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Is MBTI Type Inherited?

highlander

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sx/sp
Do you think MBTI type is inherited? If so, do you think it leans towards particular functions being more likely as dominant and auxiliary (like Ni, Si, or Fe) or do you think it is more aligned with the letters - e.g., Intuitive parents are more likely to have intuitive children but no more likely Ne or Ni.
 

miss fortune

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my family is kind of mixed as far as what type they are :unsure:

both of my parents are rather introverted... and that didn't catch very well at all :laugh:
 

Hazashin

Secret Sex Freak
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sx/sp
Do you think MBTI type is inherited? If so, do you think it leans towards particular functions being more likely as dominant and auxiliary (like Ni, Si, or Fe) or do you think it is more aligned with the letters - e.g., Intuitive parents are more likely to have intuitive children but no more likely Ne or Ni.

I'm not sure. I'm not going to say it's one way or the other, as I simply don't know.

But I know with me, my mom was an ENFP and my dad is an ESTJ, while my older sister and recently-turned 16-year-old sister are xNFPs (INFP and ENFP respectively), and they both had he same mom as me (who is an ENFP). My younger, 11-year-old sister, however, is an ESFJ, and she has a different mom than me (who is an ENFJ). I guess that shows evidence of inherence? Since both my dad and my mom possess Fi/Te and Ne/Si, which my sisters who have the same mom and dad as me and I also possess, and my younger sister has Si/Ne from my dad and Fe/Ti from her mom.
 

Tyrinth

...
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I doubt it. My dad is an ENTJ and my mom is probably ISFJ... I'm INFP. I don't think I inherited a type from them.
 

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
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Everyone in my immediate family is introverted (with one borderline) but in the extended family, the types are all over the map. I don't think the letters themselves are inherited because I believe type doesn't physically exist but is a psychological construct devised to help understand differences between people.

That said, I do think certain traits that are commonly attributed to certain types are heritable. I think people can inherit predispositions towards shyness (which tends to be associated with I) or sensation seeking (which tends to be associated with dominant Se types).

I also think environment plays a huge role as well.
 

Southern Kross

Away with the fairies
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so/sp
I think there may be a degree of inheritance for cognitive functions.

There are no Intuitives in my immediate family (my parents are ISTP and ISFJ - so not much in the way of commonalities are shared with me) and there is only 1 other in my entire extended family (and we're talking about 35 people) so if Intuition is inherited, it's recessive. There are a lot of STJs in my extended family, with 3 out of 4 of my grandparents being one, so that could explain my presence (as INFPs share all the same functions as STJs). :shrug:
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
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I really don't think so. The brain is such a complex machine, its structure resulting from the interaction of an extremely large amount of genetic material.
 

Baltar

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Apr 15, 2008
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I have at least three male blood relatives(and this is just the living ones) who are also INTPs.
Since that is supposed to be one of the rarer types, and I did not grow up in the same house
with any of those guys, I think it fair to say there is an at least partial genetic component.
While none of the patterns are neat enough for me to surmise how exactly the heredity factor
works(dominant vs. recessive, cog function vs preference, etc.) there are still quite a few patterns.
My ISTJ Stepdad's family has an overwhelming ISxx dominance, with my half-sister coming out ISFP, getting some
ISFx also from the women on my mom's side.
 

maskara

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sx/so
But I know with me, my mom was an ENFP and my dad is an ESTJ, while my older sister and recently-turned 16-year-old sister are xNFPs (INFP and ENFP respectively), and they both had he same mom as me (who is an ENFP). My younger, 11-year-old sister, however, is an ESFJ, and she has a different mom than me (who is an ENFJ). I guess that shows evidence of inherence? Since both my dad and my mom possess Fi/Te and Ne/Si, which my sisters who have the same mom and dad as me and I also possess, and my younger sister has Si/Ne from my dad and Fe/Ti from her mom.

I'm not sure if it's good enough to call that evidence, but I've some happy coincidences myself:
My mom is an ESTJ (who did almost all the parenting single-handedly)
My dad was an IxTJ (perhaps INTJ. he gave financial support, hung out with me on some weekends, and now he's dead)
I'm INFP. Me and my mom are extreme ends of the same pole. I'm not sure if I did inherit her preference for Te-Fi and Ne-Si, but it would be mere conjecture to say so. However, according to a friend of mine, his INFP girlfriend's mom is an ESTJ(the same case with me). So...I'm not really sure where I'm going with this but I feel that there might be some truth about function preferences being inherited and all, at least to some degree.
 

SilkRoad

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I'm really not sure.

The one thing I'm pretty much 100% sure of is that my whole immediate family (me, my parents and brother) are all IxxJ. I'm not certain but I think my dad is ISFJ, mom INTJ and brother ISTJ. I also tend to think that both sides of the family incline toward IxxJ, although I haven't really known my extended families well enough (either they died before I was born or generally I haven't had the opportunity to know most of them that well.)

I think of myself as an SJ-style INFJ, and that would sort of make sense given my family and upbringing.

I'm not sure if the IxxJ thing is nature or nurture. I incline to think that MBTI type is mostly nature but somewhat nurture. It makes sense to me that Enneagram would be far more nurture than nature.
 

Lux

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If cognitive functions are how one processes information and makes decisions and there is a case for this, then it would make sense that it is inherited, as in the actual structure of the brain. However, the brain is plastic and able to change / respond due to one's environment. It will physically change due to learning and make more connections all throughout life. Many times traits (in any area) are 'there' but they need a trigger, environment; so someone could be predisposed genetically, but the environment is not there to support what biology intended.

Example: so my mom is an ESTP and my dad is an ISTP. My brother is is an ESTP, and I am an INFJ. All the cognitive functions are there just in different orders... My brother's and my childhood were different due to family drama, and at such a young age having to read between the lines and get what people were meaning instead of what they were saying was a safety issue in my young mind, my parents fought all the time and it terrified me as a child. So it may not have actually been an 'unsafe' environment, but in my young mind, it was. So that (this is only speculation) could have been a thriving environment for my already inherited Ni to develop into my dominate function.

I'm not sure what I believe because it makes sense to point that there is a genetic link that must be supported by environment, however then I think of genetically identical twins that have had virtually the same environment yet end up different.. and some end up the same too.

So a bit of yes and a bit of no.
 

Jonathan

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I think types is influenced by inheritance, but that's not the only factor. I am an INTJ, so we could assume I got Te/Fi from my parents and Ni/Se from my dad. However, my big brother is ESFJ and my little brother is ISTP, so they both use Fe/Ti, which could mean that types and functions aren't completely determined by inheritance. Or it could aso mean that I should type the postman to see if he uses any Fe/Ti.
 

Randomnity

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I think there may be a degree of inheritance for cognitive functions.

There are no Intuitives in my immediate family (my parents are ISTP and ISFJ - so not much in the way of commonalities are shared with me) and there is only 1 other in my entire extended family (and we're talking about 35 people) so if Intuition is inherited, it's recessive.
Both my parents are strong Ns, so if intuition is inherited, it's not recessive. :D

I think the only one that is likely to be inherited in a reasonably direct way is introversion. The other ones seem to go in any random pattern, depending on the family (see: all the family and type threads). My immediate family is ENTJ, INFP, ISFP, INTP/INFJ, ExFP. They are probably influenced by various genetic factors, but I doubt there's an actual gene or genes for any of them, other than perhaps introversion.
 

Eric B

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It seems temperaments loosely follow families, though it would be more like other "traits" which might skip over generations. My family is mostly Melancholy, and that skipped completely over me, but there are Choleric and Supine strains, which is what I got. Meanwhile, there seems to be almost no Sanguine or Phlegmatic (the "stable" or "low neurotic" temperaments, according to Eysenck. I believe this could explain at least some, if not a lot of the dysfunction in the family).

I could see it being tied to the brain, if our preferences are ultimately tied to factors of stimulatability, as I suggest here: http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...cs/36880-types-neurological-binary-codes.html
The temperaments would help indicate the function preference, since they do connect with the type dichotomies: (E/I: introversion/extroversion, F, P: people-focus; T, J: task focus).
 

KDude

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I doubt it. It's already bullshit on some psychological levels (I mean, it sticks it hands in areas it doesn't belong), let alone genetics.
 

LightSun

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#9
"Even wanting to change and become a better person, does not necessitate an actual occurrence of the desired change will occur. For we seem to fight ourselves. It is a phenomenon. It is as if we as children have been molded into a shape.

To change we have to figuratively metamorphosis into a new person. We as a species resist change for it is both painful as well very difficult. So the reformer has the vision of a brand spanking wonderful future, but will be resisted. We as individuals seek to maintain order, clarity, and consistency within our lives.

To go against status quo is profoundly resisted. We also largely live in a moment by the minute sort of basis. This is to mean we react vs. plan for contingencies. Of course reading psychological profiles, there are some types who consistently perform rather well with a solution focused and a more future oriented base.

Nonetheless we happen to be guided very much by emotion, in a sort of pain-pleasure paradigm. We seek avoiding any pain (change), while seeking gratification with worldly pleasures. Are our present day "triggered" emotions created now or are they a recycling and rehashing of emotions which were experienced in childhood and not properly processed and therefore healed?

I believe that if we were raised as children and our emotional conflicts as children were "processed" properly, then we would be almost super human compared to the norm today. We don't give credit or credence to a child's remarkable ability to process and properly digest negative emotions IF, if it is explained to them at the moment and properly processed. We have not learned this as a society. Moreover, not enough time is even to the developing child. Therefore, we have a society as we have it today.

I grew up in an extremely dysfunctional household. I did not want to repeat the pattern. I've learned this truth, even with best in intentionality: we are subject to behaviorisms we have absorbed during childhood. We can go against what we learned: but then there is overcompensation in another direction which is not balanced.

It is our emotion which rules our day. To escape this night and come out of our primordial past evolution, we must learn, adapt with cognition as well needed emotional training and regulation.

Education, I've stated it many times in innumerable threads. Education and child rearing, along with parental education is the bottom line and is the proverbial and the heart of the matter. It makes so much sense. Again, it's like the pink elephant in the room or the emperor with no clothes in the room.

We all know the answers but not enough resources are put into it. When will there be a rise in consciousness and demand for social action and for these areas to be first acknowledged and them acted on? I know we can conceivably have a renaissance, a rebirth of the human spirit with a will and a focus and a drive.

It takes a paradigm shift. It takes changes in consciousness as well as awareness. Come on we put a man on the moon and built the atomic bomb in the Manhattan Project. Later we resolved our will and resources for the manufacture of the hydrogen bomb. Why is it we can make and build engines of destruction but not marshal our forces for the good of society? Is it fear based?

Must our primitive emotions be triggered to impel us to take action? We also marshaled a country for war against two giants of military might, both Germany as well as Japan. Prior to WWII we were not a superpower. The powers were Germany, France, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. We were not prepared for war when it hit us at Pearl Harbor on that infamous day. Yet we marshaled our forces and overcame great odds of herculean proportions.

We can again. We need a leader or many leaders, leaders with a vision toward a great America. Moreover we have to want a better society to make the changes needed in how, when and if we are truly committed to making the changes that are essential and absolutely, imperatively needed and essential to make and keep this great nation of ours, in which we live in, great.

We all live here. We all have a stake and a voice. We must make the pivotal changes needed in how we do things and how we think of ourselves, our children and our future.” LightSun


So Highlander i fervently do have the belief we are programed and shifted in becoming our MBTI soul.
 

Porcelain Hearts

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In my theory,

I/E and P/J is likely conditioned.
N/S and T/F is inherited.

In my family's case - my dad, brothers and I are all xNxP's.
I never believed there was even an argument between nurture and nature. Both have their dependencies on each other; nature just creates competition, which is necessary in the gene pool.
 

KDude

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My immediate family are all SJ, I think. I'm not that much alike. My dad used to joke that they found me in a trashcan in the K-Mart parking lot.
 
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