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How did you find out about MBTI?

Economica

Dhampyr
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
2,054
MBTI Type
INTJ
The title says it all really, but if you were introduced to MBTI by a person (as opposed to, say, stumbling across it online), please add what type that person was.

My employer at the time, an ENTJ psychologist, told me about the typology and suggested I take the humanmetrics test. I think she almost regretted it afterwards since I wouldn't shut up about type from then on. :D
 

Tayshaun

New member
Joined
May 13, 2007
Messages
172
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
To use your words, I stumbled across it online. I was feeling particularly low during revisions period, wondering why I was different from all the students who seemed to find motivation out of nowhere and feeling like my quest was deeper, more meaningful. I more or less guessed that there should be a personality system out there and started googling. I think I first found the test on similarminds.com.

I was intrigued by the description and later astounded by Paul James's INTP profile. The first days I was restless, doing more tests, learning about the dynamics, the other types, learning about enneagrams, Big 5, Oldham, etc... I think I joined INTP Central the same week I learned about MBTI. Of course it was a great way to stifle the discomfort of not studying for the upcoming exam.
 

girlnamedbless

New member
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
186
MBTI Type
ESFJ
My INFJ Sociology teacher makes all of his students take it. He got me really into it, we would type EVERYTHING.. characters from movies, etc. Good stuff. :)
 

Ivy

Strongly Ambivalent
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
23,989
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6
I had a Math teacher, probably ENFJ, who gave me the test in the 9th grade. She also had everybody reading their totem animals at a retreat, which had some of the parents a bit upset.
 

niffer

New member
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,217
MBTI Type
ENfP
Enneagram
8w9
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
Bumped into it randomly while surfing online.
 

cafe

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
9,827
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
9w1
It was part of the informal getting to know you curiculum my dad put together for me after we met each other almost ten years ago. He also made me read The Ugly American and watch Full Metal Jacket. My dad believes himself to be an ESTJ, but I think he's probably an ISTP. He's a pretty cool guy. I hope my mom wasn't lying about his being my dad. I'd be pretty disappointed.
 

logan235711

New member
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
166
MBTI Type
INTJ
mmm I really can't remember how I found out about it, I must have been browsing the internet one day and come across this test that was MBTI. I remember buying this book back in 2004 Please Understand Me II so I must have taken the test in 2003. Oh...mmm.. nevermind...I did join a few forums after that in 2k4 tho, and did some posting then spent a couple years away from MBTI cause I felt it was limiting my growth. I move beyond at my own pace then came back to check it out again--and minus a few months here-and-there, here I am : )

oh, I guess as some other people said, I had an inclination to try to explore and accept the possibilities of my F-side alot more than how I was approaching it then. My mother is a big SF, so she is in part a motivation : )
 

Maverick

New member
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
880
MBTI Type
ENTJ
A great and wise INTP "mentor" was curious about my personality and proposed me to take the MBTI test. He said the result confirmed his suspicions :)
 

targobelle

~*taaa raaa raaa boom*~
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
2,584
MBTI Type
enfp
I was directed to INTPc by someone I knew online and learned about MBTI there. It was in Dec I think.
 

Economica

Dhampyr
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
2,054
MBTI Type
INTJ
I was introduced to it when they tested everyone where I worked. I was about 21 at the time. I tested as INTP, but I was still strongly in denial about my F side back then. So I read the profile and thought "Well...sorta but not really". I then read the INFP profile and was nailed. So I read and reread that profile for a few weeks and then let it slide, since so few people were interested in talking about it. This is partly, I suspect, because Ss tend not to get too excited by their profiles for whatever reason.

I've often wondered what it's like when they test everyone at a workplace. In your experience, was it a waste of time and money, or did people actually learn something from it?
 

sdalek

New member
Joined
Apr 28, 2007
Messages
298
MBTI Type
ISFJ
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Didn't think much of it at the time until the past couple of years when my SO got into it and started edjumacating me about it.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I think I stumbled across it originally online (probably with Keirsey's site, and Joe Butts) somewhere in the mid/late 90's... but around the same time I became friends with an ENFJ about ten years older than me, and she was very well-acquainted with MBTI, so that just fueled my interest.
 

The Ü™

Permabanned
Joined
May 26, 2007
Messages
11,910
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
I took a little questionnaire in my high school English class in my senior year.

It wasn't a real one, but it was one of those where you had a box of I and E preferences and so forth (single box for S, N, T, F, J, P preferences, too, of course), where I had to check the box to see which one describes me better based on the set of words in each box -- it was like the thing in Do What You Are. I think I was INTJ then, too.

I stumbled across it again when I took the Career Personality Test at Tickle.com, again I scored INTJ the first time, but sometimes I come out INTP.

But then one day I came across David Keirsey's description of the INFP and found that I totally identified with what he said (that INFP children have very active fantasy lives), but not totally with his description of the INTJ or INTP. And so began my quest of self-knowledge...

I'm normally interested in one thing at a time and research it obsessively, then I'll go to another interest which I will passionately pursue for a while.

The way I pursue my interests is like a circle, I follow a roundabout path of interests but go back to what I was interested in at the start, and then I'll go around the circle again, and so forth. Of course, when I develop a brand new interest, the circle becomes more like a Spirograph doodle, where the circle deviates from the original path but will eventually come back to the original.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,187
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
The way I pursue my interests is like a circle, I follow a roundabout path of interests but go back to what I was interested in at the start, and then I'll go around the circle again, and so forth. Of course, when I develop a brand new interest, the circle becomes more like a Spirograph doodle, where the circle deviates from the original path but will eventually come back to the original.

Yes, that's the same pattern I follow, whether it is interests or creative outlets. I do one thing for awhile (e.g., drawing, composing music, writing, reading, etc.) obsessively, then become bored and have to move onto one of the other things. Eventually I cycle through them all and start over again, at least in terms of creative output.

I used to be frustrated that I just couldn't do one thing consistently, but I am learning to accept this about myself. The never-ending cycle is just part of how I work.
 

JivinJeffJones

New member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
3,702
MBTI Type
INFP
I've often wondered what it's like when they test everyone at a workplace. In your experience, was it a waste of time and money, or did people actually learn something from it?

I don't know if it was beneficial for the company. Maybe it affected management decisions. At the level I was working it just made a bit of a buzz for a while as a few N's talked about their profiles and many S's disparaged the whole thing, then everyone pretty much forgot about it.
 

Methofelis

New member
Joined
May 25, 2007
Messages
57
MBTI Type
INTP
I found out about it a little over a year ago from my (now) boyfriend not too long after we became friends. He was suspect of me, and at the time was typing people. He gave me the test, and it was quite muddled. I took it one more time, and INTP it was. He was happy -- he's an INTP as well.
 

Economica

Dhampyr
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
2,054
MBTI Type
INTJ
I don't know if it was beneficial for the company. Maybe it affected management decisions. At the level I was working it just made a bit of a buzz for a while as a few N's talked about their profiles and many S's disparaged the whole thing, then everyone pretty much forgot about it.

You didn't notice any promotions out of the ordinary or experience any new divisions of responsibility? Incidentally, what kind of company was it and what did your level do (if you don't mind my asking)?
 

JivinJeffJones

New member
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
3,702
MBTI Type
INFP
You didn't notice any promotions out of the ordinary or experience any new divisions of responsibility?

I think the test was given more in the interests of personal development than anything else. To be honest, I'm not even sure that the results were read by management.

Incidentally, what kind of company was it and what did your level do (if you don't mind my asking)?

It was an NGO, so it's probably not really representative of typical companies and the way they would use the test and results. NGOs aren't really companies I guess. So if you're looking for how companies would typically use the test you'll probably have to ask someone else.
 
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