There really is no best way except what works with your particular learner. Some people learn best from visual images followed by text. Some by reading summaries and then obtaining the details that are behind the summaries. Some like to go from the broadest measures to the most specific. Etc. Etc. Each of these predilections involve the use of several Type Modes. It is important to have in mind the client’s Dominant and Auxiliary Type Modes as these usually particularly influential when starting when engaging a personality assessment.

The Singer-Loomis Report takes an interactive approach and allows the individual to proceed in a way that works best for them.

Helpful Steps Before Engaging the Content of the Report

Normally, there are two steps that are helpful to take before engaging the contents of the Singer-Loomis Report.

1. The first step is to take your client on a joint review of how to use the interactive features of the Report.
2. The second step involves psychological contracting. Beginning with a questions such as: “What do you want to learn from this Report?” Once this is mutually understood, the follow-on is to explore how he or she would prefer to engage the Report, e.g., “Where do you want to start?” “Then go to…?”, etc.” While it takes some time to do these two steps, they can markedly increase the value of the Singer-Loomis Report to your client.

The Singer-Loomis Type Deployment Inventory (SL-TDI) is only available on-line. Taking the Inventory involves going to the Moving Boundaries website, clicking on the “Do Inventory” button, recording the serial number and password and responding to the 160 items of the Inventory. This typically takes 20-40 minutes–thirty minutes is the average.

Once the Inventory has been completed, the Provider can compile the results in the Singer-Loomis Report in a matter of seconds and then has the option of e-mailing the report to the person who completed the Inventory or to themselves or both. At the minimum, this takes less than 30 seconds.

The Providers Portal software has an option of notifying the Provider when a client has completed the Inventory. This option makes it possible for the Provider to minimize the time between when the client completes the Inventory and obtains the Singer-Loomis Report.

The SL-TDI uses 160 items to measure eight core variables. The resulting Type Mode scale scores measure:

• Introverted Sensing and Extraverted Sensing
• Introverted Intuiting and Extraverted Intuiting
• Introverted Feeling and Extraverted Feeling
• Introverted Thinking and Extraverted Thinking

Each of these eight variables is measured 20 times to yield a scale score.

In addition to the eight core scales, the SL-TDI also produces scores for eight additional variables:

• The four Type Functions:
  •  Sensing,
  • Intuiting,
  • Thinking
  • Feeling
• Extraversion and Introversion
• Judging and Perceiving.

The SL-TDI provides information about a total of 16 Type variables. All of the variables are based scores obtained from the eight Type Mode scales.

The Singer-Loomis Type Deployment Inventory (SL-TDI) is only available on-line. Taking the Inventory involves going to the Moving Boundaries website, clicking on the “Do Inventory” button, recording the serial number and password and responding to the 160 items of the Inventory. This typically takes 20-40 minutes–thirty minutes is the average.

Once the Inventory has been completed, the Provider can compile the results in the Singer-Loomis Report in a matter of seconds and then has the option of e-mailing the report to the person who completed the Inventory or to themselves or both. At the minimum, this takes less than 30 seconds.

The Providers Portal software has an option of notifying the Provider when a client has completed the Inventory. This option makes it possible for the Provider to minimize the time between when the client completes the Inventory and obtains the Singer-Loomis Report.

The SL-TDI and the MBTI use the same structure, four paired concepts in a particular sequence. Each concept is represented by a single letter. The four letters that are reported create a Psychological Type. For example, review the ENTP Psychological Type in the table below.

This table shows that eight of the 16 Singer-Loomis scales are reported in the traditional structure used to create a Psychological Type. The result is in some ways comparable and in some ways not. The core comparability is that the magnitude of difference between pairs of concepts establishes which concept is reported and represented by a particular letter. In the example above, Extraverting is greater than Introverting and consequently the letter E is reported, etc.

However, there are significant underlying differences. These differences arise from their technical design. Before considering the differences in design, it is important to acknowledge that both the Singer-Loomis and the MBTI do what they are designed to do. Both implement their respective designs accurately and reliably. Invidious comparisons that claim one of the psychological assessments is, per se, better than the other are typically misplaced and not worth taking seriously.

A professional comparison would examine the design of each inventory–the concepts involved, what concepts are measured, how the concepts are measured and the assumptions necessary to compile the results and establish a 4-letter acronym for a Psychological Type. Once this information has been obtained, relative judgments can be made. For nearly all clients of either inventory, it is probably best to contain the focus on the implications of the inventory’s Psychological Type for the individual. In the case of the Singer-Loomis, Psychological Type represents an individual result within a large number of variations inside a particular Psychological Type. The Singer-Loomis Psychological Type also serves as a bridge to the individual’s Type Mode Profile, an even more comprehensive and individualized portrayal of how the personality functions.

Brief Summary of Designs

SL-TDI

Primary Design Goal: Measure personality functioning using concepts created by Carl Jung
Secondary Design Goal: Categorize an individual as one of 16 Psychological Types

The Singer-Loomis Type Deployment Inventory (SL-TDI)* uses a 5-point Likert scale to measure the Extraverted and Introverted expression of each of Jung’s four Functions (Sensing, Intuiting, Thinking and Feeling). These eight conceptual categories, which heretofore have never been the focus of measurement, are called Type Modes. Each of these eight scales measure how much the individual engages a particular psychological process/category in twenty different situations.

MBTI

Primary Design Goal: Categorize an individual as one of 16 Psychological Types

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)** is based on the bipolar assumption, i.e., that Thinking is always in bipolar opposition to Feeling, Sensation is always in opposition to Intuition, Introversion is always in opposition to Extraversion and Perceiving is always in opposition to Judging. Because of the bipolar assumption, the MBTI uses a forced choice (either/or) format with paired items. Respondents are asked to select which item is prefered. Each item represents a conceptual category. Preferences are in relation to categories. The categories themselves are not measured.

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*  SL-TDI is a copyrighted product of Moving Boundaries, inc., Gresham, OR.

**  MBTI is a copyrighted product of Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA.

There are four Type Functions—Sensation, Intuition, Feeling and Thinking. The SL-TDI measures the Extraverted and Introverted expression of each of the four Functions. The Singer-Loomis uses a Likert scale to measure each of these eight areas directly. Each of these areas represents a particular Type Mode.

Whenever Carl Jung was talking about a person, he seemed to consistently tie Type Function and Extraversion or Introversion together. He might say, for example, Shirley is an Extraverted Feeling Type. In short, he believed Shirley had Extraverted Feeling as her Dominant. In other words, when Jung addressed how people actually function, his language was somewhat different than when he was talking in a purely abstract way.

The SL-TDI assumes that a Type Function requires Extraverted or Introverted psychological energy for its expression. Without the inclusion of Extraverted or Introverted psychological energy, a Type Function is simply a latent potentiality. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the eight ways that Type Functions can be expressed. To distinguish these eight forms of expression from either Type Function or Extraversion or Introversion per se, the Singer-Loomis defines these eight forms of expression as Type Modes.

A Type Mode, for example, Extraverted Feeling, represents a dynamic process involving Extraverting psychological energy through the Feeling Function. When both of the Type Modes involved in the Feeling Function are taken into consideration, i.e., Extraverted Feeling (EF) and Introverted Feeling (IF), it is possible to talk about how a Type Function is operating. To do so, requires summing the scale scores of the EF and IF Type Modes.

Summing results in an aggregate score for the Feeling Function. This aggregate score is a different level of analysis from a Type Mode. Notice that the simple act of summing the information obscures how much of the Feeling Function is expressed through Extraverting and how much is expressed through Introverting. What is left is a numeric score that indicates how much the Type Function is expressed. A comparison of how two Functions operate requires shifting to the Type Mode level and comparing the Type Mode scores associated with each of the two Functions. Unless this happens, all that one can say is that one Type Function is used more than another Type Function, without knowing how it is used.

The more dynamic information is at the Type Mode level of analysis. Type Function is a more abstract concept, a broader level of generalization, with less specific information. Type Function is more removed from the here and now of everyday experience and less subject to change.

The Singer-Loomis collects information about how much a person actually uses eight Type capacities (Introverted Sensing, Extraverted Sensing, Introverted Intuiting, Extraverted Intuiting, Introverted Thinking, Extraverted Thinking, Introverted Feeling and Extraverted Feeling). Each of these capacities is measured in the same situation. The SL-TDI measures how much the person actually uses each Type capacity or Type Mode in a total of twenty situations. The result is a score based on what the person indicates they actually do, rather than what they prefer. What a person prefers may have little or no bearing on what a person actually does in everyday life.

How much a person uses each particular Type capacity is, to some degree, a matter of conscious choice. According to Jungian theory, the less developed the Type capacity, the more difficult it is to hold in conscious awareness. The SL-TDI takes the position that knowing what a person actually does is essential to being able to use conscious awareness to promote one’s development. Development means having some knowledge of one’s current state and on the basis of that knowledge, choosing ways to encourage further development in desired directions.

By measuring what a person does at a particular point in time, it is possible to have a baseline that can be used for counseling, coaching and informing conscious efforts to further develop the individual. After an interval of time, say six months or a year, the Inventory can be administered again and the results compared to the earlier reference point.

None of the existing bipolar inventories assess the use of all eight Type Modes. The eight variables (MBTI) (or six variables in the case of the JTS) about which information is gathered is not done in a way that holds the situations constant. Because the bipolar inventories vary the contexts in which individuals are required to select a preferred option, it would not be unfair to characterize these inventories as measuring preferences for traits without regard to situation. The Singer-Loomis measures the actual expression of cognitive modes in everyday situations and consistently measures all eight cognitive modes in the same situation.

There are at least 12 reasons why the SL-TDI expands the boundaries of Psychological Type:

1. The SL-TDI is the first Jungian Type inventory designed to directly measure the Extraverted and the Introverted expression of each of the four Type Functions (Sensing, Intuiting, Thinking and Feeling).
2. The SL-TDI measures Type functioning using eight Likert type scales; all of the other Type inventories use a forced choice format to collect information for the purpose of putting individuals into a pre-existing set of categories, i.e., 16 Types or 4 Temperaments.
3. The SL-TDI measures what an individual actually does with his or her Type capacities; all of the other Type inventories collect information about what an individual prefers to do.
4. The SL-TDI is the first Type inventory to show how each Type Function operates— by measuring how much of each Type Function is expressed through Extraverting and how much through Introverting.
5. The SL-TDI is the first Type inventory to show how the individual is Introverted—by measuring how much each of the four Introverted Type Functions contribute to the individual’s overall Introversion.
6. The SL-TDI is the first Type inventory to show how the individual is Extraverted—by measuring how much each of the four Extraverted Type Functions contribute to the individual’s overall Extraversion.
7. The SL-TDI is the first Type inventory to show how the individual Perceives—by measuring how much each of the four Perceiving Type Functions contribute to the individual’s overall Perceiving.
8. The SL-TDI is the first Type inventory to show how the individual Judges—by measuring how much each of the four Judging Type Functions contribute to the individual’s overall Judging.
9. The SL-TDI assumes that personality expression is a result of trait and state, nature and nurture. The other Type inventories take the position that traits or nature determine personality functioning.
10. The SL-TDI results are far more individualized than any other Type Inventory—the SL-TDI is capable of producing an estimated 6.5 million distinct and meaningfully different Type Profiles.
11. The highly individual results generated by the SL-TDI help to minimize stereotyping self and others with preconceived attributes and encourages getting to know self and other.
12. The SL-TDI shifts the concept of Type from the Individual as a Type to the Individual with Type capacities.

According to Jung, individuation is a life-long process of becoming whole or complete—which, incidentally, is not understood to mean “perfect”. Instead, it means becoming all one can be—given one’s strengths and limitations. This process is not determined by early childhood, or by adolescence, or by midlife alone. It is an on-going process that, if unhampered by unusual biological or environmental conditions, continues throughout one’s lifetime.

At the heart of the individuation process stands the all-important question of conscious awareness. As individuation proceeds, the individual becomes more aware of how he or she functions. This involves many complicated issues. Considerations at the forefront are: 1) the pattern of functioning of the individual’s eight type capacities, especially the relative influence of each Type Mode in relation to the other seven, and 2) the relationship between the ego and the unconscious. These two general considerations are intimately related. One’s access to the unconscious occurs through one’s particular pattern of typological functioning, just as the way one relates to the external world is expressed through typological functioning. For Jung, individuation meant greater consciousness of how one functions in the world.

Jung argued that individuation was not solely an internal process but also was reflected in how the person understood and engaged the external world. Since the Singer-Loomis Type Deployment Inventory measures all eight type modes independently, the mode(s) used the most, and therefore likely to be most accessible to conscious awareness, is (are) portrayed as one’s most developed Type Mode(s)— without a priori assumptions about opposition, etc. The Type Mode(s) used least is portrayed as most remote from and difficult to bring into conscious awareness.

An integral feature of individuation is that the ego becomes stronger, that is, has an increasingly transparent relationship with the unconscious and with the external world without being overwhelmed by either.

The SL-TDI results show the pattern of usage characteristic of the individual’s personality at a particular point in the individuation process. As individuation proceeds, the pattern is expected to change and, presumably, be reflected by different scores on the Inventory.