:
• theexistence ofunconscious, preference-driven 
“true types” andtheMBTI assessment’s ability to
identify “true” type,
•thecausal pathfrom traittobehavior, and
•theinborn nature of“type.”
• Thedichotomies ofMBTI either arenotactually 
opposites orcanbedescribed assingle dimensions so
thepoles ofthedichotomies donotlikely represent 
competing psychological functions.
Internal consistency •Thetyping process allows andbases reports of
validity onself-verification, introducing circular 
evidence ofvalidity andobscuring whether one’s type
isactually hidden.
• Using preferences, rather thanabilities orbehavioral 
tendencies, asthebasis of“true” types affords 
predictions ofmultiple types forthesame person.
Testability • MBTI generally avoids strong statements ofwhat type
predicts.
• MBTI treats theideaofdichotomies (e.g., thetraits 
existastwotrulyseparable categories, rather thanas
continua) asessentially unfalsifiable.TABLE 4.2
Key points of MBTI theory evaluation
Source:  http://swanpsych.com/publications/SteinSwanMBTITheory_2019.pdfFinal PDF to printer