For 75 medical students and 248 undergraduates (samples treated separately), principal components analysis (PCA) revealed that the TF and El scales of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) each defined its own principal axis. On the most important first component, however, the SN and JP scales of the MBTI, together with the Hemispheric Mode Indicator (HMI), share most of their variance. Thus, the MBTI appears to sample only three bipolar personality dimensions rather than the four that use of "type tables" implies, and one of these shares substantial variance with the cognitive paradigm of hemispheric dominance. The authors consider some of the possible explanations for the apparent confluence of these two paradigms as operationalized by the MBTI and HMI.
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