Could upbringing change your natural type?

[NewEra]

Yeah I think so. I personally believe that environment has a huge impact upon type, even changing it. If you were raised by militarily-strict discipline, then chances are, even if you naturally were P, you would become J.

I know as a kid, I was almost certainly an E and a P (one of those hyper-energetic ESP kids). Parental discipline and environmental factors made me far more I and more J. I think the environment affected my J/P preference more than the E/I one.

 

[Eiddy]

Seems the older I get the more I can understand how others think or operate. My daughter is INTP and I have on occasion told her to smile and greet others when meeting them. I don't ask her to hold a conversation, but to be a little more friendly when meeting others for the first time. I am also introverted, but just to be polite we do have social niceties to hold up.

She also has P, I try to be a bit more lenient on that, but there are times when her room just gets to be too much for me. I don't ask her to make lists or goals, but try to encourage her to do better in regards to school.

Sometimes we do things to try to help, but end up not being what is best for the person under our care. Gladly I don't force changes or living up to my expectations, so at least I can see their natural personality types. I think it is the worst thing we can do for our kids is not accept them for how they are (along with a few other things). Not going to mention because that would turn into a whole other post.

 

[Snow Turtle]

The J/P - I/E switches would produce a huge difference in someone. Even if they were forced to become more J in behaviour, that does not mean that they will start using Je functions which is the foundation of MBTI.

Having said that I'm a believer in the whole function order is more fluid than thought to be. Where's my proof? I got none.

 

[Eiddy]

Many times though I thought do I function as this or is the way I was taught to function. Mainly in regards to thinking and feeling. I wasn't allowed to think only obey and I had to feel my way around situations to know if my father or others were in that negative emotional state.

As for the I/E like I said with my brother certain aspects were so repressed that to read them correctly is like taking a stab in the dark.

 

[Oom]

Many times though I thought do I function as this or is the way I was taught to function. Mainly in regards to thinking and feeling. I wasn't allowed to think only obey and I had to feel my way around situations to know if my father or others were in that negative emotional state.

As for the I/E like I said with my brother certain aspects were so repressed that to read them correctly is like taking a stab in the dark.

I wonder if being forced to use thinking or feeling as a child would make your type later in life more likely be what you were forced into and adjusted to.

Or if you would retain your "inevitable" type and just have well developed functions that can compliment the weaknesses of your type.

I think a stab in the dark is a guess, but I understand what you mean about people being hard to type. The reason you aren't able to type certain people may be because MBTI is for self evaluation, not for evaluating others.

That would be leaning more to socionics.

 

[Little Linguist]

Sure it can!

Circumstances can also play a role. For example, I was almost constantly stressed in high school, so often my shadow ISTJ came out to play A LOT and sometimes INTJ....Nowadays people laugh and can't imagine me like that, but it's true. It might also have something to do with the fact that my personality was not fully developed yet, but this was when I was 17/18, so theoretically, I should have been (almost) fully developed.

I was raised by my grandparents, so the generation difference made a HUGE difference. My grandmother was an ESFJ (or ENFJ, hard to tell) and my grandfather was an XNTP, sooooo yeahhhh....lol

It took me a long, long time to 'find' myself - going from my shadow self ISTJ to the 'real' me, ENFP. It's a hard process, but it's well worth the effort.

 

[Oom]

Sure it can!

Circumstances can also play a role. For example, I was almost constantly stressed in high school, so often my shadow ISTJ came out to play A LOT and sometimes INTJ....Nowadays people laugh and can't imagine me like that, but it's true. It might also have something to do with the fact that my personality was not fully developed yet, but this was when I was 17/18, so theoretically, I should have been (almost) fully developed.

I was raised by my grandparents, so the generation difference made a HUGE difference. My grandmother was an ESFJ (or ENFJ, hard to tell) and my grandfather was an XNTP, sooooo yeahhhh....lol

It took me a long, long time to 'find' myself - going from my shadow self ISTJ to the 'real' me, ENFP. It's a hard process, but it's well worth the effort.

That's interesting, how did you notice you weren't being yourself? Or was it obvious to you?

You said you had to go through changes to find the real you. Do you mean your true type or just your true self in general (and the type just tagged along)?

 

[Fluffywolf]

I think I was ENTP when I grew up and turned INTP when I was 21.

Although the E might have been mostly the alcohol. I was definatly more Ne dominant though in my younger years.

 

[hommefatal]

It may overlay your natural type but it will never change it. But probably type develops at the of 4 or something like that.

 

[Quinlan]

I tend to think of type as involving natural preferences and if something must be forced upon us by external circumstances then it is not a natural preference.

I think people underestimate the massive range of behaviours that can be exhibited within a type. No matter how much I look and act like an ISTJ, if I would prefer acting like an ISFP then I am ISFP.