A slightly altered version of Dr. David Snyder's presentation to music education students at Illinois State University. http://finearts.illinoisstate.edu/profiles/default.aspx?q=BM200807100027&unitAbbr=schoolofmusic

1. Do You Have the Personality for
Teaching?
Presented at the 2011 Illinois Music Educators Association All-State Conference
in Peoria, Illinois
By
Dr. David Snyder
Professor of Music Education at Illinois State University
dsnyder@ilstu.edu

2. Related Studies…
• Several researchers have looked at personality as it
relates to teaching …
• Fred Pigge has done several longitudinal studies on
general teacher attrition using Myers-Briggs and
other measures.
• Cutietta (1997), Coffman (2007) looked at personality
traits and instrument selection among junior high and
adult musicians respectively.
• Kreuger (1974), Schmidt (1989),Bergee (1992) all
looked at personality as it relates to music teacher
behaviors and success.

3. Personality as defined by the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
•The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI) is a personality test based on
Carl Jung’s theory of psychological
types, designed to assist a person in
identifying their personality
preferences.
•It was developed by Katharine Cook
Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs
Myers during World War II.

4. Personality as defined by the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
•The MBTI differs from standardized
tests measuring traits that can be
improved with practice, instead
identifying preferred “types”. While
types and traits are both inborn, traits
can be improved, whereas
types, naturally differentiate over time.

5. Personality as defined by the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
•Don’t think of personality in this
case in terms such as
“outgoing”, “reserved”, “happy”
“warm”, “fun-loving” , “serious” and
the like…

6. Personality as defined by the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
•Instead, think of the type indicator
in Myers-Briggs as being the
operational preference for individuals
when interacting with the world and
making decisions.

7. Personality as defined by the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
There are 4 Dichotomies searched for in the MBTI:
Extroversion /Introversion
Sensing/ iNtuition
Thinking /Feeling
Judging /Perceiving
A dichotomy is a division of two mutually exclusive
groups, or “type” preferences

8. The Preferences in Detail
In the Extroverted type the energy
flow is outward, and the preferred
focus is on other people and
things, whereas in the Introverted
type the energy flow is inward, and
the preferred focus is on one's own
thoughts and ideas.

9. The Preferences in Detail
Sensing type prefers to receive data
primarily from the five senses, and
iNtuition type prefers to receive data
from the unconscious, or seeing
relationships via insights.

10. The Preferences in Detail
Thinking types uses logical "true or
false, if-then" connections. Feeling
types use "more or less, better-
worse" evaluations.

11. The Preferences in Detail
Judging types tend to prefer a step-by-
step approach to life, relying on
external rules and procedures, and
preferring quick closure. Perceiving
types can be seen as having a “bouncing
around" approach to life, relying on
subjective judgments, and a desire to
leave all options open.

12. The Preferences in Detail
The J/P terminology may be
misleading for some—the term
"Judging" does not imply
"judgmental," and "Perceiving" does
not imply "perceptive".

13. The Preferences in Detail
Keep in mind that each dimension
reveals a person's inborn preference
with how he or she is most
comfortable operating, and does not
say that any person will always use
his preferred dimension.

14. Personality as defined by the Myers-
Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Participants are given one of 16 four-letter
acronyms, such as ESTJ or INFP, indicating
what they prefer in each of these
dichotomies resulting in their “type”.

15. Types as represented in the US
population (taken from New World Encyclopedia .org)

16. Comparison of Music Ed Majors
to National Percentages
US population Music Ed (2006-09)
•ISFJ 13.8%* 3.8%
•ESFJ 12.3 % 17.9%
•ISTJ 11.6% 5.1%
•ENFJ 2.4% 30.2%
•INFJ 1.5%** 14%
*The most common personality type in the US
** The rarest personality type in the US

17. FJ’s
•Myers and Briggs held that types
with a preference for judgment show
the world their preferred judging
function (thinking or feeling).
•FJ types are seen as empathetic and
helpful and caring.
•This seems to be a natural fit for
someone wanting to be a teacher.
•155 of the 235 surveyed were FJ’s

18. ENFJ(30.2% of ISU/2.4% of US)
•Genuinely and warmly interested in people
•Value people's feelings
•Value structure and organization
•Value harmony, and good at creating it
•Exceptionally good people skills
•Dislike impersonal logic and analysis
•Strong organizational capabilities
•Loyal and honest
•Creative and imaginative
•Enjoy variety and new challenges
•Get personal satisfaction from helping others
•Extremely sensitive to criticism and discord
•Need approval from others to feel good about
themselves

19. ESFJ(17.9% of ISU/12.3% of US)
•Organized
•Loyal
•Can be depended on to follow things through to completion
•Enjoy creating order, structure and schedules
•Enjoy interacting with people
•Warm-hearted and sympathetic
•Tend to put others' needs above their own
•Very good at giving practical care
•Very cooperative, good team members
•Practical and down-to-earth
•Value peaceful living and security
•Enjoy variety, but work well with routine tasks
•Need approval from others
•Receive satisfaction from giving to others
•Live in the here and now - dislike theorizing about the future

20. INFJ(14% of ISU/1.5% of US)
•Intuitively understand people and situations
•Idealistic
•Highly principled
•Complex and deep
•Natural leaders
•Sensitive and compassionate towards people
•Service-oriented
•Future-oriented
•Value deep, authentic relationships
•Reserved about expressing their true selves
•Dislike dealing with details unless they enhance or promote their
vision
•Constantly seeking meaning and purpose in everything
•Creative and visionary
•Intense and tightly-wound
•Can work logically and rationally - use their intuition to
understand the goal and work backwards towards it

21. Results compared to other studies…
• Uhl (1981) looked at attrition and student
personality type amongst all college majors
and found 85% of music education majors to
be Feeling (F) types.
• 75% of the music education majors in this
study were also found to be Feeling(F) types.

22. Results compared to other studies…
• Roberts, et. al. (2007) in his study of
Agricultural Science student teachers found
ESFJ and ENFP to be the two most common
types
• Of the 235 subjects I studied, ESFJ was the
second most common type but there were
only 4 ENFP’s identified

23. Results compared to other studies…
• Phillips (1997) found the most common
personality type in his study of 145 Music
Majors from historically African-American
Universities to be ESTJ (33 respondents).
• Of the 235 subjects I studied, only 5 students
were determined to be ESTJ’s.

24. Results compared to other studies…
• Lanning (1990) used the Myers-Briggs test to
look at music majors at select Oklahoma
universities and found ENFP to be most
common personality type among male (17%)
and female (14%) music education students.
• Of the 235 subjects I studied, only 4 students
were identified to be ENFP’s (1.7%)

25. Results compared to other studies…
• Steele (2008) found ENFP and ENFJ types to be
the most prevalent among both music education
and music therapy majors in her sample of 11
universities throughout the US.
• Wubbenhorst (1992) also found ENFP and ENFJ to
be the dominant types for music education
majors.
• ENFJ was the most prevalent type in this
study(30.2%), but again of the 235 subjects I
studied, only 4 students were identified to be
ENFP’s (1.7%)

26. So Why the Differences? …
• Obviously, different schools and different
programs attract different types of students
• But shouldn’t there be some equality of
representation between different schools for the
most common personality types among music
education majors? Where are the ENFP’s?
• The studies cited previously did not make a
distinction by concentration area
(instrumental, vocal, general, etc.). The
percentage of the population represented in each
study, could have effected the results.

27. So Why the difference? …
• Finally, Illinois State has a long and focused
history of preparing educators and the type of
student who selects to go to ISU may have
teaching as there primary objective as
opposed to students attending other
institutions and majoring in music education.

28. I’s vs E’s (2006-2009)
• 43 subjects were classified as
introverts (I’s) and the preferred
focus is on one's own thoughts and
ideas.
• The remaining 106 were extroverts
(E) where the preferred focus is on
other people and things.
•A study by Kemp (1982) also found
music teachers to be more
Extroverted.

29. J’s vs P’s (2006-2009)
• Only 13 subjects tested as “P”
(Perceiving) type which rely on
subjective judgments, and a desire to
leave all options open.
• The remaining 136 tested as “J”
types which have a preference for a
step-by-step approach to life, relying
on external rules and
procedures, and preferring quick
closure.

30. Conclusions:
•The music education population in this
study had a large representation of Extrovert
personality types, FJ personality types and
very few Perceiving types.
•The most common personality type in the
sample studied was the ENFJ (over 30%) and
this was consistent from year to year.
•The top three personality types
(ENFJ, ESFJ, INFJ) represent approx. 60% of
the overall sample studied and all three
types name “teaching” as a well-suited
career choice.

31. Conclusions:
•There may be a correlation between Introversion and
increased attrition from the music ed program.
•Though there were significantly fewer P’s entering into
the music ed program, the Perceiving type does not
seem to be a predictor for increased attrition from the
music ed program.
•The T type indicator within the ISU music ed population
was much less prevalent than the F type (37/112).
However, this does not match the findings of the 1997
study of historically African American Colleges.
•The P type indicator within the ISU music ed population
was much less prevalent than the J type (13/136).
However, this does not match findings from the 1990
study of Oklahoma universities (top two were ENFP and
INFP).

32. Interested in learning more?
•Take the Myers-Briggs test at:
www.humanmetrics.com/cgiwin/
JTypes2.asp
•Read your personality description
and career choices at:
www.personalitypage.com