Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Mbti) personality and career indecision among Malaysian undergraduate students of different academic majors

Abstract

Due to the exam oriented Malaysian education system coupled with societal preconceived notions of a supposedly ideal career, Malaysian undergraduates lack the opportunity for career exploration, resulting in career indecision. Therefore, clearer understanding of their own personality can potentially guide Malaysian undergraduates in analyzing their own strengths and weaknesses as well as in processing career information and environment, which in turn helps in their career decision making. As such, the purpose of this study is to investigate the link between MBTI personality type, academic major and career indecision among Malaysian undergraduates, since such studies in the Malaysian context are lacking in current literature. A quantitative research design was employed and the respondents comprised of 500 sophomore (Year 2 and Year 3) undergraduate students from six different academic majors (Engineering, Science, Architecture, Education, Human Resources and Computing) in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, obtained via stratified random sampling. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Career Decision Difficulties Questionnaire (CDDQ) were used as the instruments in this study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyzed the results of this study. Chi-Square Test revealed significant association between academic major and two MBTI personality constructs. ANOVA demonstrated significant differences between means for career decision when comparing Engineering-Education undergraduates as well as Engineering-Computing undergraduates. The study has demonstrated to some extent, the association between MBTI personality and academic major, in which the findings can be potentially applied to optimize one’s performance in a selected major, in turn reducing career indecision.