Authorship: by Avery Park
The popularity of MBTI has surged starting from last year, flooding Korean social media. KISJ students are also being affected by its widespread adoption, sparking controversy due to concerns that it perpetuates harmful stereotypes by placing people into fixed categories.
In Korea, MBTI became extremely popular since the result of the MBTI test showed fair accuracy for the majority of Korean individuals, at least they believed it was. Consequently, many professional psychologists, influencers, and journalists have covered such topics that included specific details on each personality trait: extroverts/introverts, sensors/intuitive, thinkers/feelers, and judgers/perceivers. The credibility of MBTI has skyrocketed and even employers began to ask MBTI to find a suitable candidate.
However, an anonymous KISJ teacher has commented that MBTI is not a reliable measure of personality and that its categories are too rigid. He/she argued that people's personalities are too complex to fit neatly into one of 16 categories and that the MBTI's results can be influenced by the test-taker's mood or the context in which they take the test.
Another anonymous KISJ student has also commented that KISJ students tend to judge their friends or even their teachers with the idea that they may act in a way that aligns with their own preconceptions of the MBTI traits.
While teachers are not influenced that much by MBTI, Korean students believe in MBTI unquestioningly and have come so far that they would judge a person based on the misleading knowledge of fixed personality traits they have gained from social media and MBTI test results.
Thus, the belief of KISJ students has raised controversy among foreign teachers which could lead to a serious conflict if continued. While some people will continue to find it useful, others will question its validity and usefulness. The key is to use the MBTI, and any other personality test, as one tool among many for understanding ourselves and others, rather than relying on it as the sole source of information about who we are.