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how easy is it to change Type?

Synarch

Once Was
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Oct 14, 2008
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It doesn't matter if MBTI is hard wired into our biology or if it's simply a human construct. A person's personality and modes of thinking are mostly solidified once they reach late teens to early 20's. After that they will change very slowly.

Can we really assume that this tendency to solidify one's personality has a biological basis? In other words, what if people just have a tendency to go with what they know past a certain point in life. I think many of our explanations for mental processes are overly biological and often only suggest correlation.
 

Soar337

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Can we really assume that this tendency to solidify one's personality has a biological basis? In other words, what if people just have a tendency to go with what they know past a certain point in life. I think many of our explanations for mental processes are overly biological and often only suggest correlation.


I've been an INFP for as long as I can remember. And that's back to about three years old. I'm sure during the first three years that parents let their child's personality develop by itself. My siblings were raised in the same environment, and they have different personality types.

Who knows? I think it is genetic.
 

Synarch

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I've been an INFP for as long as I can remember. And that's back to about three years old. I'm sure during the first three years that parents let their child's personality develop by itself. My siblings were raised in the same environment, and they have different personality types.

Who knows? I think it is genetic.

What is genetic? It would be hard to prove that some attribute of mind is strictly genetic. That leads to a sort of biological determinism with the end result being ascribing certain personalities to various races, genders, etc.
 

Soar337

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I know, I was thinking that while I was typing. DNA can't really determine how we think, I don't think. So the only other option is the soul ! :p Hahaha.

But many people don't accept that because they don't want to get their hopes up.

I actually tried typing out three different paragraphs before erasing them.

Because however much I analysed it, it always came back to the factors being environmental, or genetic. From what humans know from science so far, there's really no explanation for emotions other than human evolution and society...but we are also so evolved that we have the ability to question if our emotions are even real. Makes you wonder what else we are capable of? I wonder why many aren't capable of believing in a soul. It's quite sad. :(
 

Synarch

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I just think much of our personality is pure habit of mind and learned behavior. This is why cognitive therapy is effective.
 

Soar337

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Yes. I wonder what would happen if three children were raised in the EXACT same way from birth, even down to the same facial expressions that the one woman who cared for them gave them (I know this is very unmoral but I'm resorting to extreme measures) while they lived in a neutral house, saw no other children to pick up behavior from, gained no meaning of right and wrong...

I wonder if (apart from being emotionally scared (but again then again we have gained this view from society) they would have different personalities, or even HAVE a personality? It's a dark concept and I would never wish it on any innocent child, lol.

Umm, I don't know why I picked three. Could be a thousand. They wouldn't be able to talk to each other because they wouldn't know how. Perhaps they could communicate somehow.

Actually, due to human intelligent they would probably create a language...and eventually wonder why they were there...is there a God? If there was a world past this tiny house they lived in?


Haha...OK. I don't think we are ever going to truly understand emotions.
 

Synarch

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Yes. I wonder what would happen if three children were raised in the EXACT same way from birth, even down to the same facial expressions that the one woman who cared for them gave them (I know this is very unmoral but I'm resorting to extreme measures) while they lived in a neutral house, saw no other children to pick up behavior from, gained no meaning of right and wrong...

Even then they would have a unique experience of Life.

"A child is born into a world of phenomena, all equal in their power to enslave." - Equus
 

Soar337

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But isn't how they react to the world without any other factors their true personality? What else would this be called?

Oh, never mind, I understand what you mean. With them being human (even an animal) would still react in a certain way and feel something, whether it's curiosity or fear or something because they are alive. I think that's what you mean?
 

Synarch

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But isn't how they react to the world without any other factors their true personality? What else would this be called?

Oh, never mind, I understand what you mean. With them being human (even an animal) would still react in a certain way and feel something, whether it's curiosity or fear or something because they are alive. I think that's what you mean?

To me, true personality is how you manifest in any given circumstance.
 

Soar337

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LOL! You should have said that to begin with! :p
 

Matthew_Z

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Jun 15, 2009
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xxxx
User CP -> Edit Your Details -> MBTI Type

Most people will believe whatever you tell them your MBTI type is. Some variation of Forer effect, I suppose.

In my own experience, I consider the notion of type "changing" to be irrelevant. Given how MBTI isn't anything near an exact science, one can never know with absolute certainty what their type without disregarding information that disagrees with their position. In addition, confirmation bias occurs much more easily and more commonly in individuals that hold they are a certain MBTI type.

My personal response to this problem is weigh the likelihood of being any one type over another based on the data provided without committing to any single option. Presently, based on my data, INTP seems like my most likely type. New input to my model does not disprove the model. Rather, it allows for an expansion of the model due to the new chunk of data that can be incorporated. Even if I appear to be more ISTP-ish than in a previous timeframe, it is fully possible that I have been ignoring something for whatever reason.

In other words, adjust your type according to what you know. Whether this adjustment was merely "correcting" a mistyping or indicating a change in your type does not matter. At this point in the development MBTI theory, there is no way to know which of the above scenarios prevails. However, even without knowing, one can "change" their opinion on their MBTI type without knowing what caused it.
 

Twixt

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Oct 12, 2008
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i think its definitely possible to change from things like F to T (and vice versa), and E to I (and vice versa).

however, S/N is harder to change (to me).

hardest to change would be P/J.

i have personally changed type over a span of.. well, just under a year. its IS possible.
 
G

Ginkgo

Guest
What is genetic? It would be hard to prove that some attribute of mind is strictly genetic. That leads to a sort of biological determinism with the end result being ascribing certain personalities to various races, genders, etc.

Well, we all know that females are physiologically different than males. Thus, they are also psychologically different from males because the brain is a physiological construct.

Hormonal levels and other biological catalysts are determined by physiological means. We also know that they can cause drastic changes in behavior and "personality".

However, the human body is a very adaptable and malleable tool. It often changes to cope with imposing environments. So, it is feasible that the mind and personality are adaptable as well.

But I'm sure you already know this. I'm just typing incessantly to sound quasi-intelligent. :)
 

zark

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Nov 14, 2008
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istp
I think people can change type for a time, maybe a certain time of their lives. But soon enough, they will revert back to the type that they were born with. I think that deep, down, we will never change:)

I believe you can switch your function though, but not your whole type. ex. using feeling when stressed for the not so feeling type people. So to others it may seem your being different than who you normally are.
 

VagrantFarce

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Nov 19, 2008
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I subscribe to the assumption that you will always have a preferred type, and thus a preferred function makeup. I think a lot of people don't realise that the theory says you don't have a good grasp of those four functions straight away, and that you develop them over time as you mature and start accepting parts of you (and ways of seeing the world) that you once tried to fight (for example, I'm convinced that we tend to demonize our inferior function when we're very young, and we can easily make excuses to not use the auxillary function when we need to deal with something that is outside the capabilities of the tertiary function).

There's also nothing stopping you from developing your ability to handle the four other functions as well (for example, we are all subjected to extraverted thinking on a daily basis), so that could give the illusion of you changing your type. But I do think there's always a preferred function order that "feels" the most like you.
 
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