Many people ask what is the difference between DiSC and Myers Briggs. I recently answered what the differences are in a LinkedIn group . I copied my posting below.
The type of research done to come up with MTBI and DISC are very different. MTBI is based on Jung’s dichotomies to explain conscious and unconscious forces affecting behavior. MTBI explain more of the inner workings of an individual.
Dr. Marston’s came up with DiSC to explain how people adjust/react to environment shifts by looking first at emotional responses and correlating it to behavior. In short DiCS explains outward behavior.
Some people try to map MTBI types to DiCS types. It is bad to this. The reasons behind developing the assessment are completely different. One troubling crossover I see a lot by DiSC facilitator it saying D and I are ‘extroverts’ while S and C are ‘introverts’. There are extroverts and introverts in all 4 base DISC types. (Side note: most of my D clients are introverts looking for someone to help them get out of their self-perceived shell even though they interact with a large variety of people all day long.)
Another key difference is study-time you need to devote to learning the assessments before you are competent in them. The DiCS assessment has self interpreting explanations included in the report. MBTI only returns a ‘score’ and requires a college level courses to fully understand the results.
A couple more notes
DiSC is a personality temperament assessment. While MBTI is a personality type assessment. Think of DiSC as a grouping of several personality types lumped into one heading with the same outward behavior. A very rough understanding of how this works is each personality puts different weight on feeling vs thinking, present vs past and what stresses them the most. People can internally process environmental input in a unique way but outwardly respond the same. This is what DiSC does, puts the same outward behavior in one group. MBTI is a “true” personality assessment typing out an individual to the exact way they process the environment.
MBTI does have 4 Temperament groups. However they are NOT equal to the 4 DiSC Temperaments. There are some similarities and those should be held loosely. If you want to learn about MBTI Temperaments check out these books.
The Art of SpeedReading People: How to Size People Up and Speak Their Language
Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types
Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence
I find the MBTI more powerful. I’m can go straight to the ‘way’ someone is processing a situation and give them insight in how they are processing the world. MBTI helps to quickly uncover limiting beliefs and show the beauty of what an individual brings the world. DiSC is far superior in group settings and easier to master.
