Customer Reviews

Where in the World Do I Belong?? Which country's culture fits your Myers Briggs personality type?

5 star:		(3)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was really looking forward to reading this book, but I was extremely disappointed, and it wasn't just because I was told there was no culture that matched my personality type!

The notion of understanding culture through personality type is a very interesting idea, but Massey's book doesn't do the idea justice. His attempts to explain the basics of personality types and the relationships among the four categories left me cross-eyed, even though I already have a basic understanding of what the different types are about. The book in general reads as a sort of jumble of observations, and it is hard to pull the different comments together. Sometimes there are seemingly contradictory comments within a few sentences of each other that are not reconciled. Massey says that his wife accuses him of never getting to the punch line, and this book is a good illustration of that problem.

The biggest problem I had with the book, however, is that when he does get to a punch line, it's hard to know where it came from. Nowhere does Massey describe methodically exactly how he compiled his data, what different kinds of data he uses, or how much of it is represented in his ratings of each of the different countries. He says that some (perhaps most?) of his research was done by e-mail correspondence with individual people in different countries. In one place he reports a handful of responses from individuals from Australia, leaving me to wonder if his conclusions about Australian culture are based on the self-reporting of just five people who sent him e-mails. And whether his other profiles are based solely on just a few self-reports and e-mails. He reports an overall figure of 400 correspondences for 115 countries, an average of fewer than four people per country. That doesn't seem like a very solid foundation for drawing rather sweeping conclusions.

I've got a whole bookshelf of MBTI books, and thought this one might be an interesting addition. It is, indeed, an interesting addition -- fun, a little bit out-there, brimming with personal anecdotes -- but it's not a book I'll likely refer to often.

Massey is necessarily speculative and conclusory in typecasting countries. After all, the concept itself is a little hard to swallow; it requires us to distill the personality of an entire nation into a single type. This is stereotyping on a global scale.

The United States is, of course, ESTJ. Loud, strong-willed, outgoing, with pronounced E and T preferences. England is also ESTJ, though S and J are more pronounced than E and T. Austria, Slovenia, Hungary & Croatia share the ESTJ preference.

Massey posits that China overall is ISFP, though Beijing is ESTP. Interesting, as I know many Chinese folks living in the US and there's not a P in the crowd,

Massey's Italy is ENFP -- very E, very P. I'll agree with that assessment. Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Bulgaria, Belize, Sudan, Saudia Arabia . . . also ENFP. Russia, India, and a number of -stans are also listed as ENFP.

ENFJ countries include Greenland and Ghana. There must be something inherently ENFJ about the French speakers, as French-speaking Quebec, Canadians and French-speaking Belgians are ENFJ; whereas English-speaking Canadians are ESFJ and Dutch-speaking Belgians are apparently ISFP.

In addition to Canada, other ESFJ countries include Costa Rica, Ukraine, Namimbia, Uganda, Taiwan, and South Korea. Seemingly strange bedfellows -- you'll have to read the book to see what these countries have in common.

INFP countries inclue Nepal and Burma. ENTJ countries -- the only two are France and Jordan, which don't strike me as having much else in common.

Central and South America & the Caribbean are well-represented on the list of ESFP countries. Mexico, Guatemala, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Portugal and Romania are typed as ESFP. As are Greece, Malta, Turkey, Tibet, Thailand and East Timor. And who would have thought that Australia and Bangladesh share the same personality type? Yep, both are ESFP.

Fortunately, Massey's style is light and personal, brimming with anecdotes. He doesn't present this as airtight academic research, nor is there any I'm-defending-my-dissertation arrogance in his writing. In fact, he freely expresses uncertainty about his conclusions and notes that he has limited and necessarily biased data -- one respondent from Ghana, and three from Australia, for example.

This is simply a fun read, nothing more & nothing less. If you're expecting a reference book or an MBTI text . . . or clear insight into where you should live in retirement, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for something light & fun, something interesting that will have you reflecting on your international travels, something that shows one person's interpretation and application of the MBTI, and you're not offended by blanket conclusions and stereotypes, you might enjoy this.

"Where in the World do I Belong" is an interesting take on Personality Type applied to culture - while every other book on Personality Type takes the straight academic path of crunching numbers, counting surveys, and researching the research of researchers, Mr. Massey takes a very different tack. Rather than compile past research and give an analytical evaluation of each culture, he takes what can only be termed a more "humanistic approach" - he talks to people from each culture, as well as draws from his own experience. The first 1/4 of the books is a fascinating examination and explanation of personality type - however, what sets it apart is the author's style. He admits up front that he is an INFP, and his writing style shows this - screams it, in fact. The author's use of his own personal experiences, anecdotes, and quotes from friends, colleagues, and professors reads somewhat like an autobiography, and offers up an image of "how an INFP sees the world", and makes what tends to be an analytical and academic topic accessible. The rest of the book deals with the "types" of various cultures, based on how people from each culture see it - whether this method is less valid than an analytical and historical survey is up for debate, but what can't be debated is that this book, written by an NF, gives a completely different view of, and feel to, personality type.

A welcome addition to the MBTI canon, Brent Massey's well-researched book examines Myers-Briggs type by country and countries by their Myers-Briggs type. Particularly strong in areas where the author has personal experience (the USA, Japan, INFPs), this book will shed a considerable amount of light on why it is that you sometimes don't feel like you quite belong in your own country, yet why you have always felt such a connection with and fond regard for [insert name of country where you had your most memorable holiday]. The effect of reading all this research gathered together in one book is as if Massey has created a new language, enabling the reader to verbalise what had previously been limited to a disparate collection of internal impressions. It's like suddenly putting on a pair of glasses and seeing clearly at last when you didn't even realise you were shortsighted. If you're (also) INFP, interested in psychology/typology/MBTI, have friends or relatives from other countries, or have a wide selection of stamps in your passport, this book will appeal; I'd give it six stars if I could. Highly, highly recommended.

The theory of a culture reflecting qualities found in the various personality types as laid out by the Myers Briggs Personality indicator is intriguing and holds much validity, in my opinion. Also, I appreciate the author's eagerness to present the idea and to pose the question of whether each personality type could actually find a culture that is best fitting. But, I think that in order for the subject to be thoroughly explored, solid facts and research more concrete than what was contained in this book are a necessary foundation. Although I enjoyed the writer's style and appreciated the explanations of the Myers Briggs Personality Indicator at the beginning of the book, I found that the title of the book did not match the level of content found within. In my humble opinion, the subject could be better fleshed out if it is based on years of combined work between an anthropologists, historians and psychologists.

This was a great read. I first became interested in the MBTI (personality type indicator) a few years back. Once I discovered my own type and how accurate it was in explaining my friends', families' as well as my own preferences, I delved deeper into my research.

"Where in the World Do I Belong" is the first I've seen of it's kind. Overall, I've always felt really awkward and have always had a hard time integrating into the society in which I live, so it really struck a chord when I found out this country is the exact opposite of my own type. Deep down I've always known this, but with this new knowledge, I don't feel as "alien."

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the cultures (including food, entertainment, etc) I'm most interested in match my type preferences more closely.

It's true that this book isn't perfect in its research, But do you know how much it would cost do large-scale qualitative study on every country in the world? With the resources available, and keen intuition (a strong skill of the author's type), Brent Massey has produced a great and fun-to-read resource.

This book is absolutely rubbish... Tells you nothing and it helps you with nothing... Go on line... and do a Google search you would be better off than wasting your money on this book...
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