Every person is unique — yet we all share patterns.

With billions of people on Earth, understanding human differences can feel overwhelming. Psychology has long searched for traits people have in common. This quest led Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and follower of Freud, to develop typology, the foundation for understanding personality types.

In the 20th century, Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers Briggs expanded Jung’s work into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI), one of the world’s most widely used personality assessments.

MBTI in a Nutshell

MBTI identifies 16 psychological types, helping categorise human behaviour into meaningful patterns.

It resolves long-standing debates between nature and nurture: every person is unique, but innate temperament interacts with life experiences and education to shape individual behaviour.

Understanding these types allows coaches, trainers, and individuals to appreciate both shared patterns and unique personal traits.

MBTI Meets ActionTypes and Motor Preferences

From 1992 onwards, ActionType pioneers Bertrand Théraulaz and Ralph Hippolyte connected MBTI personality types to motor styles of athletes.

• In 2005, sports psychologist Jan Huijbers added insights from attention and concentration psychology, bridging cognitive and motor performance.

This integration allows coaches to:

• Recognise the innate decision-making and attention patterns of athletes
• Align training and instruction with each athlete’s personality and motor blueprint
• Unlock higher performance, confidence, and injury prevention

MBTI combined with ActionTypes transforms coaching from generic instruction to personalised guidance, respecting each athlete’s unique psychological and motor profile.