MBTI personality types

[Clues_Of_Blue]

I have had an ongoing fascination with analysing personality, and what makes myself and others tick, and have found the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to be a surprisingly accurate measure of such things. I have catalogued the types of many of the people in my life, and probably driven them nuts with my project. It's an interesting study, though, observing consistent traits among the types, how they relate to life skills, coping strategies, how they function in different settings and why.

If you know your type, feel free to share, and things you may have discovered about yourself or that have helped you relate to others using resources about it. If you don't know your type, and want to, I found the site 16 Personalities pretty good for testing and dissecting the types.

If it's of any interest, I am an INTP, and the information about my type on that site is pretty spot-on. I've only used that as a starting point for my research. There is so much information out there on the types, and the differences between them that actually goes a long way to breaking down the core of otherwise confusing conflicts, or getting the most out of a person at work or in a friendship, etc.

Anyway, it's a bit of a project of mine, and I wanted to open it up to anyone who wants to contribute.

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Gotta tell it like it is, Paul. 🙂

[CMF]

Hi Blues,

I too am fascinated with personality types and what makes people tick. I love to "people watch" too.

I cannot remember my myers-briggs personality type, I'll have to do it again. I wonder does I change as we go through different things in life. I did the test about 20 years ago and I'm certainly not he person I was back then. Life situations and circumstances have changed me.

Interesting...

[Clues_Of_Blue]

CMF, I've known of people's personality types to shift a bit, but I don't think it's typical. I also think it may be the product of slightly different test questions. My results have come up a little differently from one site to another. Some peg me as an INTJ; I'm very much on the border between Judging and Perceiving in any given test, and do share a few traits with the INTJ type. There are sites that go into much greater depth about the differences between the types, and I have ascertained from them that my overall thinking processes land fairly squarely in the INTP camp. For anyone who is a bit hazy on where they fall between two similar types, I'm sure I could find those resources again and direct you there.

Sherie, the more I read from your personal thread, the more I have to concur with the ISFJ summary as it relates to your experience.

As for what got me interested... To be honest, I just got bored one night and took a personality test. I remembered having taken the MBTI test years ago and that it was pretty accurate. My type came up the same, and the information I found remained relevant and interesting, and this time I was viewing it with the clarity of an adult (I was in my late teens, the first time I encountered the MBTI). I decided to poke various people around me to find out their types as well. There were certain patterns in the data, for instance, that the people that I am most comfortable and at ease with are inevitably Intuitive types, and that whilst I do have a few Sensing types around me, indeed including my mother and my best friend, these are the ones I am most likely to butt heads with (there are rare exceptions, including yourself and the other ISFJ I know). They just seem so unaware of the other person in their interactions sometimes and I lose patience with that.

[Guest_5218]

Hi Blue, you have got me interested in this stuff now. I remembered that I did some sort of personality test when I worked for a Govt Dept many years ago, and I just found it. It isnt the MBTI one, its a Team Management System thing and more geared towards working related things. But it is still quite interesting. It told me that I am a Concluder-Producer, with related roles of Controller-Inspector and Upholder-Maintainer. More specifically I in an introvert when it comes to relating with others. I am practical when it comes to gathering and using information. I make decisions based very evenly between Analytical and Beliefs. And I organise myself and others in more of a structured way than flexible. I guess some of this is similar to the MBTI personality test, but just more related to working traits rather than more personal traits.

But getting back to the MBTI test I did yesterday. The balance was very definite in some areas, but somewhat middling in others. For example, this is what it said from my test results.

Personality type: “The Defender” (ISFJ-T)
Individual traits: Introverted – 90%, Observant – 70%, Feeling – 55%, Judging – 79%, Turbulent – 64%.

Role: Sentinel
Strategy: Constant Improvement

None of these things in themselves make a lot of sense to me, but the overall summary is quite telling. I guess that the Introvert score of 90% is high, and thats true. I will read up more on what each of the other scores really mean. As I said, you have me interested in this now too. So I must do some research too as to what the Sentinel thing is all about as well as the strategy of constant improvement. (-:

Sherie xx

[Solosombra]

I was too curious Lol

I got INTJ as mine 😕 haha wow...

[blondguy]

Hey MrK

another INTJ! Way to go!

Paul

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Kiamau, I admit I'm surprised by your result, but not in a bad way. I know INTJs can be very caring and warm, but it's often well guarded and doesn't radiate from them quite the way it does from you. Have you had a good read of the description, and do you think it's accurate? As a side note, my partner is an INTJ. I have a particular affinity for the type. 🙂

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Sherie, the individual traits themselves only tell a fraction of the story, and each type as a whole tends to be very much more than the sum of its parts. It can take only one letter different to create two completely different types, such as an INTP like myself being significantly different from an INFP like some of the others here. A Thinking or Feeling preference can throw all the other things into a whole different light. There is far more detail on the types available beyond what 16 Personalities offers, if you care to look, but maybe just digest what's there for now.

You've highlighted a few points about your own personality, and I think I'll do the same, for those who are a bit interested but find it a bit much effort to chase up someone else's information:

As an INTP (Assertive) - The Logician - my role is that of "Analyst", and my strategy, "Confident Individualism". I can live with that.

Strengths:

Great Analysts and Abstract Thinkers – People with the INTP personality type view the world as a big, complex machine, and recognize that as with any machine, all parts are interrelated. INTPs excel in analyzing these connections, seeing how seemingly unrelated factors tie in with each other in ways that bewilder most other personality types.

Imaginative and Original – These connections are the product of an unrelenting imagination – INTPs' ideas may seem counter-intuitive at a glance, and may never even see the light of day, but they will always prove remarkable innovations.

Open-Minded – INTPs couldn't make these connections if they thought they knew it all – they are highly receptive to alternate theories, so long as they're supported by logic and facts. In more subjective matters like social norms and traditions, INTPs are usually fairly liberal, with a "none of my business" sort of attitude –
peoples' ideas are what matter.

Enthusiastic – When a new idea piques their interest, INTPs can be very enthusiastic – they are a reserved personality type, but if another person shares an interest, they can be downright excited about discussing it. More likely though, the only outward evidence of this enthusiasm will be INTPs' silent pacing or their staring into the distance.

To be continued...

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Objective – INTPs' analysis, creativity and open-mindedness aren't the tools of some quest for ideology or emotional validation. Rather, it's as though people with the INTP personality type are a conduit for the truths around them, so far as they can be expressed, and they are proud of this role as theoretical mediator.

Honest and Straightforward – To know one thing and say another would be terribly disingenuous – INTPs don't often go around intentionally hurting feelings, but they believe that the truth is the most important factor, and they expect that to be appreciated and reciprocated.

Weaknesses

Very Private and Withdrawn – While INTPs' intellectualism yields many insights into their surroundings, their
surroundings are ironically considered an intrusion on their thoughts. This is
especially true with people – INTPs are quite shy in social settings. More complicated situations such as parties exacerbate this, but even close friends struggle to get into INTPs' hearts and minds.

Insensitive – Oftentimes INTP personalities get so caught up in their logic that they forget any kind of emotional consideration – they dismiss subjectivity as irrational and tradition as an attempt to bar much-needed progress. Purely emotional situations are often utterly puzzling to INTPs, and their lack of timely sympathy can easily offend.

Absent-minded – When INTPs' interest is captured, their absence goes beyond social matters to include the rest of the physical world. INTPs become forgetful, missing even the obvious if it's unrelated to their current
infatuation, and they can even forget their own health, skipping meals and sleep as they muse.

Condescending – Attempts at connecting with others are often worse than INTPs' withdrawal. People with the INTP personality type take pride in their knowledge and rationale, and enjoy sharing their ideas, but in trying to explain how they got from A to B to Z, they can get frustrated, sometimes simplifying things to the point of insult as they struggle to gauge their conversation partners' perspective. The ultimate insult comes as INTPs give up with a dismissive "never mind".

Loathe Rules and Guidelines – These social struggles are partly a product of INTPs' desire to bypass the
rules, of social conduct and otherwise. While this attitude helps INTPs' strength of unconventional creativity, it also causes them to reinvent the wheel constantly and shun security in favor of autonomy in ways that can compromise both.

Continued.

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Second-Guess Themselves – INTPs remain so open to new information that they often never commit to a decision at all. This applies to their own skills as well – INTP personalities know that as they practice, they improve, and any work they do is second-best to what they could do. Unable to settle for this, INTPs sometimes
delay their output indefinitely with constant revisions, sometimes even quitting before they ever begin.

That will do for now. I find most of these things to be very true of me, either past or present, including the not-so-flattering ones. I do very much shoot myself in the foot with the second-guessing thing. There's always more data to acquire, and an improvement I could make. I'm bad at letting that go. But at least I'm objective enough to admit it. 😉