There seems to be 2 myths (or perhaps more accurately “oversimplifications”) that exist around the MBTI preferences of Thinking and Feeling.
Myth 1 – Men are thinkers and women are feelers
Myth 2 – Thinking is a superior function to Feeling
If I harken back to university days and saw these two statements as a logic problem I might assume based on these myths that men are ….
FULL STOP Required here …I can’t even say what I was going to type
— so before I give a third myth any more credence let me focus on myth number 1.
The simple truth is that either sex can have a preference for either function. There are men with a preference for Feeling and women with a preference for Thinking.
Statistically there may be a higher number of males who are Thinkers. I have heard it suggested that there might be a cultural influence to these numbers as males may answer according to cultural expectations.
Last year at the MBTI Conference held by Psychometrics Canada Chuck Pratt, a former member of the U. S. Coast Guard for 23 years, posited an interesting theory. He felt that there were more men who actually had a preference for Feeling in the Coast Guard than the official scores would indicate. The expectations of their training would predispose individuals to choose answers swayed toward Thinking. (As an aside this is another reason that MBTI assessments from qualified professionals include a guided self determination of best type fit.)
Our expectations of males and females in society in general are still tainted by the cultural and perhaps physiological influences that mark our behaviour. Does it make sense that males are genetically wired to be hunters and that this may align more with thinking? And that females are genetically wired to be play the gathering nurturing roles that may be more aligned with feeling? There are a lot of assumptions in those statements and the exceptions are just as valid – if not more so.
Rather than oversimplify or over complicate the matter, this trainer suggested that we think in terms of the Thinking /Feeling dichotomy as having 4 parts – Thinking/Males, Thinking/Females, Feeling/Males and Feeling/Females.
He did an exercise where an individual asked the above 4 groups for feedback about whether their hair was in good enough shape for an important job interview in two hours time. Here’s how people responded:
Feeling/Female – You look great! Who you are is what counts.
Feeling/Male – What do you need to do the best you can?
Thinking/Female – How much time do you have? Perhaps you have time to get a comb out at the hairdressers.
Thinking/Male – Get a haircut.
The Feeling/Female and the Thinking/Male had responses that fit our stereotypes. We need to expand our perceptions beyond these stereotypes to include men who have a preference for Feeling and women who have a preference for Thinking. You think I protest too much and that we have evolved beyond this limited thinking? Ask any high school teacher if girls aren’t still dumbing down so they don’t compete with the boys.
My hope is that we be aware of our assumptions about gender and preference.
I would love to hear from Thinking/Females and Feeling/Males about their experience in the workplace.
Next post I will talk about one aspect of Myth #2….