Reading my new Twitter feed (in the process of setting up my own -- http://twitter.com/Chemjobber), I see that David Kroll of Terra Sigillata is talking about Myers-Briggs personality types. I'm not much of a believer in psychology, but I've had a long-running arm's-length fascination with the Myers-Briggs test. You can take a quick five or ten minute version of the test here.
Basically, the test measures you on 4 variables -- whether you are an Introvert or an Extrovert, whether you are iNtuitive or Sensing, Thinking or Feeling and Judging or Perceiving. The questions are always a bit difficult to answer: "It's difficult to get you excited - Yes or No?" Well, it depends -- are we talking football or NMR results? I've tested as either an INTJ ("The Scientist") or a ISTJ ("The Inspector") with occasional results as a "E", if I'm in an expansive mood.*
I suspect that, within chemistry, there are a wide variety of personality types with a moderate bias towards introversion. (If you have time, Jonathan Rauch's essay on the care and feeding of introverts is a classic.) Chemistry, in the end, is a solitary pursuit. With the exception of the most complex machinery, most chemistry operations are done by one person, even if everyone is working as a team. Two people can't perform an extraction (one person holds the sep funnel, another shakes?) and a HPLC is too small to have two people standing in front of it for very long. Folks who need constant human interaction, I suspect, have a difficult time with life in the lab. (Was your favorite time in the lab when you can be alone? It is/was for me...)
Other than introversion, I doubt there's other signficant personality biases. It's also the introversion that makes group meetings such a joy. (That's a whole 'nother post.) What's your Myers-Briggs personality type? Leave it in the comments, if you dare...
*Those personality profiles always strike me as just a little bogus, sort of like Facebook quiz results. How Awesome Are You? You're Super Awesome! Where's the MBTI that's "The Sociopath"?
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I think INTJ's make pretty good sociopaths.
ReplyDeleteWow kinda of harsh I'm An intp
DeleteTouche!
ReplyDeleteI'm an INJT too - i read somewhere else that they are "Masterminds". So, move over CEO, there's a new INTJ kid in town.
ReplyDeleteOR..... sociopath + mastermind = James Bond Nemesis Evil Genius type?
if the rate of intermarriage between synthetic organic chemists is any indication, one could say chemists do not get out much
ReplyDeleteINTP.
ReplyDeleteB & M were smart and put the I/E scale up front, something that everyone can easily identify and relate to. This is important as they thereby gather apparent validity, something otherwise impossible given the remaining descriptions are as vague as a poorly written horoscope.
ENTJ. Definitely prefer other people in the lab to keep me company, but obviously I can deal with it if there's not.
ReplyDeleteINFJ. I have tested this way every time I have been administered the test since the 8th grade.
ReplyDeleteI tested ISTJ in 9th grade...low I&S, with very very high T&J.
ReplyDeleteENTJ
ReplyDeleteStewie Griffin:
ReplyDeleteINTJ
unfounded analysis based on little real world experience
ReplyDeleteChemistry requires a lot of organization so probably someone with a J type would fit as a chemist.
ReplyDeleteINTJ - and a Chemist. I think they go hand in hand. =)
ReplyDeleteI'm an INTJ "the Mastermind" and my husband is INTP "the absent-minded professor."
ReplyDeleteMy dad (a chemist) was an INTJ/ISTJ borderline; I got a degree in chemistry as an INFP
ReplyDelete