MBTI® Step III™ – The Fulfillment of Myers’ Dream

There is much buzz today about the MBTI® Step III™.  Charles Martin, V.P. of Research and Development for CAPT, and a trainer for the assessment, recently published a womderful article about the MBTI® Step III™ in the new APTi e-Bulletin: http://bit.ly/pQQX5W . Step III™ was featured in a 90 minute conference session at the APTi 2011 International Conference, presented by Allen Hammer, lead researcher, co-author and trainer and Sondra Von Sant, a Step III™  trainer,  type expert and author.  Training courses for the Step III ™ are given by CAPT, see:  http://www.CAPT.org/training-workshops/MBTI-Training-Step3.htm .  There is even a Linked-In  Group for MBTI® Step III™ Certified Practitioners.

There are only a few hundred Certified MBTI® Step III™ practitioners for this relatively new Form of the MBTI®, but interest in the assessement is growing; there is good reason for this.  Step III™ is the culmination of Isabel Myers’ work; it provides us with a snapshot in time of how we are effectively or ineffectively using our perception and judgment.  Created for use in coaching and counseling, this Form of the MBTI® instrument moves beyone the Step I™ Form M (an indicator of one’s basic MBTI® Type) and Step II™ Form Q (how we express different facets of type) to understanding how people have developed in their type.

The construction of the assessment is more complex than the other Forms.  It took the Step III™ team (Allen Hammer, Wayne Mitchell and Naomi Quenk – Katharine stated that she and Peter Myers believed these three to be the only ones who could complete the task) years to put the instrument together; they were building on Myers’original work from her archives – literally 66 long boxes filled with data and 5 X 8 index cards and complex handwritten, sometimes indecipherable, algorithims.  The researchers call their herculean effort a “reconstruction”. (Interesting to note that it took a team of people and a complex computer program to complete wwhat one woman was doing, and by hand!)  A new complex scoring method with Rules that trigger Report Statments and Development Suggestions was created; the scoring methodology leads to results that are highly individualized.  The authors introduced Myers’ “Sufficiency Scales” of Confidence, Stamina and Compensatory Strain.

As Katharine recently told me the story of the MBTI® Step III™, she was filled with pride at what the researchers have accomplished.  Katharine stated that she was pleased with the seemingly insurmountable undertaking which required close coordination and support between CPP, CAPT and the MBTI® Trust.  So pleased was she that she wanted to “ring bells and shout out to the world” that Myers’ work was now complete.  Katharine explained that Isabel had died with this major piece of her work unfinished.

According to Katharine, Myers’ main interest was investigating what blocked people from moving through Jungian Individuation http://mbtitoday.org/the-5-levels-of-understanding/#level-five.  The purpose of Step III™ , which she began to research in the early years, was to explore where an individual might be blocked in the sound development of perception and judgment.  Isabel thought that if people became aware of how they were blocked, they could develop and become more effective in their type, therefore creating their own happiness.  Katharine quoted Isabel, almost verbatim,  from  Gifts Differing:

“…the understanding of type can make your perceptions clearer, your judgments sounder, and your life closer to your heart’s desire”,  and “…you will be more effective and satisfied in the world by improving your use of perception and judgment.”

True to the tradition of the MBTI®, Isabel was concerned that if she unveiled her plans to create a type development instrument too early, it would be taken out of the context of normal development.  Katharine emphasized that Isabel wanted the world to become used to the positive instrument that the MBTI® assessment was becoming, before introducing an instrument for development.  Isabel did not trust the world of psychologists who tended to look at what was “wrong” with people rather than what was right.  Step III™  was to be used to help people in their normal development, not in any way to evaluate individual pathology.  For these reasons, Isabel’s work on the Step III™  remained very private; only a few people, including Katharine, were able to see what she was doing.

Within the first five years of the development of Step III™ , Katharine used an early form of the instrument with 150 high school seniors in her role as a Certified School Psychologist with the Career Center that she had developed at the Sherwood High School in Sandy Springs, Maryland.  Prior to adminstering the instrument, Katharine had been concerned about two particular students.  The Step III™  results (that were then hand scored)  highlighted type development issues with these two students in particular!  She was able to use the information to help them both, in more specific ways than she would have been able to without the instrument’s results (at the time, there was no Report for people to view).

I recently took the Step III™  and I had the benefit of having Allen Hammer as my interpreter.  I found that the Report Statements pinpointed with specificity some of the issues that were blocking my energy to move forward in my business.  I highlighted with Allen the statments that “jumped out” at me, which led to a very meaningful discussion about how I might be able to re-frame my thought process to help me become “unstuck”.  The Statements on my Step III™  Report had more meaning and were much deeper than my Step I or II Reports.  The benefit of this instrument to me, as it will no doubt be for your clients, is that it provides a real-time snapshot of specific issues relevant to current circumstances.  I am hoping that in a year, I will see different Statements on my Report. Individuation is a never-ending process!

For more information about the MBTI® Step III™ and how to become a Certified Practitioner, go to: http://www.capt.org/assessment-mbti-step3/step3-about.htm