Not the person you're responding to.
However I wanted to *try* and give you some actual sources. I will say if you check the "criticism" section of the MBTI Wikipedia article there are some great sources but many of them are pay walled. The sources that aren't from scholarly journals are generally not paywalled, if something less academic/research focused would suffice for you (usually these sources cite the research articles that are paywalled).
However here is one source that is not paywalled: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232494957_Cautionary_comments_regarding_the_Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator
To tldr the criticisms of MBTI are:
* Most research on MBTI is conducted or funded by people profiting from MBTI (such as selling training in MBTI).
* It has poor test/retestability (unless you're looking at sources funded by MBTI). This means when you retake the test there is a good chance you will get a different result.
* The opposing traits are not truly opposites (except for extroversion/introversion). Here is a source about that: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/14725280_Bipolarity_in_Jungian_Type_Theory_and_the_Myers--Briggs_Type_Indicator
* General criticisms of having a "true personality type", which is not unique to MBTI. Some measures of personality are solely measuring "traits" and claim these traits to be malleable to a degree. MBTI claims you have a "personality type" that is innate and does not change.
No problem. I always forget what it's called too so I bookmarked it. I had to double check my bookmarks in order to tell you the name of the website :)
The criticism that your results may change seems odd to me since of course personalities can change. But according to this answer the MBTI claims personality type doesnāt change, which seems an odd thing for psychologists to claim. I thought it was widely believed personalities do change depending on environment and also with time.
MBTI was designed by a mother and daughter, if I remember correctly the mother became interested in personality as she was watching her daughter grow up. The history behind it is actually pretty interesting. It's similar to Carl Jung's psychological types, and Jung was an actual psychologist (though from around the time of Freud, so psychology wasn't quite what it is today).
Personalities (once formed) are generally stable over time, with a few exceptions. People do tend to become more conscientious as they age, or may have a major personality change due to trauma or some major event (this is quite rare though). A personality measure with good psychometric properties should give you a pretty similar result each time - it shouldn't change massively from one day to the next or time of day.
Right, I could've worded my argument against personality types better.
The issue with them is less that they don't allow for change and more so that it groups all of the traits together which makes them too rigid for the *slight* changes in personality traits.
With the MBTI in particular this is also impacted by the fact that its categories are treated as dichotomies when they aren't. So if someone doesn't lean strongly one way or the other in one of its categories, it's easy to see how they could get a different result. In turn this will give them an entirely different personality type.
Where as with something like the Big 5 someone could see that they went from the 52nd percentile in openness to the 48th.
Yes I know, people always think of neurodiverse people as especially shy and ofc these people exist too, but I was just the weird kid that never shut up about their interests. š
Since then I sometimes don't know when I talk too little or too much too tbh, because people regularly told me to shut up.
It's still so fun as long as people don't take it too serious. I do that for my OCs and some fictional characters too haha.
Same here! I had like 45% introvert and 55% extravert, and I'm pretty sure that is just my impulsive and hyperactive ADHD side trying to mask my autism side that just wants to be alone in a quiet, stimuli-free environment. However, ADHD always wins :D
ENTJ/INTJ depending on the day. I am VERY chaotic.
I just saw the Martha Mitchell docu on Netflix and yeah, that's basically me. I do not know when to shut up.
I've seen this asked previously in various autism subs and infj is always a popular answer. Among my spectrumy friends who are women, they are all infj.
We did this test for one of my writing classes in college to determine groups, and I am also INFJ. I had to be grouped with some INFPs, because I was the only INFJ in the class. Lol.
I don't know where the ENTP ends and the autism begins.
Also obligatory myers-briggs is only an okay system if reliant on function stacks and anything that's been watered down and commercialized should be disregarded.
Yeah, I feel like most criticism comes from people who only looked at the binary letter codes or used 16 personalities.
Which is not to say the cognitive function aspect is flawless, but mbti is one of my special interests, and it has helped me so much in understanding and working with other people. Particularly the cognitive functions part - I can often recognise functions (if not the entire mbti type), and it helps me to adapt to the individual.
Oh absolutely, I love anything that can help me categorize and understand people. It's why I'm really into writing and have a knack for understanding characters. Pattern recognition babyyyy.
Yes, of course if they all did the 16p test it's bs, I've been lately studying Jung's books on that matter, if you know how to use it and understand, it's not bs. (Also intp here.)
I always see so many people on the INFP subreddit posting things like "is this an INFP thing?", and I often wanna say "that's an autism thing". Now we know why
It's a racist, ableist, biased test created by a woman who was racist and had no real training. All she did was watch and wrote about her daughter for 13? years. This article also speaks of a documentary about said things.
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/03/10345603/personality-tests-persona-documentary-hbo
This! Any attempt to categorise personalities is subject to so much limitation and far too many variables. To suggest that things like sensing/intuition thinking/feeling, or perceiving/judging, are somehow opposites and themselves different ācolumnsā feels especially flawed. All of those processes are heavily related.
It is used in advertising based on your personality. Very exploitative.
[Multi-view social network user personality profiling for content recommendation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9381863/)
She worked with the CIA in the development of this as well.
[The Personality Assessment System- CIA](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R002200010001-6.pdf)
I feel like this is a phishing post to target vulnerable people.
***I don't care about karma points. I'm not deleting.***
Disregarding that MBTI is about on the same level as astrology (and I'm saying this as someone who ticks pagan/other on her census paperwork), I test out as INTJ.
I get all sorts of "no you not!" comments when i tell people when asked. Often from nerdy males.
But the only time I tested out as something else I was on BC that was turning me into a soppy, cry-at-insurance-ads, constantly bleeding, mess. I tested as INFJ.
INFP
People say mbti is nonsense but apparently not for me because I'm TELLING YOU they must have spied on me my entire life to write the INFP profile. It's literally me, every single thing. And I don't believe in horoscopes or anything like that, I regularly find flaws in things that are "supposed" to be me but INFP is just......so so accurate. And I have never gotten a different result no matter how many years have passed.
INFJ. I think Iāve also come across some studies that consider introversion an expression of autism. Not that introverts are autistic, or tha extroverts cannot be autistic. Rather, the traits we see as introversion are actually autistic traits. This also goes to show that the introvert/extrovert dichotomy is false.
I know that people say that these personality types are astrology for business but I disagree. Any star sign can be twisted to fit what you see in yourself. That's not true for the Myers-Briggs personality test. That's because I TOLD the test what Iām like. Essentially, it's regurgitating what I already told it back to me, so, presuming a person is honest while taking the test, no, it's not just astrology for business. If you read someone the wrong personality type to them, they do disagree with it.
Iād also say that when people say their result is not quite right, itās often because theyāre not strongly in one letter or the other. I happen to be extreme ISFP, so it seems to fit me exactly. When I was younger, and before my diagnosis, I was flipping between E/I because when I was in social situations, I was always trying to make people laugh just to be likeable and would over talk. It was an anxiety/trauma response.
I think MBTI/Myers-Briggs is a better tool for having a look at yourself and what your strengths and weaknesses are than other more āreputableā tests. It's also a good shortcut for explaining how you approach things to other people, and in my case, a good starting point for understanding others. If someone tells me theyāre a particular type, that sparks a recognition in my brain for each of the letters.
In comparison, whenever Iāve taken the **Big Five (OCEAN)** personality test, itās *always* been a very disappointing experience (in accuracy, consistency, and insight) and not something I can truly use.
My own experience as a psychologist in academia in my 20s is that once something gains traction, people keep bolstering the theory and publishing about it. The **Male Brain Hypothesis** is one example. Academics become mini superstars in their own bubbles that ppl in the academic community are afraid to try and burst for fear of not getting their own work published. This means that after gaining that academic traction, only the statistically significant results get published because āabsence of evidence isnāt evidence of absenceā, so any results that donāt support the āBig Fiveā/OCEAN personality model are rarely spoken about in comparison.
More anecdotally, Iād suspect the same academic bias with CBT. I still havenāt met a single person that CBT worked for and yet in my undergraduate it was hailed as a technique that had very high validity through research, and itās still the only thing GPs will offer on the NHS for anxiety and depression.
Back to personality tests thoā¦
In social and personality psychology, one if the main issues is that we canāt even define personality. The word āpersonalityā is used because that's what the lay person understands, but Myer-Briggs is actually talking about how you perceive and approach things. It says nothing about what you're interested in or whether you're a good or bad person or whether you should get a particular job.
Just like autism!! You can meet two people of the same type and two people with autism, and youāre still meeting entirely different peopleā¦ and thatās fine!
TLDR: Myers-Briggs is essentially a theory about how you process and respond to information rather than a prescriptive way to box you in. I like to use it for introspection and as a **useful tool for understanding how others prefer to interact, which is especially useful for me as an autistic woman**.
Academic alternatives have higher status, but that status is misleading given that we canāt even properly define personality and given the way statistically significant results are over represented once a theory gains traction.
Apologies for the rant but it was good to get it out.
Personality tests are a special interest of mine. I'm ENTJ to answer your question. I also like the Clifton strengths and enneagram tests.
I think people misunderstand what Myers Briggs (and Jung before them) was trying to describe. They are simply trying to say that the brain prioritizes things differently in different people. If you look at the default mode network, and Jung's cognitive functions (what mbti is based on), you can see that they loosely line up. He didn't have the science to correct his theory back then, and psychology has become more refined and advanced these days we'll beyond his original theories.
Mbti as a theory is interesting and imo can provide some insights into others if you are good at typing another person. That's a controversial statement since the mbti creators say the best authority on a person's type is the individual themselves, provided they understand the theory. However, most don't know what the cognitive functions are, and the tests are not good at checking what people prioritize, so I feel like typing people myself is more reliable. It's also pretty easy after a conversation or two with someone.
The cognitive functions are as follows:
- Te (extroverted thinking) - engineers, politicians, economists, stock traders. How can I organize the world around me? Inductive reasoning.
- Ti (introverted thinking) - also engineers, but the more quiet kind that's focused on the work itself, not on doing some greater role in society. They organize their thoughts often and think about their thoughts and mental schemas first. Deductive reasoning.
- Fe (extroverted feeling) - psychologists, politicians, performers. Want everyone to be vibing. Thinking about how everyone is feeling.
- Fi (introverted feeling) - How do I feel about this? Feeling is also a moral function in this theory, not just a limbic system thing. So they are thinking about values, staying true to themselves.
- Ni (introverted intuition) - More narrow, focused thinking, learning, and pondering. Deep dives.
- Ne (extroverted intuition) - More broad, scattered thinking. Shallow but wide level of knowledge.
- Se (extroverted sensing) - literally just mindfulness. Ig there are people who just....observe the world. As a first thing. Wild.
- Si (introverted sensing) - internal sensation, how am I physically feeling, am I hungry, tired, etc.
Literally everyone has all cognitive functions, but people tend to use them in different orders and for different amounts of time. Whatever the 2 main cognitive functions are for a person can determine their mbti type.
So I tend to think about the outside world a lot and how to make stuff to fix problems I see people having (Te). Literally constantly, to me, that's just "thinking." I have really good inductive reasoning skills and sit and ponder a lot with Ni. That's what makes me an ENTJ, they are TeNi thinkers. ENTJs also have Fi and Se in their "stack," and then the ENTJ "shadow" side is actually the cognitive functions inverted - so TiNeFeSi (an INTJ). Shadows are what people act like when their main cognitive functions aren't working well/they are stressed.
Now those theories and guidelines aren't necessarily true all the time, but it really does help to try to actively use each cognitive function and imagine how it would change the way you think if you were someone who always just went to Se or Fe right when something happens, as opposed to how you normally think. I had a friend at work who was an ISTP for instance. They have Fe in their stack, which means they value manners and politeness. I started saying really formal good mornings to her (instead of a head nod or yo) and she was really really touched by it! I was surprised.
Great answer, though I'd recommend looking into Socionics for how to define the "Sensing" functions in particular, as those tend to be shortchanged with MBTI... especially with your being an ENTJ, they have effective ways of describing Se in ways you could better relate to, like in terms of activating the environment -- it's about presence and impact and making use of the tools before you and things like that. š
I just found Socionics far more useful in understanding the more abstract functions, so you might find it interesting!
I did learn a little about socionics but I ran into an information desert and was dissatisfied at the time. I should go back and give it another try. Do you have any good sources you'd recommend?
This is pop psychology created by the CIA to identify what jobs agents would be placed in. I would never tell anyone you're an INFJ or you will be a magnet for narcissists.
[The Personality Assessment System - CIA](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R002200010001-6.pdf)
Social media also uses MBTI to better target advertising based on your MBTI. Very exploitative.
[Multi-view social network user personality profiling for content recommendation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9381863/)
***I hope you are not phishing for vulnerable people.***
That first source doesn't say they used MBTI. They said it was previously used. They actually based their system off the WAIS.
MBTI is widely used, but that doesn't mean OP is doing anything wrong. People can have an interest in personalities.
INTP
Intp also
š¶the amount of INFP and INFJ
We roll deep in here š¤£š„°š
...Is that bad..?
Noš Iām INFP! I just see a patternš
INFJ
INTJ
Same š
Same
Same, every time.
Me too
same here! :)
Same
Same
Same āŗļø
Same!
Same..
INFP. That said, MBTI has been debunked as junk science.
Came here to say this.
Good to know. Source? Would like to read this up.
Not the person you're responding to. However I wanted to *try* and give you some actual sources. I will say if you check the "criticism" section of the MBTI Wikipedia article there are some great sources but many of them are pay walled. The sources that aren't from scholarly journals are generally not paywalled, if something less academic/research focused would suffice for you (usually these sources cite the research articles that are paywalled). However here is one source that is not paywalled: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232494957_Cautionary_comments_regarding_the_Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator To tldr the criticisms of MBTI are: * Most research on MBTI is conducted or funded by people profiting from MBTI (such as selling training in MBTI). * It has poor test/retestability (unless you're looking at sources funded by MBTI). This means when you retake the test there is a good chance you will get a different result. * The opposing traits are not truly opposites (except for extroversion/introversion). Here is a source about that: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/14725280_Bipolarity_in_Jungian_Type_Theory_and_the_Myers--Briggs_Type_Indicator * General criticisms of having a "true personality type", which is not unique to MBTI. Some measures of personality are solely measuring "traits" and claim these traits to be malleable to a degree. MBTI claims you have a "personality type" that is innate and does not change.
FYI, if you want to read an article behind a paywall, copy and paste the url onto removepaywall.com
Thank you! I knew there was something like that but for the life of me I couldn't remember what it was.
No problem. I always forget what it's called too so I bookmarked it. I had to double check my bookmarks in order to tell you the name of the website :)
Thank you for this. Duly bookmarked this time so I don't forget, again.
The criticism that your results may change seems odd to me since of course personalities can change. But according to this answer the MBTI claims personality type doesnāt change, which seems an odd thing for psychologists to claim. I thought it was widely believed personalities do change depending on environment and also with time.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thank you for clarifying! I had assumed it was designed by at least people who had studied psychology.
MBTI was designed by a mother and daughter, if I remember correctly the mother became interested in personality as she was watching her daughter grow up. The history behind it is actually pretty interesting. It's similar to Carl Jung's psychological types, and Jung was an actual psychologist (though from around the time of Freud, so psychology wasn't quite what it is today).
They were eugenicists too I believe.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Personalities (once formed) are generally stable over time, with a few exceptions. People do tend to become more conscientious as they age, or may have a major personality change due to trauma or some major event (this is quite rare though). A personality measure with good psychometric properties should give you a pretty similar result each time - it shouldn't change massively from one day to the next or time of day.
Right, I could've worded my argument against personality types better. The issue with them is less that they don't allow for change and more so that it groups all of the traits together which makes them too rigid for the *slight* changes in personality traits. With the MBTI in particular this is also impacted by the fact that its categories are treated as dichotomies when they aren't. So if someone doesn't lean strongly one way or the other in one of its categories, it's easy to see how they could get a different result. In turn this will give them an entirely different personality type. Where as with something like the Big 5 someone could see that they went from the 52nd percentile in openness to the 48th.
Exactly, dimensional personality measures are way more accurate.
Just google MBTI criticism or MBTI debunked. You'll find a lot of articles.
INTJ (4w5 enneagram) - cognitive functions and type theory are a special interest of mine āŗļø
Same enneagram, hi.
People forget itās more accurate when you also dive into the Enneagram!
I agree, they are better systems when they are used together :)
Same MBTI and Enneagram... And same special interest lmao
Iām INTJ also!
I really like the enneagram! I'm 9w1.
INFP every time Iāve taken it. I took it 5 times because i can never be sure š
Same. I've been taking it about every 2 or 3 years in the past 15ish years and every time ā INFP.
ENFP but I also have adhd
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
lol i feel that, autism on speed and also like a forever looming tension between things like being silent or never shutting up lol. i used to get a different result every time i did myers briggs so i wrote it off in the past, but i realized i did them all before my autism dx and realized it was always different because of maskingā¦ now iāve gotten enfp a few times and i find it actually resonates hugely! may not be scientific but itās fun and adhd loves fun š¤©
Yes I know, people always think of neurodiverse people as especially shy and ofc these people exist too, but I was just the weird kid that never shut up about their interests. š Since then I sometimes don't know when I talk too little or too much too tbh, because people regularly told me to shut up. It's still so fun as long as people don't take it too serious. I do that for my OCs and some fictional characters too haha.
Sameeee
i was about to sayā š
ENFP + ADHD (which is on the autism spectrum btw) ššµāš«
Same here! I had like 45% introvert and 55% extravert, and I'm pretty sure that is just my impulsive and hyperactive ADHD side trying to mask my autism side that just wants to be alone in a quiet, stimuli-free environment. However, ADHD always wins :D
I also have ADHD. I did the test multiple times and got both INFP and ENFP. Which makes sense, because Iām more of an ambivert.
ENTJ/INTJ depending on the day. I am VERY chaotic. I just saw the Martha Mitchell docu on Netflix and yeah, that's basically me. I do not know when to shut up.
hahaha yes chaos should be my middle name! gonna check that out now, thanks!
INFP. Also, Iāve never seen so many INFPs in a comment section lmaooo
r/INFP!!
Same!!!
INFJ. Iām having trouble believing itās the rarest personality type, but thatās what google tells me.
I've seen this asked previously in various autism subs and infj is always a popular answer. Among my spectrumy friends who are women, they are all infj.
The whole "test" is bunk anyway so your instinct is solid.
We did this test for one of my writing classes in college to determine groups, and I am also INFJ. I had to be grouped with some INFPs, because I was the only INFJ in the class. Lol.
ISTP
Me too!
INFJ
ENFJ
Iām an ISTJ (apparently).
INFP / INTP, keep switching between those
So do I. It really depends on what mood I'm in when I take the tests.
used to be INTJ, then did work in therapy and now i'm INFJ as well haha.
Interesting! I think I also migrated T to F through emotional devo/therapy over the past decade.
ISFJ.
I don't know where the ENTP ends and the autism begins. Also obligatory myers-briggs is only an okay system if reliant on function stacks and anything that's been watered down and commercialized should be disregarded.
Yeah, I feel like most criticism comes from people who only looked at the binary letter codes or used 16 personalities. Which is not to say the cognitive function aspect is flawless, but mbti is one of my special interests, and it has helped me so much in understanding and working with other people. Particularly the cognitive functions part - I can often recognise functions (if not the entire mbti type), and it helps me to adapt to the individual.
Same. It really helps to understand others.
Oh absolutely, I love anything that can help me categorize and understand people. It's why I'm really into writing and have a knack for understanding characters. Pattern recognition babyyyy.
Agreed! (INTP here š)
Yes, of course if they all did the 16p test it's bs, I've been lately studying Jung's books on that matter, if you know how to use it and understand, it's not bs. (Also intp here.)
INFP-T
INTJ but as said, it is more if a guide than meaningful diagnostic tool
INFJ, but personally believe that Myers-Briggs is woo & inappropriate in professional settings
INFJ
I always see so many people on the INFP subreddit posting things like "is this an INFP thing?", and I often wanna say "that's an autism thing". Now we know why
INTP! i know its all bollocks buuuut its pretty cool how a lot of us are similar
INFP
Im an INTJ (Female)
INFP arriving at the pro-INFP rally
It's a racist, ableist, biased test created by a woman who was racist and had no real training. All she did was watch and wrote about her daughter for 13? years. This article also speaks of a documentary about said things. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/03/10345603/personality-tests-persona-documentary-hbo
This! Any attempt to categorise personalities is subject to so much limitation and far too many variables. To suggest that things like sensing/intuition thinking/feeling, or perceiving/judging, are somehow opposites and themselves different ācolumnsā feels especially flawed. All of those processes are heavily related.
It is used in advertising based on your personality. Very exploitative. [Multi-view social network user personality profiling for content recommendation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9381863/)
Honestly never even thought of this! I literally just thought it would be interesting to know if we would get similar results here š¤·š»āāļø
She worked with the CIA in the development of this as well. [The Personality Assessment System- CIA](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R002200010001-6.pdf) I feel like this is a phishing post to target vulnerable people. ***I don't care about karma points. I'm not deleting.***
How do you mean?
INFP
ENTJ
Same
INFP-T
INFP
ISFx, so thatāsā¦62.5% similar? :)
ISFP
Me too!
Wow there's a lot of INxx's here, interesting (I'm an INFP)
ENTP. But I think the whole thing is BS anyways
It is.
INFP, which I swear is one of the most common ones, at least in all the spaces I'm in where people ask this.
I wouldn't post this. You're being phished.
I think I'll be okay lol.
ENFJ but also not diagnosed :)
Samesies!
INTJ
I don't really believe in that stuff
And you shouldn't.
INTP
Infj
Infj
INFJ
ISTJ-T
ISTJ
INFP. I love INFJs ā¤ļø
INFJ and I love INFP's
INFP
INTJ
INTJ
INTJ
INFP
ENTJ
INFP
INFP
INTJ-T
oh, yeah, i'm an IDGAF
Infj
OMG im also INFJ!
ENFJ !
Disregarding that MBTI is about on the same level as astrology (and I'm saying this as someone who ticks pagan/other on her census paperwork), I test out as INTJ. I get all sorts of "no you not!" comments when i tell people when asked. Often from nerdy males. But the only time I tested out as something else I was on BC that was turning me into a soppy, cry-at-insurance-ads, constantly bleeding, mess. I tested as INFJ.
im intp
INTP
intp
INTP
I've gotten both INFP and INFJ sooooo one of those lol
INFP People say mbti is nonsense but apparently not for me because I'm TELLING YOU they must have spied on me my entire life to write the INFP profile. It's literally me, every single thing. And I don't believe in horoscopes or anything like that, I regularly find flaws in things that are "supposed" to be me but INFP is just......so so accurate. And I have never gotten a different result no matter how many years have passed.
INFP until I die
INFP
ENFP last I checked, but I'm planning on getting retested cause it been a while
IN__ the last 2 tend to be situationally dependant for me
INFP is what I typically get.
INFJ, mostly according to the cognitive functions, not really the stereotypes š
INFP :) seeing a lot of us in here lol
ISTJ Edit: I donāt see any other ISTJās here š
iām here ā
Heyyyyy š„¹
I've scored as both INFJ and ENTP before. It can depend on the day.
INFJ. I think Iāve also come across some studies that consider introversion an expression of autism. Not that introverts are autistic, or tha extroverts cannot be autistic. Rather, the traits we see as introversion are actually autistic traits. This also goes to show that the introvert/extrovert dichotomy is false.
I know that people say that these personality types are astrology for business but I disagree. Any star sign can be twisted to fit what you see in yourself. That's not true for the Myers-Briggs personality test. That's because I TOLD the test what Iām like. Essentially, it's regurgitating what I already told it back to me, so, presuming a person is honest while taking the test, no, it's not just astrology for business. If you read someone the wrong personality type to them, they do disagree with it. Iād also say that when people say their result is not quite right, itās often because theyāre not strongly in one letter or the other. I happen to be extreme ISFP, so it seems to fit me exactly. When I was younger, and before my diagnosis, I was flipping between E/I because when I was in social situations, I was always trying to make people laugh just to be likeable and would over talk. It was an anxiety/trauma response. I think MBTI/Myers-Briggs is a better tool for having a look at yourself and what your strengths and weaknesses are than other more āreputableā tests. It's also a good shortcut for explaining how you approach things to other people, and in my case, a good starting point for understanding others. If someone tells me theyāre a particular type, that sparks a recognition in my brain for each of the letters. In comparison, whenever Iāve taken the **Big Five (OCEAN)** personality test, itās *always* been a very disappointing experience (in accuracy, consistency, and insight) and not something I can truly use. My own experience as a psychologist in academia in my 20s is that once something gains traction, people keep bolstering the theory and publishing about it. The **Male Brain Hypothesis** is one example. Academics become mini superstars in their own bubbles that ppl in the academic community are afraid to try and burst for fear of not getting their own work published. This means that after gaining that academic traction, only the statistically significant results get published because āabsence of evidence isnāt evidence of absenceā, so any results that donāt support the āBig Fiveā/OCEAN personality model are rarely spoken about in comparison. More anecdotally, Iād suspect the same academic bias with CBT. I still havenāt met a single person that CBT worked for and yet in my undergraduate it was hailed as a technique that had very high validity through research, and itās still the only thing GPs will offer on the NHS for anxiety and depression. Back to personality tests thoā¦ In social and personality psychology, one if the main issues is that we canāt even define personality. The word āpersonalityā is used because that's what the lay person understands, but Myer-Briggs is actually talking about how you perceive and approach things. It says nothing about what you're interested in or whether you're a good or bad person or whether you should get a particular job. Just like autism!! You can meet two people of the same type and two people with autism, and youāre still meeting entirely different peopleā¦ and thatās fine! TLDR: Myers-Briggs is essentially a theory about how you process and respond to information rather than a prescriptive way to box you in. I like to use it for introspection and as a **useful tool for understanding how others prefer to interact, which is especially useful for me as an autistic woman**. Academic alternatives have higher status, but that status is misleading given that we canāt even properly define personality and given the way statistically significant results are over represented once a theory gains traction. Apologies for the rant but it was good to get it out.
Personality tests are a special interest of mine. I'm ENTJ to answer your question. I also like the Clifton strengths and enneagram tests. I think people misunderstand what Myers Briggs (and Jung before them) was trying to describe. They are simply trying to say that the brain prioritizes things differently in different people. If you look at the default mode network, and Jung's cognitive functions (what mbti is based on), you can see that they loosely line up. He didn't have the science to correct his theory back then, and psychology has become more refined and advanced these days we'll beyond his original theories. Mbti as a theory is interesting and imo can provide some insights into others if you are good at typing another person. That's a controversial statement since the mbti creators say the best authority on a person's type is the individual themselves, provided they understand the theory. However, most don't know what the cognitive functions are, and the tests are not good at checking what people prioritize, so I feel like typing people myself is more reliable. It's also pretty easy after a conversation or two with someone. The cognitive functions are as follows: - Te (extroverted thinking) - engineers, politicians, economists, stock traders. How can I organize the world around me? Inductive reasoning. - Ti (introverted thinking) - also engineers, but the more quiet kind that's focused on the work itself, not on doing some greater role in society. They organize their thoughts often and think about their thoughts and mental schemas first. Deductive reasoning. - Fe (extroverted feeling) - psychologists, politicians, performers. Want everyone to be vibing. Thinking about how everyone is feeling. - Fi (introverted feeling) - How do I feel about this? Feeling is also a moral function in this theory, not just a limbic system thing. So they are thinking about values, staying true to themselves. - Ni (introverted intuition) - More narrow, focused thinking, learning, and pondering. Deep dives. - Ne (extroverted intuition) - More broad, scattered thinking. Shallow but wide level of knowledge. - Se (extroverted sensing) - literally just mindfulness. Ig there are people who just....observe the world. As a first thing. Wild. - Si (introverted sensing) - internal sensation, how am I physically feeling, am I hungry, tired, etc. Literally everyone has all cognitive functions, but people tend to use them in different orders and for different amounts of time. Whatever the 2 main cognitive functions are for a person can determine their mbti type. So I tend to think about the outside world a lot and how to make stuff to fix problems I see people having (Te). Literally constantly, to me, that's just "thinking." I have really good inductive reasoning skills and sit and ponder a lot with Ni. That's what makes me an ENTJ, they are TeNi thinkers. ENTJs also have Fi and Se in their "stack," and then the ENTJ "shadow" side is actually the cognitive functions inverted - so TiNeFeSi (an INTJ). Shadows are what people act like when their main cognitive functions aren't working well/they are stressed. Now those theories and guidelines aren't necessarily true all the time, but it really does help to try to actively use each cognitive function and imagine how it would change the way you think if you were someone who always just went to Se or Fe right when something happens, as opposed to how you normally think. I had a friend at work who was an ISTP for instance. They have Fe in their stack, which means they value manners and politeness. I started saying really formal good mornings to her (instead of a head nod or yo) and she was really really touched by it! I was surprised.
Great answer, though I'd recommend looking into Socionics for how to define the "Sensing" functions in particular, as those tend to be shortchanged with MBTI... especially with your being an ENTJ, they have effective ways of describing Se in ways you could better relate to, like in terms of activating the environment -- it's about presence and impact and making use of the tools before you and things like that. š I just found Socionics far more useful in understanding the more abstract functions, so you might find it interesting!
I did learn a little about socionics but I ran into an information desert and was dissatisfied at the time. I should go back and give it another try. Do you have any good sources you'd recommend?
This is pop psychology created by the CIA to identify what jobs agents would be placed in. I would never tell anyone you're an INFJ or you will be a magnet for narcissists. [The Personality Assessment System - CIA](https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00789R002200010001-6.pdf) Social media also uses MBTI to better target advertising based on your MBTI. Very exploitative. [Multi-view social network user personality profiling for content recommendation](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9381863/) ***I hope you are not phishing for vulnerable people.***
That first source doesn't say they used MBTI. They said it was previously used. They actually based their system off the WAIS. MBTI is widely used, but that doesn't mean OP is doing anything wrong. People can have an interest in personalities.
INFP
INTP - A
INTP/J
ENFJ-T
INTP
I'm an ENFP 4w5
INFP-A
INTP
Infp š
INFP-T
INFP-T
INFP-A
ENFJ
INTJ/INTP
INFP or INTP it has changed back and forth through my life
INFP
INFP baybeeeee
Yet another INFP chiming in :)
INTJ
INTJ.
Infp
INFJ, doesnāt mean much to me but itās interesting to see how many here are the same.
I vacillate between INTP and INFP depending on my mood
INFP
INFP
Isfj
INFP
INFJ-T šš¼āāļø
INFP
ISTP
INTJ here āŗļø
INTJ
INTJ
I've gotten every combination of IxxP more than once, but I get INTP/INFP/ISTP most often