Personality Change Over Time

[LeonardoLestat]

My personality has changed significantly over time. I used to be a lot more extraverted just a couple of years ago, and I'd talk before thinking. I was an E. I used to also be more carefree, and go-with-the-flow and more experimental than I am now. I was a very clear P. I used to be more friendly, less confrontational, less hard-working, more creative, and more fun. Definitely more F than I am now. This was just 1 or 2 years ago. If you asked me back then, I would never have thought one's personality could just change like that. But it happened to me. I would say before, I was an ESxP.

I wanted to know if something like this is common, or have you heard of it? Or has it happened to you?

i was a healthy J (NJ but J nonetheless) and im turning more and more P under prolonged stress. its scary as hell
i had clear feelings! now my feelings are fuzzy and vague.
im an E5 with desintegration to E7 *iek*

 

[aguanile]

I took a test about 7 years ago and I was a clear INFP.

Since then, life had happened and maybe I was a bit bitter about a few things and I completely changed to ISTP. Now, the I and the P fit but I could never fully relate to the description of the ISTP.

I have taken several different tests the say I am INFP in the last months.

 

[Glycerine]

I used to act very ESTJish for the longest time but when that was not forced upon me, I started to become INFJ. I don't think I was ever a true ESTJ... my real INFJ side came out just within the last couple of years.

 

["?"]

My personality has changed significantly over time. I used to be a lot more extraverted just a couple of years ago, and I'd talk before thinking. I was an E. I used to also be more carefree, and go-with-the-flow and more experimental than I am now. I was a very clear P. I used to be more friendly, less confrontational, less hard-working, more creative, and more fun. Definitely more F than I am now. This was just 1 or 2 years ago. If you asked me back then, I would never have thought one's personality could just change like that. But it happened to me. I would say before, I was an ESxP.

I wanted to know if something like this is common, or have you heard of it? Or has it happened to you?

Interestingly my son says that his personality has changed over time and that he too has gone from being extraverted to introverted. I laughed at his notion because I still see the extraversion in him. However both E/I can balance out over time as we gain more and more experiences that call for our opposite attitude. I became very extraverted after graduating from college and over the past 10 years have settled back into be more introverted. I figure at some point I will go through another decade of appearing extraverted. The question still remains that how are you when alone.

 

[Laurie]

Just because someone learns to deal with weaknesses in their personality doesn't mean they change.

 

[Nonsensical]

I was very ESFP as a young child but molded into an ENFP, and am now borderline INFP/ENFP, but probably a little more INFP.

 

[BlackCat]

I used to be a lot more extroverted, but I don't know what happened. Over time my scores on the tests have balanced out, now they are at a point where I = 60%, N = 60%, F = 51%, and P = 55%. *shrug* I'm still an INFP but I consider myself nicely balanced.

 

[Snow Turtle]

Transition from ISTJ to ISFJ. Though I suppose it's more personal development that created the transition.

Hm. I'd have figured myself as ISTP as a small child. Which changed vastly when I thought I got kicked out of school. (Then again... I distinctly remember crying and ranting about how I'd be moving away from my friends. So it's possible I was really an underdeveloped ISFJ but that might apply to all children regardless of type.)

 

[Chris_in_Orbit]

I used to be a lot more extroverted, but I don't know what happened.

Puberty. Seriously.

 

[MrME]

As we are developing these functions, we are learning to prefer one over the other. One is becoming more comfortable, automatic and natural. This differentiation process is necessary for our psychological well-being. We have to have a preference or else we would be insane. According to what I've read, the only circumstance under which someone's type might change is if they suffer brain damage.

This. I would gamble that the traits the MBTI tests are more dependant on the chemical make-up in your brain. Also, the MBTI is self-scoring, so its results are only as good as the information that being fed into it. If you're not being truthful (with yourself and/or the test), your results will be wrong.

 

[NewEra]

This. I would gamble that the traits the MBTI tests are more dependant on the chemical make-up in your brain. Also, the MBTI is self-scoring, so its results are only as good as the information that being fed into it. If you're not being truthful (with yourself and/or the test), your results will be wrong.

Yeah, but the thing is I'm basing the change, not off MBTI tests at all, since I didn't take any back then. I'm just basing it on what I feel and think like back then as opposed to now.

 

[mlittrell]

personality, in an mbti sense, doesn't change over time

i hate this analogy but... think of the human cognition as a computer. the hardware (mbti) will never change but the software (events in ones life, maturity, different environments, different social groups, and now a computer term...different processes) will change through every stage of the computers (persons) life.

 

[Chris_in_Orbit]

Don't feel bad using that analogy. Some Ts can be pretty robotic.

 

[Moiety]

personality, in an mbti sense, doesn't change over time

i hate this analogy but... think of the human cognition as a computer. the hardware (mbti) will never change but the software (events in ones life, maturity, different environments, different social groups, and now a computer term...different processes) will change through every stage of the computers (persons) life.

So you are pro-"nature"?

 

[jackandthebeast]

Theoretically, its very possible to change type if the cognitive functions you use most changes due to life circumstances, but because Js and Ps have different sets of cognitive processes accessible to them as primary processes (Js have introverted ways of taking in information and extroverted means of processing that information; Ps have extroverted ways of taking in and introverted ways of processing), changing from a J to a P or vice versa would be extremely difficult and unlikely as it would require changing which set of cognitive processes is accessible to you in greater depth. My former high school teacher/mentor/friend is an ENFP, and she told me that she was an INFP when she was younger but that teaching and taking up acting had made her more extroverted.

 

[mlittrell]

So you are pro-"nature"?

im pro nature and pro nurture

i dont believe nurture changes the type tho

ive said this one hundred thousand times so pardon if youve already read this.

mbti does not equate behavior and external...stuff. its like looking at a 3d object in a mirror. the mirror image is 2d and is only showing part of the 3d image. this is the same with cognition and behavior (cognition being 3d and behavior being 2d). you may see the cognition through behavior but you will not see all of it. so there is something more to the cognition then the external things we see. this also means that the 2d image will only change as much as the 3d allows it. all this to say, i think you are born with your type (i cant prove it) and i think your type is in some way genetic (though there is a bit of material on this, i definitely cant prove it).

i think that even through external things that do effect our mind, our cognition will only flex with the changes. ill use myself as an example. right now i am slightly stressed. my identity was stolen and my credit is practically non-existent. when i get stressed i get quiet. stoic. and tend to get very focused. does this mean that i have gone from an extrovert to an introvert. and from a thinker to a feeler. and from a perceiver to a judger. of course not. i still think the same way. i still have a need to be around people. i still put this back on myself even though it isn't my fault and i am definitely still not a judger though im showing traits of a judger. to the outside world i may appear to be an INTJ (oddly enough my dads type, and this is where my nurture beliefs come in). this example can be expanded to x situation and over y amount of time.

 

[Riva]

My ISTJ mom kept trying to raise me as an ISTJ and kept failing over and over, then taking out her failures on me, etc.

Unfortunately for her, I've been pretty clearly INFJ my whole life. And her 2nd child has always been clearly ENTP. And her husband has always been clearly INTP.

The more she tried to make me into her dream child, the less like her dream child I allowed myself to be. Very NF of me

my father wanted and still wants me to be an ESTJ. he is clearly an ESTJ. and thanks to him i really don't like ESTJs. he is a annoying cvontrol freak. i will be a happy man the day i find my own home.

i think all SJ types want their children to be SJs. not just your mom and my ANNOYING dad.

he must be really disappointed that i turned out to be an ENTP.

 

[BlackCat]

It's not the MBTI type... Some parents are just insane. My mom raised me to be an ENFP (since she is one) but I turned out INFP. I guess it was the mix of INTP-ENFP. *shrugs* My mom is still angry about my introversion, and she divorced my dad because he was too introverted.

 

[NewEra]

Interestingly my son says that his personality has changed over time and that he too has gone from being extraverted to introverted. I laughed at his notion because I still see the extraversion in him. However both E/I can balance out over time as we gain more and more experiences that call for our opposite attitude. I became very extraverted after graduating from college and over the past 10 years have settled back into be more introverted. I figure at some point I will go through another decade of appearing extraverted. The question still remains that how are you when alone.

Yeah, that sounds like me - a couple of years ago, I used to love hanging out with my friends and joking around. Now I'm very reluctant to hang out with those same friends, and rarely ever hang out with them, even though I have the same opportunity as I did before. When I'm alone, I feel my best.

 

[NewEra]

It CAN change over time!