THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSONALITY TYPE AND ADOPTION CHOICES (MBTI)

The field of adoption faces a major supply and demand problem. Although there are many children available for adoption, many prospective parents are thwarted in their attempts to adopt. Can an understanding of Jung's psychological types provide insight into who is most likely to adopt waiting children, most of whom are older, have a mental or physical condition, or are of a minority racial or ethnic group?; One-hundred-thirty-nine adopters and 102 nonadopters, most from the Washington, D.C. area, volunteered for this study. The experimental group took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and answered twenty questions about themselves and their adoption. Previously taking the MBTI, the control group completed a thirteen question profile about themselves and their willingness to adopt certain types of children. Data showed that the adopters and nonadopters were very similar demographically. The experimental group had adopted seventy-six children, seventy-eight percent of whom were nontraditional, that is, they were older at the time of adoption, their health was other than excellent, and/or they were of a race or ethnic group different from that of their parents. The nonadoptive couples indicated a high willingness to adopt different types of children, both traditional and nontraditional. The researcher hypothesized that those choosing nontraditional children (who may need more care and nurturing than a traditional child) would more likely prefer feeling over thinking on the MBTI thinking/feeling scale. Data did not support this hypothesis. However, she did find more introverts on the extraversion/introversion scale and more intuitors on the sensing/intuition scale of the MBTI than normally found in the general population, a finding typical for a sample from high socioeconomic strata. There were no significant differences on the judging/perception scale. Another finding was that women are more likely to be the driving force in adoption, regardless of whether they are thinkers or feelers. Although Jung's psychological type theory can be useful to both prospective parents and adoption professionals, it may be more helpful in explaining how people go about adopting rather than the specific adoption choices they make.