Improving Roommate Relations with
MBTI^®Complete

Something very bad was happening in Room 42 of Hollister Hall.

Shouting punctuated with pounding could be heard through the dorm room’s thick walls. It didn’t sound like a party, although Dan had one of those almost every weekend. The voice of Dan’s roommate, Simon, who was usually so quiet, carried all the way down the hall.

The clash everyone knew was coming had finally arrived. Dan’s parties, late night visitors, and loud music had pushed Simon over the edge. For months Simon had put up with his roommate, hoping things would get better. He had talked with Dan calmly and had even gotten Dan to agree to some roommate rules. But nothing had helped, and when for the third night in a row Dan brought friends over to play in an Unreal Tournament playoff, Simon stopped hoping and started shouting.

The next day the residential advisor for the dorm took Dan and Simon to see a counselor at the Office of Student Affairs. Taking a break from glaring at each other and muttering under their breath, the two students found out about their personalities by taking the MBTI^®Complete assessment.

It was no surprise to either of them that their results showed them to be completely opposite types.

What did surprise the roommates was the session they had with the counselor the next day.

They had been sure that the school would reassign them to different rooms and new roommates. But the counselor explained that learning more about their personalities and about how people of different types communicate could help them establish a better relationship and resolve their differences.

Simon came to realize, for example, that Dan was just trying to include him in all his activities as a way to be better friends.

Dan understood that Simon’s focus was primarily on schoolwork and that a quiet environment was very important to him.

They talked about their differences and agreed to make some changes to improve their situation.

The rest of the year in Room 42 of Hollister dorm was much less exciting. Dan still had parties on the weekends, but during the week the room was a “quiet zone” for studying. Dan and Simon even double-dated once. Just once was enough, though.

Finding out about themselves and each other helped the roommates live together more peacefully. Dan and Simon didn’t live together after their freshman year, but the MBTI^®Complete experience certainly benefited them and their sophomore year roommates.