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Do you think about typology in your day-to-day interactions with people?

Atomic Fiend

New member
Joined
Nov 16, 2007
Messages
7,275
Well, yeah sure. Try it out on every F user, I'm sure you would get some smacks on your face (i would believe maybe incase 93%+ of the time).

Actually the only two people who've ever slapped me after criticizing them were INTP and ENFP, and to be frank I was only doing it for laughs, so I kinda had it coming.

Of course I know you don't mean literally, and you really mean they'd be upset, that much is true.
 

Silent Stars

New member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
410
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
9w1
Well, I type people I come across or observe online, but just for fun, though. I don't need anything additional to be able to understand them because it just comes natural to me, and isn't something I really think about at all.
 

lorkan

New member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
260
MBTI Type
INFJ
Well, I type people I come across or observe online, but just for fun, though. I don't need anything additional to be able to understand them because it just comes natural to me, and isn't something I really think about at all.

Well yeah. I type according traits I've learned from MBTI for fun to. Although figuring people out is something I do instinctively, good/bad, feeler/thinker. It would not have matter if I've read about MBTI (although it helps giving structure to thoughts), I would try to predict their actions or/and attitudes anyway.
 

Simplexity

New member
Joined
Jul 15, 2008
Messages
1,741
MBTI Type
INTP
Yes, I have a slight tendency to drone. albeit enthusiastically, so it helps to know if my message will fall on deaf ears or will not be received "well," or "accurately." When I'm feeling bored or about to daydream, I stop myself and devote a brief amount of my time to observe, analyze, and emulate other types. At least in thought, it's a handy exercise that can help with communication. I try and suppress some of my natural biases and tendencies so I can truly see the motives and actions for what they really are.

I feel like that is the best way to understand different people, because they are inherently a lot more complex than most of us can perceive or comprehend. The most interesting thing for me is to just really create mental models of their thought processes and figure out why their valuations, interpretations, manipulations and transformations are utilized. I'm a very Q and A oriented thinker so it helps to run little simulations based on that technique. It's usually contextually oriented as well, for example if I'm sitting in class I try and step back a bit and just follow their arguments or conversations. My ADD afflicts me with the incapability (or capability depending on how you view it) to sort out and block out ambient conversations. typology is sort of my synthetic way of dealing with that little "issue."
 

nolla

Senor Membrane
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
3,166
MBTI Type
INFP
Just curious how much people think about type theory when they are away from this forum and are interacting face-to-face with others. Do you use it in your interactions with others to help you understand or relate to them better? If you do use it, it is some thing that is always in the back of your mind when you are interacting with them?

No. I have tried to type some people just for the heck of it (and kept the info to myself) but I never take advantage of this "knowledge". I don't even remember which types I typed people. I don't feel like I have to. I got a lot better typology going on all the time. I think it is called intuition... ;)
 

mlittrell

New member
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
1,387
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
9w1
i do it constantly to the point that it is now sub/un-conscious. i type by temperaments
 

raz

Let's make this showy!
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
2,523
MBTI Type
LoLz
Working in a department store, I've started typing customers a bit. I'm noticing the things that are easy to spot, like temperaments. Even preference combinations that aren't real temperaments are sometimes easy to spot, like FJ. I'd imagine an SF would take things a lot more personally than an NF. I get annoyed with FP's though. Their barrage of morals gives me a headache.
 

wolfy

awsm
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
12,251
Sometimes I do for fun. But I don't build the relationship off it.
 

INTJMom

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Messages
5,413
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w4
Just curious how much people think about type theory when they are away from this forum and are interacting face-to-face with others. Do you use it in your interactions with others to help you understand or relate to them better? If you do use it, it is some thing that is always in the back of your mind when you are interacting with them?
ALWAYS!
It is the number one tool I use for understanding people, for understanding where they're coming from, why they're acting like that, or saying those things, at least in a general way. It helps me know how to respond to people in a way that they will best understand.

I don't analyze people too deeply or jump to conclusions about what their type is, but MBTT helps me understand some different facets of a person's thinking and thus behavior, and it helps me get along with them better, when in the past, I might have stubbornly tried to get someone to do something MY way, I see the value of THEIR way a little more, and can adapt myself if I need to.
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
5,903
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w8
Sometimes, when there are problems.
 

Synarch

Once Was
Joined
Oct 14, 2008
Messages
8,445
MBTI Type
ENTP
Just curious how much people think about type theory when they are away from this forum and are interacting face-to-face with others. Do you use it in your interactions with others to help you understand or relate to them better? If you do use it, it is some thing that is always in the back of your mind when you are interacting with them?

I think about it a lot. Sometimes I even regret learning about it as it has changed everything for me with how I understand people. From time to time I get skeptical about the whole thing, but it does come in handy in helping me understand how to get along and meet people in their own mental territory.
 

Grayscale

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 20, 2007
Messages
1,965
MBTI Type
ISTP
i see MBTI as a hammer that nobody needed. despite this, people who know of it will proceed to hit things with said hammer, when this hammer was best left for nailing ideas about personality together into a system and leaving it at that.

the vast majority of the present population is unaware of MBTI as well as the entire population that existed prior to its conception, and yet our society was built and maintained. since the MBTI is not necessary for human interaction, then that cannot be its purpose, which leaves it as just another system to describe categories of personality as we see them (albeit more in-depth than most). even in this sole purpose of description it is somewhat ineffective since the lack of quantifiable attributes allows too much heresy.

to ignore that and continue on to actually attempt to use the MBTI to learn about and apply towards people would be a gross overestimation of its capabilities, and many times, i would predict, actually create more harm than enhancement towards social interaction.
 

Kora

New member
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Messages
477
MBTI Type
ENTP
I see it as a 'tool' for my analysis. I remember that when I used to analyze myself or some people a few years ago, I arrived to some conclusions that I found after on MBTI, so I don't see why I shouldn't use it right now.
I listen first to my own analysis, and then refine it with MBTI.
 

Jack Flak

Permabanned
Joined
Jul 17, 2008
Messages
9,098
MBTI Type
type
to continue past that and actually try to use the MBTI to learn about and apply towards people would be a gross overestimation of its capabilities, and many times, i would predict, actually create harm towards rather than enhance social interaction.
Only if...

skating-wrong.jpg
 

GZA

Resident Snot-Nose
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
1,771
MBTI Type
infp
I used to, but I don't any more. I think it's probably one of the worst things you can do. If you start thinking like "that guy is usually ENTJ but right now he's being very ENFP" or "I was being like an ESFJ that whole night, and it bothered me", and especially if you assume what someone is like because you guess what "type" they are, delete your account immediately, because you're taking this whole thing way too seriously. It seems more than a few people do that -they trust it and believe in it so much that it defines what it is to be human as much as any great work of art or literature -and sometimes even more than authentic interaction and understanding. And then it hits them that it's pretty much nonsense. Everyone criticizes Victor for saying it's about as accurate as astrology. Hell, I've probably criticized him for it, but he's probably right.

I think the only useful part of MBTI is just seeing that people can and do in fact act and think differently, even if in the end I don't think they behave in the same way these "types" and "functions" neccesarily describe it.
 

kelric

Feline Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2007
Messages
2,169
MBTI Type
INtP
Just curious how much people think about type theory when they are away from this forum and are interacting face-to-face with others. Do you use it in your interactions with others to help you understand or relate to them better? If you do use it, it is some thing that is always in the back of your mind when you are interacting with them?

It occasionally comes to mind, much more so than it used to since I've started hanging around here. To be honest, I wish it wouldn't. It's all too easy for me to try and go from an observation to using it as some sort of predictor, or to take my quasi-educated guess as even remotely accurate.

There are very, *very* few people I've ever met who I'd be confident in my assumptions about their type (if such a thing is even that hard-set and permanent). Not coincidentally, those people are the same people for whom typing does the least for me - I know them so well that my knowledge of them transcends type. Most people? I can identify certain behaviors as characteristic of type A or type B, but wouldn't stretch so far as to assume that those behaviors are a reflection of the person's actual thoughts and motives - or even that they're characteristic of the person as a whole. For most people in our lives, we only see the surface, which seems inadequate to form an opinion on something as encompassing as personality.

Not that it stops me from agreeing with someone's self-assessment, but even so, I try not to (although sometimes, especially since I spend so much time here, I fail quite spectacularly) to not base any conclusions on it. I still think that the most important thing about type is to simply acknowledge that others really *are* working from different assumptions and areas of importance - in that respect, it's a good thing, I guess.
 

Frank

New member
Joined
Mar 13, 2008
Messages
689
It will usually cross my mind but I'm really not good enough at it for it to be of any use.
 
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