About the test
What is the DTI?
The Depth Typology Index finds which of the 16 personality types fits you best by looking at the deep patterns each type comes with: what you need to feel right, how you engage with people, your main mental strength and its weak spot. It then keeps the type where all of these agree.
"Depth" stands for Carl Jung's depth psychology, where the 16 types come from, and for the patterns beneath everyday behavior. "Index" means every answer adds a little evidence for or against each type.
The 16 types in a minute
In 1921, Carl Jung described eight ways the mind works: four mental functions (sensing, intuition, thinking, feeling), each turned either outward to the world or inward to oneself. Everyone uses all eight, but not equally. Each person leans on one of them most, backed by a second, and that pairing shapes how they take in the world and decide.
There are 16 such combinations: the 16 types. The four letters you may know, like INFP or ESTJ, are a short way to name them.
Beebe's model: the full map of a type
The psychiatrist John Beebe completed Jung's picture. In his model, each type holds all eight functions, each in its own role, like characters in a story. The first four are the ones a person knows best; the last four are their shadow, which shows up mostly under pressure or in conflict.
Pick a type to see its map:
The conscious side
The shadow
The highlighted roles are the two ends of what Beebe calls the spine: the Hero (your main strength) and the Inferior (your weak spot). They are the part of the map the DTI measures directly.
The MBTI, and why the DTI goes further
The MBTI is a questionnaire created in the 1940s by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, based on Jung's work. You answer either/or questions, it scores you on four scales (E or I, S or N, T or F, J or P), and the four letters are your type.
It is a good starting point, but it stays at the surface:
- Each letter is decided on its own, so the four letters are never checked against each other.
- People in the middle of a scale flip letters easily, which is why many get a different type when they retake it.
- It asks how you see yourself on abstract choices ("logic or feelings?"), which easily mixes up who you are with who you would like to be.
- Most free "MBTI tests" online are not the official questionnaire at all.
The DTI treats a type as a whole person: a consistent set of needs, a pace with people, a main strength and a weak spot. It asks about concrete moments you recognize, not abstract self-ratings, and a type only wins when all these patterns point the same way. It is also checked in the open against people who know their type, version after version.
| MBTI | DTI | |
|---|---|---|
| What it asks | Either/or questions about yourself | Short cards about real moments: tap what sounds like you |
| How it scores | Four separate scales | All 16 types at once, from several patterns that must agree |
| Questions | A fixed list, the same for everyone | Chosen as you go, to separate the types still in the running |
| Result | Four letters | Your type, its closest rival, your core need and social style |
| Checked against people | By its publisher, in its manuals | In the open, version by version, on the versions page |
MBTI and Myers-Briggs are trademarks of their owners. The DTI is independent and not affiliated with them.
Big patterns, not single functions
It may seem natural to test each of the eight functions one by one. The DTI deliberately does not. Everyone uses all eight to some degree, and a single habit (say, correcting how people use words) rarely belongs to one function. A card aimed at one function can wrongly rule out a type that uses that function every day.
The first version of the test worked that way, and typed a person who knew they were INFP as ISTP. Since then, every card describes a big pattern shared by a group of types, never a single function. Functions still count, but only where they are sturdy enough to see: as a type's main strength together with its weak spot.
What the test looks at
Temperament: what you need
Four core needs: stability, freedom, meaning, mastery. (SJ, SP, NF, NT, after David Keirsey)
Social style: your pace with people
Four ways to engage: take charge, chart the course, get things going, support behind the scenes. (Interaction styles, after Linda Berens)
Main strength and weak spot
Your strongest mental function and the one you struggle with most, always a matching pair. Eight pairs in all. (Beebe's Hero and Inferior)
The four preferences
E or I, S or N, T or F, J or P: they count toward the whole type, but are never decided on their own.
Patterns shared by a few types
Smaller patterns typical of two to eight types, such as how they decide, argue or care for people, and a few that fit one type.
How the patterns are crossed
Each type sits at exactly one crossing of temperament and social style, so these two patterns alone could name any type. The DTI adds a third, independent view: each type's main strength, which it shares with one other type in a different square. Tap or hover a type to see its partner.
Each square shows a type and its main strength.
A type wins only when these views agree, with the four preferences on top. If you answer one pattern in an unusual way, the others outvote it, so one odd answer cannot derail your result.
How the test works
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A feed of short cards
The test holds 563 cards: 381 single statements and 58 small groups where you pick any options that fit. They come in 11 kinds:
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Four ways to answer
TapThat is me.So meA strong yes, worth 1.5 taps.So not meA firm no, three times stronger than scrolling past.Scroll pastA soft "probably not". -
The feed adapts to you
Each next card is the one that best separates the types still in the running. The test opens with 8 easy single statements, and longer scenarios come later.
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Every type gets a fair hearing
Before it can end, the test must ask about every temperament, every social style, every main strength and every preference, and give the leading type and its closest rivals a fair number of cards.
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It ends when it is sure
After at least 100 cards, once one type reaches 90% and stays in front for a while. If two types are still close after 180 cards, it tells you and asks a few more, up to 240.
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Your result
Your type and how it fits you, your closest rival type and the letters you differ on, your core need and social style, and the cards you picked that pointed there most.
How accurate is it?
The percentage on your result compares the types with each other: it is not a guarantee. Real accuracy is measured on people who already know their type and share their answers anonymously.
Nobody can be 100% sure of their own type, so a few of these people will have it wrong. That is why one person never changes the test: only patterns shared by many people do. Every change is checked on answers it was not built from, and every version is published on the versions page.
Open DTI
The DTI is open. Its method, described on this page, and its cards are free for anyone to use, translate and adapt, including in your own apps, research or teaching, under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 licence. There is nothing to pay and no certification. Just two conditions:
- Credit the DTI, for example: "Based on the DTI (Depth Typology Index) by MazWiz, mazwiz.com".
- Share your changes the same way: if you adapt the cards or the method, your version is open under the same licence.
Every card, with its kind, the types it points to and the groups of types behind it. It always matches the current version of the test.
Using the name
You may call your test, translation or tool "DTI" or "Depth Typology Index" when it uses the DTI as published. If you change the cards or the scoring, say that your version is modified, and do not present it as the official DTI. The official versions are the ones listed on the versions page.
What stays private: the answers people share with us. They are never published one by one, only as totals (privacy policy). The website's own code is not part of this licence.