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[MBTI General] Do functions change for people?

Sunny Ghost

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This isn't specifically directed towards ISFP's, but to any other introvert in an extroverted world... or anyone who just has some good information:

I'm an ISFP and I used to test as having extreme introversion. EXTREME! I was horribly shy, uncomfortable and even anxious around people for most of my life. I've gone through a few spurts here and there where I break out of it and meet a lot of people, but normally I'm a bit of a loner.

Recently, things have changed and I've been much more extroverted, much more social, much more talkative and willing to share. I've been meeting new people nearly every day and making loads of new friends. I've become very comfortable with chit chatting with strangers and making friends of them. I used to feel uncomfortable telling stories or even talking in front of more than one to two people at a time, but I've been catching myself doing elaborate and animated stories for people I hardly know.

They say you stay the same "type" at your core... but I'm wondering if perhaps I'm a bit more of an ESFP now. Have my functions switched at all? Is this just how other introverts are that are not shy? Or have I just better balanced out some weaker areas?
 

BlackCat

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Yeah there's a difference between shyness and introversion. Your functions don't switch at all, you just grow more into them and use them in different ways. As for the preferences; as people experience life more they balance themselves out and you get more balanced as a person (this is why it can be hard to type older people).
 

Sunny Ghost

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Yeah there's a difference between shyness and introversion. Your functions don't switch at all, you just grow more into them and use them in different ways. As for the preferences; as people experience life more they balance themselves out and you get more balanced as a person (this is why it can be hard to type older people).

yeah, i mean... i know not all introverts are shy. and not all shy people are introverts. but rather that i now blurt out more when i'm around people than i used to. :doh: i don't hold back anything anymore, which was never a problem before. which makes me wonder if that makes me less of an introvert.
 

Quinlan

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Maybe you were always ESFP and your shyness masked it?
 

Sunny Ghost

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Maybe you were always ESFP and your shyness masked it?

i thought about that for a minute. but i don't think so either. but i do feel as though there are some gears switching or something.

now i'm starting to feel as though it was silly to bring up. i think i just need to retreat back a bit.
 

Quinlan

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I don't think it's silly, sometimes I've wondered if I'm just a really shy ESFP.

In which part of your life (the shy part or the outgoing part) did you feel the most energised/fulfilled?
 

Kasper

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Quin and Indy, you both present as pretty normal ISFPs. I don't suspect there would be many ESFPs who mistake themselves for introverts.

My ISFP sis was a very shy child, quiet, reserved and timid, if you said BOO! she'd jump. Now in her 30s she can easily be the centre of the party and hold everyone's attention in the palm of her hand without breaking a sweat, she is a natural entertainer and people gravitate towards her.

Your functions don’t change as much as they get developed, in this case aux Se.
 

Robopop

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There was a period during 8th grade/high school when I became more extroverted(although was still an introvert). I was kind of a class clown, silly and goofing off, and most people around me commented on how I was more outgoing.

Some people were a little annoyed by that though and I even got into a fight with one of my classmates for fucking with him(he threw a book at me and I threw the book back at him, I thought we were goofing off, I was oblivious to his anger). Later on in high school I was a complete loner, sitting by myself at lunch and I've become more solitary the older I've gotten.

Right now I feel like it is between my strong inner world vs. the external world, so I am usually very quiet and quite detached(and sometimes oblivious to the environment around me, off in my own world). Some people may mistake this for shyness but really I'm not anxious around people, it's just that people seem like "energy vampires" to me. But if someone gets me started on a subject I'm interested in, I can talk for hours and hours.

Just ask yourself, what's more important to you, your Fi inner values or your Se(your at least an SFP right), but sometimes even that can be hard to figure out. Sometimes I feel I have a strong Ne attitude sometimes(like asking tons of what if questions and coming up with shit crazy ideas).
 

Rebe

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Hey Indy, I am wondering about the same thing. :D I don't know. Like you, I am also becoming much more sociable and carefree and talkative. I think perhaps we introverts take a longer time to learn but it is possible without us being hidden extroverts.
 

Quinlan

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Quin and Indy, you both present as pretty normal ISFPs. I don't suspect there would be many ESFPs who mistake themselves for introverts.

If extravert/introvert is about "where you get your energy from", I surely get it from the external world, doing things, looking at things, Se stuff. I don't think I get my energy from whatever it is Fi does.
 

Kingfisher

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i think that a lot of people are more extraverted at times and more introverted at times, i think it is natural for it to teeter back and forth a bit.

i used to see myself as an introvert. now i see myself as an extrovert. it is instinct that decided it for me, a gut feeling. what do i know to be true?

i think that a person's perception of themself can change a lot, which makes you seem very different to yourself.
i wonder sometimes if it's a bad thing to think of yourself as "an introvert" or "an extrovert," if maybe that clouds your perception of yourself and makes possibilities less clear. probably not.
 

Sunny Ghost

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thanks for all the responses guys. :)

Just ask yourself, what's more important to you, your Fi inner values or your Se(your at least an SFP right), but sometimes even that can be hard to figure out. Sometimes I feel I have a strong Ne attitude sometimes(like asking tons of what if questions and coming up with shit crazy ideas).

i've been reading about and learning about mbti for quite some time now, but i still have a lot to learn i suppose.

when worded like that, i suppose it's smack in the middle. when i'm depressed, i lean more towards my Fi... and when i'm trying to be more optimistic, i rely more on Se to brighten my day.

i think i'm energized by both, my internal world as well as the outer world. i do find the outer world of people a bit draining... but lately i don't even notice how draining it was until i get home. or if someone just talks my head off... but otherwise, lately, when i'm off and about and hanging out with my friends or with new people, i'm energized by that as well.

part of my new extrovertedness is i've finally learned to embrace my awkwardness and love myself. i've been finding that people are responding well to me. i think i'm just in the beginnings of a new love affair with myself. hopefully, things will cool down.

oh, and in my original post... although i was shy and timid, i was an introvert in the fact that i just preferred to be alone with my thoughts. i liked to explore on my own. i loved sitting at home and drawing and painting, and never really thought much about missing out on social events. i simply enjoyed my own company. and still do. it's just been a bit of a crazy month, and especially this week... today's the first chance i've been able to be by myself for a while now.

it's funny... i've been going more and more out of my way for others lately... been trying to establish better friendships with people, but now that i have done so, i'm slightly resentful in that social obligations leave me little room to myself. how to find balance? i have a hard time saying no even when i want to.
 

jixmixfix

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Shyness has nothing to do with type, being introverted is more of a way you view the world and interact with it.
 

Halla74

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They say you stay the same "type" at your core... but I'm wondering if perhaps I'm a bit more of an ESFP now. Have my functions switched at all? Is this just how other introverts are that are not shy? Or have I just better balanced out some weaker areas?

I might be a good example to ponder on, specific to your OP.

I am an ESTP, make no doubt about it.

BUT - if you look at "the numbers" I'm 60/40 with respect to N/S, and 52/48 with respect to P/J.

SO - to some I might be balanced on P/J, and thus ESTX.

To others, those that chalk up inaccuracy of the testing instrument, my mood on the day I tested, and the amount of cosmic-gamma-radiation-voo-doo-rays in the ionosphere, I could also potentially be EXTX.

---------

FAST FORWARD...

---------

Tertiary functions develop later in life, or so the theorists say. Despite my (massive) disagreements with other aspects of typological theories, this one holds water in my book. Why? Because it is any organism's default to favor those attributes which they are naturally good at. Success is reinforcing; failure is not. This is why I was a "Fell-o-tard" until about 2 years ago. I did not have a "fully developed set of feelings." My Fe/Fi were all fucked up, because in comparison to my primary and secondary functions, they were dwarfed, eclispsed, infintisimely miniscule.

But life has a funny way of making us recognize the whole picture, at one time or another. I did not choose to develop my "feelings" (aka "the F word" LOL!) until I came to a point in my own life that was not able to be resolved by my capacity to think logically. I was crippled, because I tried to "solve" (aka "determine") my feelings in a systematic, logical, and objective manner (OK, in a spreadsheet, FINE! It was a bad idea! :doh: ) and each time resulted in SHIT for a result.

Well, now that all of that pain and suffering is over, I have a more robustly developed set of feelings than ever before, and am better off for it, thank you very much. I really LIKE my feelings, YEAH, that's right, I said it. I'm SMARTER because I have them.

BUT - does that make me an ESFP?

NO.

Does that mean that I can't experience life from the vantage point of a more robustly developed overall set of cognitive functions, and maybe in so doing, potentially come across as some MBTI type other than ESTP?

HELL FOOKING NO.

So, once again, I have said much but very little, I'm getting a glass of Cabernet, rock on. :newwink:
 

Kingfisher

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you are STRENGTH OF MIND, halla. strength of WILL.

i think there is A LOT to be said for POWER and dynamism -
dedicate yourself to yourself-
embrace the strength of WHO YOU ARE, whoever that is!!! you will knock down doors!
 

Robopop

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it's funny... i've been going more and more out of my way for others lately... been trying to establish better friendships with people, but now that i have done so, i'm slightly resentful in that social obligations leave me little room to myself. how to find balance? i have a hard time saying no even when i want to.

This seems to point more towards introversion, you might have to plan your time more.
One thing about typology though is it is not the sole cause in how people behave outwardly, other factors include upbringing, emotional stability, individual brain structure, and somebody's specific situation.
 

Sunny Ghost

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^after making this post, i felt a little silly as i decided yes, i am still an introvert. i've just been too distracted from myself lately, which gets me feeling a little lost. however, i do still wonder if when i'm out and about in public, if my tertiary and inferior become switched. it sometimes seems like the case, but perhaps not. as an ISFP it's: Fi, Se, Ni, and Te inferior. for ESFP's it's: Se, Fi, Te, and Ni inferior. is there room for momentary lapses and switches? i can be quite the quick wit when i'm caught in the moment with people, which i equate with rooting from Te. however, i know i also rely on Se and Fi for that as well. i observe, i feel/empathize with the situation, and i attack in a smart manner. hrmm... but i suppose that could still be Ni asking, "what is this behavior for? why is he/she doing this?"

i need more reading on the functions.
 

Andy

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^after making this post, i felt a little silly as i decided yes, i am still an introvert. i've just been too distracted from myself lately, which gets me feeling a little lost. however, i do still wonder if when i'm out and about in public, if my tertiary and inferior become switched. it sometimes seems like the case, but perhaps not. as an ISFP it's: Fi, Se, Ni, and Te inferior. for ESFP's it's: Se, Fi, Te, and Ni inferior. is there room for momentary lapses and switches? i can be quite the quick wit when i'm caught in the moment with people, which i equate with rooting from Te. however, i know i also rely on Se and Fi for that as well. i observe, i feel/empathize with the situation, and i attack in a smart manner. hrmm... but i suppose that could still be Ni asking, "what is this behavior for? why is he/she doing this?"

i need more reading on the functions.

Remember, the functions are more about motivations, impluses (or perspectives, as Eric B puts it) then capabilities. So whenever the question comes up "I can do this, is it because of function x?" the answer is virtually always "no". The functions just make you want to do things - they don't intrinsically grant the ability to succeed at them! Whether or not you can forefil your goals is more to do with personal intelligence and skill, which is outside the realm of function theory.

The other thing to remember is that the function order is about how you use a function, rather than how much or when you use it. A different situations may cause the functions to come to the surface in variable proportions, but that doesn't change the function order, because the fundamental way they get used remains consitent.
 

ChocolateMoose123

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The older you get the more you relax and get comfortable in different situations because you've experienced and know more.
 

KDude

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I feel I can be as bold as any extrovert sometimes, but never be a life of the party type. From my perspective, there's not much possibility of it. I don't even think it's shyness necessarily.. It's almost the oppposite of shy, because I still have no problem telling people this is how I am. If people expect more involvement, I shrug.

Other things I feel that are introverted is I'd be happier with a few deep friendships, rather than touching base with many people. I have a lot acquaintances actually, and while I get along, I'm bummed out for not having more of the former. In fact, I get a little disappointed in some extroverted friends (one probably a ESFP or ESFJ male) who I can't just hold down for a sec and talk about something. Some people can be so jumpy in their extroversion... And I get bored easily too, but it's like they get distracted and involved in whatever and whoever pops up. I don't see that in myself exactly (and sometimes, the extrovert may have it right too.. I need to lighten up at times. I'm not going to say I have the right way all the time). I think it's the difference between having a extroverted dominant function and an introverted one. IMO, introverts still introspect or scrutinize a bit even in front of people. They don't just go away for a time by themselves, and then come out and easily get in sync with everything around them, as if they are temporary extroverts.
 
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