Personality Types

[Ryan Hill]

I am mostly a "7"...

No, you're totally a 10.

...so i DON'T need to bring any cheese back from Wisconsin? you've got it covered? excellent.

It's true though. Sara Michelle doesn't have shit on our Buffy.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

No, you're totally a 10.

...so i DON'T need to bring any cheese back from Wisconsin? you've got it covered? excellent.

It's true though. Sara Michelle doesn't have shit on our Buffy.

i <3 my Scoobies. and then Stephanie puts a stake through that <3

[EmilyBee]

INFJ. Used to be more E, when I tested, but I was also generally more anxious. YO PETER! Represent!

Moderate I
Slightly N
VERY F
Moderately J

Me and John Calvin. Whee!

[Ryan Hill]

i <3 my Scoobies. and then Stephanie puts a stake through that <3

Hey now, only one person gets staked by Steph. Ahem.

[zyrain]

Hmm -- here's how the enneagram turned out for me:

Type 1 - 9.7
Type 9 - 9

Knowing both you and the Enneagram, I'd say "9 with a 1-wing" fits the best. Take it or leave it.

[Steeeph]

No, you're totally a 10.

...so i DON'T need to bring any cheese back from Wisconsin? you've got it covered? excellent.

It's true though. Sara Michelle doesn't have shit on our Buffy.

Our cast members are the sweetest sweetcakes EVER!!!

[shando]

ENFP. To the MAX

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

huh...

type 2 (the Helper)

INFP (the Healer; moderate INP...VERY F)

so...y'know...you're welcome.


man, reading that Enneagram breakdown really nailed it on the head for some of the issues i've been struggling with the last few years...wow...

however, that Hogwart's quiz is clearly full of crap. it gave me Hufflepuff when i'm CLEARLY Ravenclaw.

and for fullness' sake, my aura was indigo when i took that test back in high school. but i would obviously be a Blue Lantern.

[mpbrockman]

Same is true for rational N's (NTs), which is why it's not so unusual to see a bunch of computer folk (like me) drawn to this.

I would extend this to many musicians. As I am (perhaps too) fond of saying - music is math. In my case, intuition leads - math gives me the tools to follow.

Given that so much music is done with computers these days - I suppose there's some kind of overlap there, too.

I'm still curious about my apparent drift from being a pretty strong "P" to just barely a "P". Is this an age thing? Am I getting more judgmental as I get older? If so - is this a function of experience or a hardening of the psychological arteries? Is it just a random testing anomaly? Anyone else run into this?

[zyrain]

I'm still curious about my apparent drift from being a pretty strong "P" to just barely a "P". Is this an age thing? Am I getting more judgmental as I get older? If so - is this a function of experience or a hardening of the psychological arteries? Is it just a random testing anomaly? Anyone else run into this?

The basic flaw in the test is that it's a self-assessment test. This makes it subject to your own impression of yourself. Sometimes this is for noble reasons, NFs for example tend to evaluate themselves against what they think they 'should' be, thus might say they're not compassionate on a question (steering them away from NF) when they feel they don't do enough, even though their friends would say they were much more compassionate them most.

However, even if you're honest with yourself, the test asks about a lot of behavior, so there's a judgement call to be made between answering based on your natural tendencies, vs answer based on what you really do after a lifetime of learning to find balance and learning from mistakes.

For the 'honest' natural eval for the test, one should answer as if it's your best friend's thoughts about you on a bad day. That's the one that's going to yield the best 'box' to be put in.

Of course, there are exceptions. And the amazing Michael Brockman is probably one of those. The MBTI is really just 3 axes that cut a swath through a cloud of unique personalities. Whenever you cut something into pieces, you can call one piece something and another piece something else, but there's always going to be two bits that were right next to each other before the cut.

A good axis is one that tries to minimize these splintered bits. In some ways the MBTI does a good job at placing the cut. The N/S axis is fairly strong. The easiest test of N ability is the question "Can you explain it?" or "Can you predict it?" Weather it's improv or music or computers. Simply being able to do something isn't enough to be an intuitive about it.
Since Brockman regularly blows people's minds with insights about music, he's clearly an N.

Once that's established, the question becomes one of being a "social cooperator' or a "utilitarian" in how 'tools' are used. (See Keirsey II). The telling question here is "Is it better to do what's right or what works?" The social cooperator will tend to put more stock in other people's opinions, fears, concerns, desires, etc., even at the expense of accomplishing a goal. I've seen Michael perform enough mischief when he's been inspired, that I don't doubt he's a T.

The I/E axis is a fairly uninteresting one, as it doesn't really have opposites, as it's just a measure of the degree to which people include other people in their goals (introverts tend to write computer programs, novels, do book keeping, etc., while extroverts form troupes, armies, corporations, classes, etc.).

Finally, and here's the long winded explaination of why P/J varies, is because for i(N)uitives the P/J axis is the weakest. It makes more sense for (S)'s because it describes an approach to life and problem solving, but for N's who are already social or utilitarian, it only affects their internal feelings on the world. an INT, like yourself, is mostly concerns with goals and accomplishment than with the mechanism.

For the SJ, you'd follow the 'Rules'. For the SP you'd follow your 'gut'. The NTP doesn't care about the rules (SP trait) but also takes what works over their gut (T trait), so the axis is confused.

Still, I'd say you're clearly a P because when a strategy starts to fail (NT trait) you'd fall back to tactics (SP trait) versus logistics (SJ trait).

We know that know battle plan survives contact with the enemy. If we draw a parallel to an improv song, and something goes wrong, I think you're more likely to improvise a new plan on the fly than fall back to a pre-prepared 'plan b'). This is why INTJs (like myself) can fall into analysis paralysis (thinking too much in the moment), something I don't see you doing.

Hope that helps!!

[mpbrockman]

Hope that helps!!

JC on a popsicle stick, Neal. That was... a dissertation.

Nicely done. I'm a little blown away right now by the depth of your insight.

[zyrain]

I think it's difficult and dangerous, but when people begin to invest themselves in these tests, as they second guess their decisions, interactions and relationships. At the end of the day, people are much more complex than a diagnosis of personality.

There's certainly some truth to that. The way to think about these tests is to gain better understanding of ourselves. The test describes stereotypes along axes. An axis is nothing more than a line of measurement. That measurement is one data-point in the complex web of your true person.
Where it's useful is to connect with other people that happen to share this piece of their personality, or that other piece. One can learn lessons from those who are similar to us who have come before more easily than we can learn by ourselves, or from those who see life very differently.

[Brad Hawkins]

I think it's difficult and dangerous, but when people begin to invest themselves in these tests, as they second guess their decisions, interactions and relationships. At the end of the day, people are much more complex than a diagnosis of personality.

I think you have a point, but I can't help but think that the real reason you're resistant to these tests is you had a bad experience with a Turing test at one point.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

I think it's difficult and dangerous, but when people begin to invest themselves in these tests, as they second guess their decisions, interactions and relationships. At the end of the day, people are much more complex than a diagnosis of personality.

I think you have a point, but I can't help but think that the real reason you're resistant to these tests is you had a bad experience with a Turing test at one point.

or a Voight-Kampff test...

[Katherine]

Hi everyone, I was really intrigued by all this and, for a few different reasons, excited to re-test myself. I am either an INFP or INFJ. My husband and I are both really wavery on the last letter of our types. We posit that this has the do with what we are intrinsically versus what we are very good at being in a world where some people and systems are ridiculous. In our resting state at home, I think we're both P, but at work and maybe even.socially we're both Js.

Does anyone else have the P versus J dilemma and if so, what do you make of it?

On another note, it's pretty surprising to me that every person has so far reported an N. Do you think that is because Ns are drawn to activities like improv, or because non-Ns aren't as interested in self-reporting on an internet forum. Are there any S folks out there?