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INFP/INTP?

tsumatachi_san

New member
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
91
MBTI Type
ISTJ
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4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I've been typed as an INFJ for a long time, but I've never really felt I understood the functions properly. And, after some research, I looked up Ne and discovered that's there instead of the Ni I first thought. I still know I lead with an introverted function, but it's pretty close between Fi and Ti (a bit more to Fi).

I tend to make judgements based on logic, but a logic that is very flexible and can change quickly without me even realising it. However, I also tend to judge based on what I believe to be right, as well as it being logical. I don't like to colour situations with my feelings if they aren't about me, as it takes away from the external situation. I do, however, use emotions a lot as a judge and a sort of 'filter' for things - if I like/dislike things, if something bad/good has been done etc..

I find that, often, I am polite to people because that keeps people from getting angry/engaged with me and if I smile (which I seem to do a lot as a nervous tick) I get left alone. I very rarely argue with anyone, only the people I'm closest to, or if I can't let something go. I don't really hold grudges or take criticism badly, but I am sensitive to people's words and am affected by them greatly (recently, my mum told me not to take things employees in somewhere said personally, and as I went to deny that I did, I realised I couldn't).

Anyway, any input is greatly appreciated :) Thank you in advance!
 

SoraMayhem

defying your expectations
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
344
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4w5
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so/sx
Do you use Ti or Te? INFPs and INTPs use their thinking functions very differently.
 

StephMC

Controlled Mischief
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
1,044
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ISTP
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9w8
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sp/sx
Sounds like you my use dom Ti and inferior Fe. My inferior Fe often results in me being very polite just to avoid certain confrontations.
 

Mal12345

Permabanned
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
14,532
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IxTP
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sx/sp
I've been typed as an INFJ for a long time, but I've never really felt I understood the functions properly. And, after some research, I looked up Ne and discovered that's there instead of the Ni I first thought. I still know I lead with an introverted function, but it's pretty close between Fi and Ti (a bit more to Fi).

I tend to make judgements based on logic, but a logic that is very flexible and can change quickly without me even realising it. However, I also tend to judge based on what I believe to be right, as well as it being logical. I don't like to colour situations with my feelings if they aren't about me, as it takes away from the external situation. I do, however, use emotions a lot as a judge and a sort of 'filter' for things - if I like/dislike things, if something bad/good has been done etc..

I find that, often, I am polite to people because that keeps people from getting angry/engaged with me and if I smile (which I seem to do a lot as a nervous tick) I get left alone. I very rarely argue with anyone, only the people I'm closest to, or if I can't let something go. I don't really hold grudges or take criticism badly, but I am sensitive to people's words and am affected by them greatly (recently, my mum told me not to take things employees in somewhere said personally, and as I went to deny that I did, I realised I couldn't).

Anyway, any input is greatly appreciated :) Thank you in advance!

I could use more info. But so far it sounds like you're either INFP or ENFP.
 

Seymour

Vaguely Precise
Joined
Sep 22, 2009
Messages
1,579
MBTI Type
INFP
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5w4
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sx/so
Do you use Ti or Te? INFPs and INTPs use their thinking functions very differently.

I think it's a little less definitive than that for some of us.

tsumatachi_san, I'm guessing you've read the function descriptions, and found yourself identifying with Fi and Ti over Fe and Te. I feel your pain, since I don't really identify with Te and don't have many Te-oriented strengths to point to (this despite being middle-aged and reasonably successful as a programmer).

Do you feel you have to be logical, yourself? When you are analyzing something, do you tend to detach emotionally, or do your feelings guide you as a analyze? How aware are you of your emotions as they happen? How easy to do find it to ignore or let go of another's illogical or counterfactual reasoning?

More specifically: as someone is talking, do you find it relatively easy to "suspend disbelief" and see things from their perspective, even if they may not be supporting their conclusions rationally? Or does your listening process get derailed by their first egregious error (factual or logic)?

Also, there's the standard question, "What do people do that really ticks you off?"
 

tsumatachi_san

New member
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
91
MBTI Type
ISTJ
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
Thanks for the replies :)

Do you use Ti or Te? INFPs and INTPs use their thinking functions very differently.
I seem to use both... I feel I have a poor understanding of Ti, though - the descriptions seem to never quite work in my mind (I guess it's difficult to define systems etc. if you use them - they just 'are' to you).

Sounds like you my use dom Ti and inferior Fe. My inferior Fe often results in me being very polite just to avoid certain confrontations.
Hmm, maybe. I tend not to be concerned with social expectations and pretty much do my own thing (as long as I don't stand out, I'm fine). I do feel I'm being polite to avoid confrontations a fair amount of the time, but also that being polite is kind of... good. I keep telling my sister that manners cost nothing, lol.

I could use more info. But so far it sounds like you're either INFP or ENFP.
Ah, I see :) I'm not quite sure what other information to give... initially why would you say that?

list of traits:
-very independent
-dislikes confrontation
-hard worker (but could work harder)
-hard on self (only recently realised I'm pretty mean to myself)
-slightly obsessive
-doesn't need much time with people, but enjoys close friends' company on and off
-struggles with work (I'm very unsure of myself in the workplace)
-doesn't struggle with education (I feel very confident in a classroom)
-very shy and socially anxious

Hopefully that's enough :)

I think it's a little less definitive than that for some of us.

tsumatachi_san, I'm guessing you've read the function descriptions, and found yourself identifying with Fi and Ti over Fe and Te. I feel your pain, since I don't really identify with Te and don't have many Te-oriented strengths to point to (this despite being middle-aged and reasonably successful as a programmer).

Do you feel you have to be logical, yourself? When you are analyzing something, do you tend to detach emotionally, or do your feelings guide you as a analyze? How aware are you of your emotions as they happen? How easy to do find it to ignore or let go of another's illogical or counterfactual reasoning?

More specifically: as someone is talking, do you find it relatively easy to "suspend disbelief" and see things from their perspective, even if they may not be supporting their conclusions rationally? Or does your listening process get derailed by their first egregious error (factual or logic)?

Also, there's the standard question, "What do people do that really ticks you off?"
Bolded stuff for sure, lol :) I used to be more emotionally driven and use my emotions to judge something (good/bad, right/wrong etc.), but now I detach myself from things and look at them very objectively - even on personal matters. I can rationalise things to myself, but I guess in the end my emotions are still 'in charge' because I can say 'this is this', but I'll still feel a certain way about it.

If I knew more about real life implementations of Ti, it might be easier to decide.

As for the question: I guess not seeing the results of their actions, not noticing their impact and stuff. Being unreasonable (cutting off their nose to spite their face etc.), or suddenly changing their mind about something important.
 

Presumptuous Pepper

New member
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Dec 1, 2011
Messages
123
MBTI Type
XXXX
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3
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sx
it seems like you are prone to avoid conflict - buti wouldn't make conclusion on that point - at least not about your type

i can try and give you some guide lines
INFP:
Inferior Te: Authoritarianism. Tyrannical. Stiff and unyielding. Interest in an immense number of outer facts but can be overwhelmed by too much material. Over efficient or over simplifying for the sake of minimizing deep thought (not wanting to have to work too hard at something conceptual). Intellectual monomania resulting in racing through a lot of material without much thought as to what you're creating. (She speaks of Freud who raced through a ton of material haphazardly and created theories that are not always self-consistent as probably a Fi-dom or Inferior Te-type. His writing lacks the intellectual nuance of say a Thinking type and exists in almost silly platitudes like the oedipal complex. The MBTI is another example of Isabel Myers' Inferior Te, where instead of just testing the functions outright, they are inferred through a constructed paradigm of judging/perceiving, which results in a process that is not always intellectually self-consistent).

INTP:

Inferior Fe: Hypersensitivity, especially to the evaluations of others. Emotional outbursts. Inability to properly evaluate emotional content. Black and white judgments, yes or no, love or hate. Lack of nuance in evaluation. Can also be genuinely warm and uncalculating in expression (unlike a Fe-dom). Often poor discernment of people's motivations, significance, choice of friends, choice of mentors, etc. Just poor discernment in general. Might be oversensitive about maintaining social rituals (like being highly upset if they don't get a Christmas or Birthday card). Sometimes if embodied in the anima/animus, Jung says Ti-doms may have a vague dread of the opposite sex.


Also - the difference is quite huge between INFP and INTP but it seems that people go between thous two types quite a lot
We all make right decisions...but this is not an issue really
the real issue is what are you more concentrated on - thoughts or feelings. Feeling can also be a thought but feelers handle feelings better since they practice it more.
i observed an INTPs to be like always in the same mood...at least it's what i see on their face every time i see them...like it's always the same
INFPs are more swinging mood changes and they will talk about it and have their concentration on it.
Ts usually have feelings which are just there, no much thoughts about them, but also they are more prone to impersonal interests or treating their interests impersonally.
Fs are more prone to personal.

Fi works quite differently from Ti - when you get to know both functions and when you meet Ti dom and Fi dom - i think differences are huge.
Hope this was helpful.
 

tsumatachi_san

New member
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Oct 12, 2009
Messages
91
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ISTJ
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sp/so
Bolded stuff I can relate to.

it seems like you are prone to avoid conflict - buti wouldn't make conclusion on that point - at least not about your type

i can try and give you some guide lines
INFP:
Inferior Te: Authoritarianism. Tyrannical. Stiff and unyielding. Interest in an immense number of outer facts but can be overwhelmed by too much material. Over efficient or over simplifying for the sake of minimizing deep thought (not wanting to have to work too hard at something conceptual). Intellectual monomania resulting in racing through a lot of material without much thought as to what you're creating. (She speaks of Freud who raced through a ton of material haphazardly and created theories that are not always self-consistent as probably a Fi-dom or Inferior Te-type. His writing lacks the intellectual nuance of say a Thinking type and exists in almost silly platitudes like the oedipal complex. The MBTI is another example of Isabel Myers' Inferior Te, where instead of just testing the functions outright, they are inferred through a constructed paradigm of judging/perceiving, which results in a process that is not always intellectually self-consistent).

INTP:

Inferior Fe: Hypersensitivity, especially to the evaluations of others. Emotional outbursts. Inability to properly evaluate emotional content. Black and white judgments, yes or no, love or hate. Lack of nuance in evaluation. Can also be genuinely warm and uncalculating in expression (unlike a Fe-dom). Often poor discernment of people's motivations, significance, choice of friends, choice of mentors, etc. Just poor discernment in general. Might be oversensitive about maintaining social rituals (like being highly upset if they don't get a Christmas or Birthday card). Sometimes if embodied in the anima/animus, Jung says Ti-doms may have a vague dread of the opposite sex.


Also - the difference is quite huge between INFP and INTP but it seems that people go between thous two types quite a lot
We all make right decisions...but this is not an issue really
the real issue is what are you more concentrated on - thoughts or feelings. Feeling can also be a thought but feelers handle feelings better since they practice it more.
i observed an INTPs to be like always in the same mood...at least it's what i see on their face every time i see them...like it's always the same
INFPs are more swinging mood changes and they will talk about it and have their concentration on it.
Ts usually have feelings which are just there, no much thoughts about them, but also they are more prone to impersonal interests or treating their interests impersonally.
Fs are more prone to personal.

Fi works quite differently from Ti - when you get to know both functions and when you meet Ti dom and Fi dom - i think differences are huge.
Hope this was helpful.

However, I don't understand 'impersonal interests'. Do you mean putting no emotion into it, or not relating it to themselves (my hobby is not me, or something)?
I don't believe myself to be an inflexible person, or unyielding, as was described in the inferior Te section. I do have an interest in random facts and enjoy reading up on topics that can have no relation to what I'm doing at the time (and example is when I had to do research for a project on Kanji and ended up reading a ton of Japanese history, just out of interest - or even when I was meant to be researching e-books, I read articles about a massacre somewhere by mistake and carried on researching that because it was more interesting). I always figure that if I get the work I need to do out the way, I can work on anything else - throughout my first year of university, I wrote a novel alongside my course (Japanese) even when I had a ton of work because I knew I could get the other work done (and do it well).

I do tend to appear in the same frame of mind a lot of the time when I'm around people - I don't give much away in my expression unless something has really, truly taken me by surprise (then I end up being easy to read). I usually come across as peaceful and well-balanced - even my mum said she can't read me well because I seem calm even when I'm getting very emotional inside (then I have emotional outbursts). I also tend to downplay problems and have been called 'master of the understatement' by my friends and family. (As a note: I'm not pokerfaced, though. I tend to smile.)

However, I believe I have good judgement of people's intentions/motivations etc. and can read people well. I'm also good at picking out people who I think will do something badly (such as making a judgement my teacher wasn't teaching me well and teaching myself instead). I do relate to the emotions 'just being there', though. I can never work out why emotions have popped up unless I think about it for a long time and try to trigger the emotional response by a thought about the stimuli - such as recalling an argument to find out what made me or the other person feel bad.

With the 'dread of the opposite sex' thing, I feel more concerned by the idea of people being interested in me and focusing on me. (I'll leave it at that, because I just spent five minutes trying to work out what else to say...)

I do talk about my emotions sometimes, with people I'm close to, but I always put them in simplified terms such as 'I'm worried/annoyed/down'. I also try to reason my emotions out, giving them an origin, such as depression, stress, anxiety etc.
 

Mal12345

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Ah, I see :) I'm not quite sure what other information to give... initially why would you say that?

list of traits:
-very independent
-dislikes confrontation
-hard worker (but could work harder)
-hard on self (only recently realised I'm pretty mean to myself)
-slightly obsessive
-doesn't need much time with people, but enjoys close friends' company on and off
-struggles with work (I'm very unsure of myself in the workplace)
-doesn't struggle with education (I feel very confident in a classroom)
-very shy and socially anxious

Hopefully that's enough :)

Bolded stuff for sure, lol :) I used to be more emotionally driven and use my emotions to judge something (good/bad, right/wrong etc.), but now I detach myself from things and look at them very objectively - even on personal matters. I can rationalise things to myself, but I guess in the end my emotions are still 'in charge' because I can say 'this is this', but I'll still feel a certain way about it.

I see more introversion now, thanks to the new info. Therefore I'd say you are originally INFP but that something else like Ti is superficially taking the helm, probably due to the desire to perform well in university.
 

tsumatachi_san

New member
Joined
Oct 12, 2009
Messages
91
MBTI Type
ISTJ
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I see more introversion now, thanks to the new info. Therefore I'd say you are originally INFP but that something else like Ti is superficially taking the helm, probably due to the desire to perform well in university.

Thank you very much :) Yeah, I think I'll stick with INFP. It seems to fit ever-so-slightly better.

Thanks for all the help!
 
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