If you're not familiar with Myers-Briggs, the personality types are broken down into four categories:
- Extraverted/Introverted (where you draw your energy from, either people/activities/things or internal reflection)
- Sensing /iNtuitive(how you process information, whether through concrete fact or abstract patterns)
- Thinking/Feeling (how you make decisions, whether on logic or value-based systems)
- Judging/Perceiving (your lifestyle, either structured or open-ended)
To see oneself utterly eviscerated for all the world to see in neat, tidy bulletpoints is both liberating and disconcerting. Brings equal amounts of incredible normalization and humiliation.
And it kind of makes me want to crawl into a hole with my inadequacies.
But what the heck, it's time for a blog about it. Might as well.
My personality type is INFP, a.k.a. "the Idealist." Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving. The description is fairly spot on, although I think I've become more of an extravert in recent years. And I've become more of a logical (more Thinking, less Feeling) person. The cold, cruel world is squelching all the emotion out of me...;)
A short description of an INFP:
Quiet, reflective, and idealistic. Interested in serving humanity. Well-developed value system, which they strive to live in accordance with. Extremely loyal. Adaptable and laid-back unless a strongly-held value is threatened. Usually talented writers. Mentally quick, and able to see possibilities. Interested in understanding and helping people.
And this part was scarily accurate, if you have any interest and time to read... it's kinda long. But I was actually disappointed that I was so predictable in my INFP-ness.
Anyway, do you all know your personality type?
Someone posted on facebook the more "negative" description of the personality types, which I found pretty entertaining. According to this website, I am a "Fanatic." Mwuahaha...
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7 comments:
INTJ - Only recently found out thanks to MyType on FB. Everyone was going on about it so I thought I'd find out. Of course I knew what it would be! I'm a T after all.
What can I say that hasn't already been said?
For kicks, I looked up INTJ, because I'm still not convinced I'm an E. Although, the description of ENTJ is pretty dead on (CRITICAL, ugh).
http://typelogic.com/intj.html
I don't know Mel, I'm not sure we've narrowed down my type yet. This one sounds like me, too.
Especially: Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel....Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense.
Maybe I really am just balanced.
Or maybe I'm just massively confused. Haha :)
Always very interesting stuff. I'm an INTP.
If you want to dig a lot deeper (deeper in my opinion), check out the awesome book "The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective" by Richard Rohr. If you do get it, be sure to read all of it (including the introductory essays), and not just skip to the various types.
-haha the T is for Tim?;)
-Jeanne I think your E/I and your F/T are so evenly balanced that it's a wee bit confusing. you're simply an enigma, my dear;) don't let Myers-Briggs box you in!
"Maybe I really am just balanced.
Or maybe I'm just massively confused." it's probably a little of both;)
-thanks for the book recommend, Jonathan. i think your bro has recommended Richard Rohr to me before but I never got around to reading him... Gotta add that to my list;)
Yeah, I'm pretty much an INFP, though some of the negative aspects of our type are a little harsh. I've slide much closer to extroversion in the last few years also. INFP for life.
Heh, I remember when we had to do the Meyers-Briggs test at work. As with most things, I was cynical. My biggest concern with the MB is that it results in the Forer effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forer_effect).
We human beings are each so complicated. Can we really be classified so neatly?
I don't think the classifications are meant to box people in, only to help understand ourselves (how we process, how we naturally make decisions) and how to better relate to people who process things differently.
As for the Forer effect, I personally think that none of the other descriptions really resonate with me other than ENFP, so I might be an INFP/borderline INFP, so I really don't think it's like a horoscope or something of that nature that can pretty much apply to anybody. But that's just my experience with it.
I've known I was an INFP since high school I think and being self-aware of potential pitfalls/flaws/issues at a somewhat younger age helped me out a lot, I think.
(I am a staunch Myers-Briggs advocate, in case you can't tell;)
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