Changing type?

[Clover]

I wonder if people believe it is possible to change your true type. I am not talking about being mistyped, thinking you were an INTP and turning out to be an INFP, but something much more drastic. Maybe like actually evolving into an INFP to ESJP or something (a huge stretch, I know!).

I personally do not believe that such a thing is possible. I was posting on another forum about this and people are really attacking me for my opinion. I think all they hear me saying is "people never change," but that isn't what I really mean. I believe people can change their habits, learn new things, better themselves and just become more well rounded, but essentially they will always be the same type. I can learn to organize my notebooks better, but that won't turn me into a J.

Tell me what you think!

 

[disregard]

I don't know.. ESJP is quite a stretch.

 

[zarc]

It's just evolving as a person, balancing oneself. You don't change your 'type', per se, you just learn to access other aspects of your personality without being hindered by them as you may have once been.

I can learn to organize my notebooks better, but that won't turn me into a J.

Another of those J vs P stereotypical things, huh. Jeez. That never made you either a P to begin with. I have a consistently messy room/desk/whathaveyou and I'm a "J".

 

[Clover]

I don't know.. ESJP is quite a stretch.

Heehee, I know! Maybe something like INTP to INTJ would be a more "realistic" example?

 

[Thursday]

I agree
I think that our character becomes more apparent as we grow,
and that as children, although not fully flowered,
our personality was in its most simple stages, therefore, easily read

this is what clued me into being an INFJ instead of an INTJ

 

[Clover]

It's just evolving as a person, balancing oneself. You don't change your 'type', per se, you just learn to access other aspects of your personality without being hindered by them as you may have once been.

Another of those J vs P stereotypical things, huh. Jeez. That never made you either a P to begin with. I have a consistently messy room/desk/whathaveyou and I'm a "J".

I agree, I agree!

Ahhh, I know, sorry sorry, please don't take it personally. I couldn't really think of a better example, I am not exactly an expert on MBTI and all the types.

 

[zarc]

I agree, I agree!

Ahhh, I know, sorry sorry, please don't take it personally. I couldn't really think of a better example, I am not exactly an expert on MBTI and all the types.

lol I guess my edited "" at the end of my post didn't make it in time !

I'm not upset, no worries~

 

[Valiant]

i'll go with the flow here, I think it is possible to evolve into a more well-rounded personality, but the essence of the person will always be the same.

For an instance, I was hopelessly bad at technical stuff except computers, a few years back. BUT, I practiced and practiced, now i'm quite the handyman, but my talents are social rather than mechanical.
And another thing that made me drastically different was when I fell in love for the first time. For real. It really helped me evolve my feeling sides, and especially the art of reading the other person and showing affection a lot, instead of just assuming the other person knows what i'm feeling.

I can't seem to evolve away from my fascination with war and guns, though
edit: (i've seen a bomb go off killing a couple of people in spain and I've seen death on other occasions, so that just makes me a sicko.)

 

[SillySapienne]

Whatever attributes of mine that happen to contribute to my being an ENFP, I strongly believe I was born with. Personality wise, to this very day, I am very much the same way I was as a five year old. My general affect and proclivities have more or less not changed.

But then again, I have always had a strong sense of "self", and this seed of consciousness of mine that germinated and emerged from deep within, despite environmental circumstances, has worked to carve my personal identity.

 

[Carebear]

I don't know.. ESJP is quite a stretch.

Haha. I'm hoping to be an EIJP.

But yes, I agree that type won't change easily. If at all, it would be for a borderline E/I who by using their auxiliary function a lot manages to tip over to the other side of the E/I.

 

[SillySapienne]

Yes, we are genetically predisposed to exhibit certain behaviors, and the behaviors we happen to consistently exhibit will constitute, what will collectively become, our expressed personalities.

 

[pure_mercury]

Whatever attributes of mine that happen to contribute to my being an ENFP, I strongly believe I was born with. Personality wise, to this very day, I am very much the same way I was as a five year old. My general affect and proclivities have more or less not changed.

But then again, I have always had a strong sense of "self", and this seed of consciousness of mine that germinated and emerged from deep within, despite environmental circumstances, has worked to carve my personal identity.

That is, almost verbatim, what I told a friend recently.

 

[disregard]

Whatever attributes of mine that happen to contribute to my being an ENFP, I strongly believe I was born with. Personality wise, to this very day, I am very much the same way I was as a five year old. My general affect and proclivities have more or less not changed.

But then again, I have always had a strong sense of "self", and this seed of consciousness of mine that germinated and emerged from deep within, despite environmental circumstances, has worked to carve my personal identity.

Yes! Wisdom and self-control come with age.. but I see myself as the same ball of fire.

 

[SillySapienne]

That is, almost verbatim, what I told a friend recently.

Yes! Wisdom and self-control come with age.. but I see myself as the same ball of fire.

Gotta love those who actually think for themselves!!!

Viva la Individual!!!!

 

[Nocapszy]

Why would you want to change your type?

Would you get a sex change to go along with it? Like a combo meal at McDonalds.

Or maybe a species change...

 

[SillySapienne]

Why would you want to change your type?

Would you get a sex change to go along with it? Like a combo meal at McDonalds.

Or maybe a species change...

I would change my sexual orientation if I could.

Some people don't like themselves, I'm sure to them, the idea of becoming someone else is quite alluring.

 

[Nocapszy]

So the way to set about that is to pick a different box to fit into?

Unfortunately for these saps, actually making the shift, if it's even possible, requires probably years of deduction to fully grasp the essence of each type, then to adapt their behavior and cognitive patterns to match it.

I imagine it would be something like taking a computer apart, resistor for resistor, capacitor for capacitor, solder by solder, and reconfiguring everything.

 

[dancinglissa]

Totally!

I agree
I think that our character becomes more apparent as we grow,
and that as children, although not fully flowered,
our personality was in its most simple stages, therefore, easily read

this is what clued me into being an INFJ instead of an INTJ

I TOTALLY agree with you! That's what kind of happened with me, too. When I was around 5 or 6, I was more of an INTJ (although I didn't actually discover the MBTI until about 6 months ago). Now, I've figured out I'm an INFJ.

 

[Badlands]

I don't think the personality type can evolve once it's set in stone around kindergarten age (and even then, I think N-S and T-F are almost impossible to externally influence). My grandma is most likely an INTJ, but she developed so many E and F characteristics that you need to know her well to analyze her type correctly. Just because she is very comfortable around people she knows little about and can easily sympathize with others does not mean she is no longer Introverted or Thinking. An adequate definition of brainwashing might in fact be when someone manipulates the core preferences of others.

Perhaps the evolution of types is just the strengthening/weakening of one preference over the other. P is my strongest preference (see link in the sig), which I would think is rare for INTPs. My I and T preferences have both considerably weakened since prepubescence, and I've always had a thing for S like activities. Despite not being incredibly nervous approaching a stranger, hours of social contact still drains me, especially if the people I'm interacting with are not of a similar personality type, and despite not rationally analyzing every single thing that I hear or see, I'm definitely a graph freak, and I look up statistics on things others would rarely be interested in (or statistics nobody has even thought to post on the Internet ).

 

[NewEra]

It's possible, mine drastically changed a few times in the past.