The National Sample used with the 1998 Form M version of the MBTI was developed through surveys of 3,200 respondents in the United States, selected from an original sample of 16,000 households to gather data in percentages similar to the US population for age, gender, ethnic background, etc. (MBTI Manual, 1998, p. 143)
Similar samples have been collected by MBTI publishers in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, and Korea, with other studies scheduled. (
Type and Culture, Kirby, Kendall, & Barger).
Type does in fact go around the world; Jung explored the concepts early on with a tribe in Nigeria and the Southwest United States to see if the preferences described normal ways of being in those cultures too.
However, cultures differ in which preferences are
honored, or held up as archetypes. In the network of type professionals in over 40 countries,
Association for Psychological Type International, we wouldn't determine the archetype of another culture but instead ask them to inform us of how the preferences are viewed from within their cultures. Our colleagues in India for example talk of their archetype for Intuition thus, "We have over a billion people, a million gods in our pantheon, over 300,000 spoken dialects, and a religion, Hinduism, where the goal is to move beyond reality. This is Intuition permeating our very thought structure." Our colleagues within the First Nations describe their archetype for Introversion as "Great leaders are those who listen to everyone else and then synthesize the wisdom."
Type becomes a great tool for talking about cultural differences without stereotyping if one a)actually believes all 8 preferences are equally great ways of being and b) listens to what the cultures say about themselves rather than judging what they are from afar.
edcoaching (INFJ)