CAPT
CAPT is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is
to extend and teach the accurate understanding of the ethical and
practical applications of C.G. Jung's theory of psychological types,
which shows how our differences in experiencing events and making
decisions can be valuable rather than divisive, and can be used
constructively to promote personal development, to manage
conflict, and to increase human understanding worldwide.
The Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT) was founded in
1975 by Isabel Briggs Myers and Dr. Mary McCaulley, but the seeds of its
creation were planted six years earlier when those two women met for
the first time.
In 1968, Mary McCaulley, a psychologist then on the faculty of the
University of Florida Department of Clinical Psychology, discovered the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument in the Buros Mental
Measurements Yearbook. She became fascinated with the Indicator and
Jung's concepts of type and began testing it with her students and
clients.
Her growing interest in the MBTI instrument led Dr. McCaulley to
contact Isabel Myers for information about a book mentioned in the MBTI
Manual. The history of CAPT really began with the first conversation
that took place between these two women. In the year that followed they
corresponded regularly and were finally able to meet a year later in
person.
The collaborative relationship between Mary McCaulley and Isabel Myers
continued to grow over the next five years. It was during this time that
they created the first computer scoring program for the MBTI
instrument, conducted research studies of more than 3000 students, and
developed the first training programs for professionals, teaching them
how to use the Indicator.
By 1975, it became clear to both women that their growing type research
and training programs warranted an educational center of its own-and
the Center for Applications of Psychological Type was created. In its
fledgling stage, CAPT began as a field office of the Medical Student
Association Foundation, and four years later became an independent not
for profit organization. CAPT has been located in Gainesville, Florida
since its inception.
The MBTI instrument was originally published by Educational Testing
Service (ETS). When ETS decided to no longer publish the MBTI
instrument, it was important that another publisher be found. Mary
McCaulley made contact with a psychologist at Stanford University, Jack
Black, who had recently started a publishing company, CPP, Inc. In 1976
CPP became the new publisher for the Indicator. Today, the MBTI
instrument is still published by CPP and has gone from a little known
instrument to one that has gained worldwide acclaim.
CAPT has also flourished over the past forty plus years, attracting a
dynamic and devoted practitioner base, as the interest in and
understanding of psychological type has grown. CAPT's research data bank
holds more than a million records from people who have taken the
Indicator. The MBTI bibliography has more than 10,000 entries, and the
Isabel Briggs Myers Memorial Library has developed into the largest
collection of MBTI publications, dissertations and theses in the world. You can now access these lisings on MILO - Mary and Isabel's Library Online catalog.
Isabel Myers and Mary McCaulley met because of a shared interest in
people, a fascination with the differences that make us unique, and a
desire to understand how those differences can be used constructively to
understand and appreciate others and ourselves. CAPT is committed to
continuing the mission of these two extraordinary women — to learn more
about and to teach the inherent value of our differences, those which
make life, as Isabel Myers put it, "more amusing, more interesting and
more of a daily adventure than it could possibly be if everyone were
alike."