INTP & INFP

[prplchknz]

So I was wondering how similar are these two types? Because my dad (who I think is an INTP) and I are very similar, like we have the same views and tend to look at things in a very similar manner. I mean it could be his job, which is a biomedical engineer, and the fact that he's into computers he built several and did HAM radio growing up use to fix everything. Also at 63 he still knows the latest technology. He started out as a Journalism major, but felt he didn't have the talent to be successful and switched to mechanical engineering. I hate science classes, I can read a science article or two, but take a whole class...boring. I'm not good at math and he is. But I'm also thinking of switching out of film, as so many people are in the major and I don't think I have much of a chance. He's very introspective as am I, and we both get accused of not caring because we don't wear our feelings on our sleeves. He does have alot of friends, but my mom said that that's from knowing these people for years. That in a new situation he has a harder time, though all of his friends are from Bars. I mean he could be an E. We both pick up computer software fairly fast, him faster then me, but he's also taken the time to study it. As I've just kinda spent 5 minutes here and their.

So think it's possible that he's an INTP? or is their a slight chance that he's an INFP? Or think I typed myself wrong?

[Jennifer]

They either get along very well (if the INFP's values mesh with the INTP's thinking process) or would clash greatly (if they don't).

One of my best friends is an INFP, and we share many values, so we really understand each other. But INFPs who haven't developed much thinking-style functions can quickly frustrate me.

There is a decent chance that he is INTP, focused on some of the more tangible sciences. He could be ISTP as well: ISTPs will probably feel "harder" compared to INTPs, that might help you figure it out.

I have never had a problem with your INFP status. :)

He's also your father, so you share some values, you've spent years together i a 'forced commitment,' and so this has given you the opportunity to grow together, even if you are different.

In practice, INTPs seem to get more passionate about how people logic through to their answers. If they have a pet project, they might actually talk some about their conclusions. INFPs tend to express their values more, although they still are concerned that people are not being ethical on the surface but actually are ethical because inside they are changing.

Another quick test: INTPs usually get more mad at people's stupidity (usually in trying to put things together that will "obviously not work"), while INFPs lean more towards anger at people who are unkind or immoral.

But all of these things must be considered together, there is no silver bullet test.

[prplchknz]

Yeah, that makes sense. Also everyone in my family thinks my grandma (his mom) are very similar in our mannerisms, despite her living 6 hours away me only seeing her twice a year, and now has advanced alzheimers. I know for a fact that she didn't shape my personality as she wasn't really their. Also my dad didn't really raise me or my brother, he never got involved in the punishing, or making sure we had clothes or school. Though he did take us out to eat a lot. Though I really didn't get to know him until after I grew up,

Well I'm going home next week so I'm sure I'll have a chance to talk to him, he does seem to use a lot of logic in his arguments. I've never seen him call anyone stupid. Also he's 42 years older then me so he could have developed his Fe before I was ever born.

I'm still learning this stuff, I just found out about it like a year ago, though I am beginning to understand the functions.

[Varelse]

INFPs seem...softer to me. Lacking the cynical edge that us INTPs seem to have.

They're more fuzzy and huggable. :hug: And I usually kick myself if I'm as harsh to them as I would be with an INTP. I don't mind telling an INTP to "stop your bitching", but I'd be more hesitant about such with an F.

Sorry about the slapping last night, kitty. :blush:

[Jennifer]

INFPs seem...softer to me. Lacking the cynical edge that us INTPs seem to have. They're more fuzzy and huggable. :hug: And I usually kick myself if I'm as harsh to them as I would be with an INTP. I don't mind telling an INTP to "stop your bitching", but I'd be more hesitant about such with an F.

I am more careful around F's. (Someone asked why I still go to INTPc... well, that's why; it's just nice to be able to say things without generally worrying about being misread as mean or hurtful.)

Sorry about the slapping last night, kitty. :blush:

You slapped kitty? :devil:

[prplchknz]

INFPs seem...softer to me. Lacking the cynical edge that us INTPs seem to have.

They're more fuzzy and huggable. :hug: And I usually kick myself if I'm as harsh to them as I would be with an INTP. I don't mind telling an INTP to "stop your bitching", but I'd be more hesitant about such with an F.

Sorry about the slapping last night, kitty. :blush:

I'm cynical, though maybe not as some. Especially not as much as my INTJ friend who thinks everything is a conspiracy and thinks most people suck.I love talking to her about conspiracies, she's so much fun. Even though she hates most everyone on the planet except like three people. Though I'm one (yay!) I think most people suck but I'm also willing to give them a chance or several to prove me wrong. And she can sometimes take things a bit too seriously.

Most of the time it depends on them giving me a chance as well, so really I think People suck as a group, but I can learn to like any person indvidually, some are harder to do though.

[SolitaryWalker]

INTPs and INFPs tend to have much in common on the basis of Introverted judgment fomented by Intuition.

We could say that they run on the same engine though by virtue of different fuel. (T/F distinction)

[sleepy]

We could say that they run on the same engine though by virtue of different fuel. (T/F distinction)
Can one run on both, like a hybrid?

Whats the best way to find out who is dominant(if one has to be, the teory seems to say so)?

If one is F dominant, and run the engine on T, is that healthy?

[scantilyclad]

They're more fuzzy and huggable. :hug: And I usually kick myself if I'm as harsh to them as I would be with an INTP. I don't mind telling an INTP to "stop your bitching", but I'd be more hesitant about such with an F.




My INTP best friend always tells me to "stop your bitching" and i usually respond with a pouty lip and an EFF YOU. Us INFPs may be fuzzy and huggable, but we can handle the harsh INTP. :D

but from what i've heard, INFPs and INTPs are supposed to be fairly similar.

[SolitaryWalker]

Can one run on both, like a hybrid?

Whats the best way to find out who is dominant(if one has to be, the teory seems to say so)?

If one is F dominant, and run the engine on T, is that healthy?

I dont think you can be a hybrid. The two functions are antithetical to each other. If one takes top, the other falls back as a necessary entailment.

Read my INFP profile in the NF Idyllic. I went through a very thorough analysis of these two types.

[Varelse]

You slapped kitty? :devil:Twice. He was making mean jokes about Undead.

[runvardh]

INFPs seem...softer to me. Lacking the cynical edge that us INTPs seem to have.

They're more fuzzy and huggable. :hug: And I usually kick myself if I'm as harsh to them as I would be with an INTP. I don't mind telling an INTP to "stop your bitching", but I'd be more hesitant about such with an F.

Sorry about the slapping last night, kitty. :blush:

Quit appologizing, it's bad enough when I do it :). I would expect to be slapped for those kinds of comments (thought they're scripted in the game) so really I thought it was funny. I find that even as an INFP, INTPs who understand the type and want to deal with it right tend to pussyfoot around me too much. Yes, 90% of my judgements are based on my values; yes, I love hugs and cry at happy endings; but I'm not made of glass here people! LOL :D

[OneWithSoul]

All of my best friends seem to be INTPs. I guess I'd be friends with INFPs, too, if I knew any that were capable of being my friend.

[Members Only]

One of my best friends is an INTP. I would agree with many of the assumptions in this thread. We share the same values, but I'd say we approach them from slightly different angles.

I think it is a good combination, I try to teach him to be calmer, and not get into worthless arguments; he can help me to realize when I need to be less passive in my beliefs, so we kind of balance each other out.

[SolitaryWalker]

So I was wondering how similar are these two types? Because my dad (who I think is an INTP) and I are very similar, like we have the same views and tend to look at things in a very similar manner. I mean it could be his job, which is a biomedical engineer, and the fact that he's into computers he built several and did HAM radio growing up use to fix everything. Also at 63 he still knows the latest technology. He started out as a Journalism major, but felt he didn't have the talent to be successful and switched to mechanical engineering. I hate science classes, I can read a science article or two, but take a whole class...boring. I'm not good at math and he is. But I'm also thinking of switching out of film, as so many people are in the major and I don't think I have much of a chance. He's very introspective as am I, and we both get accused of not caring because we don't wear our feelings on our sleeves. He does have alot of friends, but my mom said that that's from knowing these people for years. That in a new situation he has a harder time, though all of his friends are from Bars. I mean he could be an E. We both pick up computer software fairly fast, him faster then me, but he's also taken the time to study it. As I've just kinda spent 5 minutes here and their.

So think it's possible that he's an INTP? or is their a slight chance that he's an INFP? Or think I typed myself wrong?

The only distinct similarity is to derive the final decision from within.

Yet the two types are radically different because the dominant function of one is the antithesis to the dominant function of the other.

Moreover, whilst Introverted Feeling strives to be internally driven, it is unable to be so unlike Introverted Thinking, due to a lack of clear perspective and the need for affirmation from others. The latter leads them to be almost wholly defined by how others feel about them.

In summary, on a very superficial level the INFP may appear to be individualistic because they are internally. Yet their internal drive is supplied externally, namely by the world of people. Thus, in essence this is not at all like the mindset of the INTP who tends to strive to make decisions based solely on his own, impersonal judgment.

Contrary to what I said earlier, the similarity which has ensued as a result of the commonality of introverted judgment is superficial. That is merely the aforementioned internal drive. The essence of the INTP is individualistic, impersonal judgment, and of the INFP, harmonization of the self to the will of other people.

[Members Only]

and of the INFP, harmonization of the self to the will of other people.

True to an extent.

An INFP will submit to the will of others as long as it does not clash with their deepest inner values (Which, I often think, are subject less to the whims of other peoples ideals).

I think an INFP will be more willing to compromise than an INTP, since as you stated, they value harmony more than INTP's, but the compromising can only go so far before something has to give.

[heart]

and of the INFP, harmonization of the self to the will of other people.

But it's going to be a hell of an internal war between wanting harmony with other people and wanting to be true to self and not wanting any constraints. Continual angst over this issue. The only relief found in introverting and getting away from the pressures that other people provide.

[Members Only]

Also, on the above quote.

It is not just harmonization of the self I seek to achieve, but harmonization of everything, with everything, in a broad sense. I want everybody to be harmonized. And in a sense, this may just be because, if everything, and everyone was harmonized with everything else, it would be a nicer world for ME to live in, in effect still being an aim of the self. But even with examining the meaning behind such actions, It still means I will not always harmonize myself to the will of other people; if I perceive somebody to be disruptive of harmony in the grander scheme of things, I will not give in to their will, more than likely I will oppose it.

I want harmony, but I want it large scale.

[heart]

Sometimes harmony is unwarranted and undesirible though and whatever discontent this brings me, I understand it's my internal problem and I have to cope with it. Better to feel discontented with things and cope with it rather than try and harmonize with something that is clearly wrong. This world is not ready for harmonizing as it is now and there's a lot more growing pains to go. The study of history helped me to see a lot of this.

[Members Only]

This world is not ready for harmonizing as it is now and there's a lot more growing pains to go. The study of history helped me to see a lot of this.

I think this often. At the same time the opposing thought in my head is "Well somebody has to try push things forward." To do nothing and cut myself off from the worlds problems, or to fight against what seems like a tide of ignorance. The worlds never going to be perfect, but I think we should all be striving to improve it. Then again, who is to say what is improving the world, and what is turning it to shit, it's hardly objective.

[heart]

Well, the only thing we truly have power over is our own development and improvement. External change rarely lasts. Only by each individual changing one by one can the world truly improve. It's not a comforting thought. But so long as people refuse to think for themselves and refuse to be responsible for themselves (responsible for their own critical thinking) they will be targets for those who use propaganda and media to sway and influence them, just as they did with the priestcrafts in the past. The mass of humanity will follow the pipers who just want to control and exploit them and so long as people are doing so out of their own abdication of self how can they truly be helped at all? These are all very hard questions.

So many people just happy to allow life to pass by as a delight to their senses (no connection here between N and S intended, N's do just as often as S) and ego needs and they are just as happy to let others do their thinking and judging for them. These people cannot be helped in their current state. They are truly the dead and the dead have to bury the dead.

[Members Only]

Agreed.

The world often searches for external solutions to internal problems.

As Ghandi said "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

This is usually the point where I try to apportion blame to one sect or another: is it the so called masses fault for being willfully ignorant? Is it the elite's fault for prescribing the masses a dose of ignorance through use of the media, the education system etc... Who knows, I'm sure I'll be having this back and forth argument in my head for many years to come.

I would love to see the education system altered though: externally altering the education system would solve many of the populations internal problems. Problems I can't help but feel, the majority of the worlds leadership find useful for their populations to inherit through the states systems.

[Eric B]

Also, on the above quote.

It is not just harmonization of the self I seek to achieve, but harmonization of everything, with everything, in a broad sense. I want everybody to be harmonized. And in a sense, this may just be because, if everything, and everyone was harmonized with everything else, it would be a nicer world for ME to live in, in effect still being an aim of the self. But even with examining the meaning behind such actions, It still means I will not always harmonize myself to the will of other people; if I perceive somebody to be disruptive of harmony in the grander scheme of things, I will not give in to their will, more than likely I will oppose it.

I want harmony, but I want it large scale.

Interesting.
How would Fe differ in that? I guess, it would be harmony in the immediate area at the expense of the grander scale?
And then, you have the NFJ's preferred Fe (which will be used similarly because of the common NF goals), and then, the NTP's weaker, nonpreferred use. This will also figure int he difference between the two types.

[Jack Flak]

I've had plenty of INFP friends; we tend to gravitate, and have a lot in common. An INFP girl friend (not girlfriend) and I had the same favorite song in 1998 (Liz Phair's Nashville), and once we both started singing Lou Reed's Perfect Day in the kitchen at exactly the same time.

Notable differences: They don't have as great interest in intellectual thought, being more concerned with what's right and just; They seem to ask "I wonder why" more than "I wonder if"; It's harder to tell if an INFP hates you through their fuzzy exterior.

[heart]

This is usually the point where I try to apportion blame to one sect or another: is it the so called masses fault for being willfully ignorant? Is it the elite's fault for prescribing the masses a dose of ignorance through use of the media, the education system etc... Who knows, I'm sure I'll be having this back and forth argument in my head for many years to come.


In my opinion, it is not ignorance that the media offers us, but outright propaganda designed to appeal to known aspects of our psychology and to change our behavior processes. I cannot recommend the series "Century of Self" enough, it shows how Freud's theories were and are still being used in this manner.

It is the general population's collective fault. When people give up their responsibility to criticial thinkers and want a big daddy to come in and make everything right, they open the door to manipulation and exploitation. Sometimes I even get this strange N idea that it's why were even here in this material world, trying to sort out the difference between individual freedom and love with others and along the way people get sidetracked into just play and distraction and lose both.

There are countless ways that the human imagination could go in and yet we allow those in control of our media and educational systems to dicatate what direction our imaginations will go in. We just want to be entertained and left alone.

[SolitaryWalker]

But it's going to be a hell of an internal war between wanting harmony with other people and wanting to be true to self and not wanting any constraints. Continual angst over this issue. The only relief found in introverting and getting away from the pressures that other people provide.

An INFP without a sufficiently strong Thinking faculty will unconsciously have their values conform to the whims of others. In order to maintain harmony with oneself the INFP will convince himself that this was done purely out of his own will and had nothing to do with the wishes of others.

There will be no angst because self-deception can stretch as far as the INFP's whims shall command, and we are unlikely to see many limitations to this because the salient drive of such a person is the will for harmony.

Having established the values as described above the INFP will simply feel true to himself whilst being almost entirely ruled by the whims of the people around them on a profoundly unconscious level.

Consistent inner conflict you speak of tends not to be observed in INFPs until they are able to use Thinking adequately to a notable degree. When Thinking truly becomes a force in the psychic economy of this type.


Interesting.
How would Fe differ in that? I guess, it would be harmony in the immediate area at the expense of the grander scale?
And then, you have the NFJ's preferred Fe (which will be used similarly because of the common NF goals), and then, the NTP's weaker, nonpreferred use. This will also figure int he difference between the two types.

Immediate environment or distant. Internal harmony or that with others, are all conceptual questions. In other words, they require Thinking. This is not the skill of Fi or Fe. All they know is entertaining warm feelings. This manifests in their longing for harmony with others as instinctually they recognize that this is the greatest source of warm feelings. The only difference between Fi and Fe is that the psychological mechanism of the former predisposes them to believe that their conformity to the will and harmonization with the will of other people is internally inspired, whilst the latter is realist enough to see that their act is one of direct acquiescence.

[Xander]

INTP and INFP the same? Exterior wise I'd say yes but it's often noticable that INTPs are a lot more concerned with definition than INFPs. An INFP is more likely to say something like "cause it does" than an INTP.

Based on my two INFP mates it would appear that I like to question a whole lot more than they do. Sure they'll complain about things but when it comes to analysing stuff and finding a point where I usually go "why can't they just..." then I'm far more likely to do that than to complain about the end result.

Another difference is in communication. I'll engage your thinking where as they tend to engage people's emotions more. It's most noticable in our persuasion methods. Often they will engage in that kind of persuasion where things like "well if you're not bothered about it then fine" are said where as with me I'm more inquisitive and will engage your reasoning in some conversation (some say argument... but they're just plain wrong ;) ).

I guess that the central difference is pretty much summed up by the differences between Ti and Fi. One INFP friend tells me he has almost a logic machine in his head where he can feed in the input and see what this machine says should be the logical outcome... me I've got a feeling machine where I calculate out what impact my actions may have, for example, by testing various hypothesis in this virtual environment I create.

Mind you though I've found few developed INFPs who I don't get on with... the immature ones are only slightly less annoying than the immature INTPs.. I guess that means they are, in effect, quite similar.

[chronologyte]

I have been having some trouble determining from the typical tests which of the two types I am. As far as I can tell, I definately some of the distinct qualtities of both, but it mostly depends on the situation and what type of response is needed. Sometimes I will feel my way through something, other times I'll think it out more logically. A further interesting note might be that I'm noticing a trend, moving more toward Feeling things out than Thinking about them. Most of my years growing up I have been extremely analytical and suppressive of emotions. Over the past year or two however, coinciding with a few particular life-changing events, I've been moving away from that constant logic and asking myself, how do I really FEEL about this and what's missing in my usual interpretation, not just what the computer up there reads. It's been a source of confusion and conflict within myself, almost as if my emotions are calling out for attention after being pushed down for so long... If pressed to choose one or the other, I would say I'm more INTP, but I can't ignore that I seem to have a side that screams INFP.

I'm not very learned on the MBTI and such things yet, though I do pick up on it pretty quick.

[Jaded]

Yeah i hate this view/beleif that us INFPs cant handle anything, most of the times i find i get as defensive and angry as anyone else lol... i might not be overly aggressive but im not all fuzzy cuddly and have rainbows and unicorns prancing around my head!...it's jst anoyin when people think i am coz i tend to be passive...but when something gets on my nerves i would snap..