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I think it is a combination of nature, nurture. And your environment, which you adapted to and dealt with in certain ways and over time built a fairly solid system of dealing with things.
I feel that personality type is innate....cognitive functions I mean. Obviously, there are aspects of personality which are influenced/shaped by nurture, and that would account for the endless variety in people, regardless of type.
I see enneagram as explaining how personality is partially shaped by environment.
Perhaps I was an IFP child because of nature, who developed into an INFP adult because of nurture.
Upon reflection of my earliest memories (age 4), I feel that I must have always had a clear preference for Ne over Se, contrary to what personalitypage suggests.
Then again, does a childhood obsession with the Little Mermaid and an aversion to sports really tell us anything about typology?
I loved that movie when I was a kid, haha. Something about experiencing the reasons for why the character went through and had all the feelings she did that makes it so easy to 'feel her emotions'. I dunno...
Mom is ENFJ - crazy emotional, talks and talks and talks, have I mentioned crazy emotional? slightly hysterical, manipulative, very preachy
Dad is ISTJ - calm, sensitive, laid-back, gentle speaker, logical, fair, kind
Brother is also ISTJ - so I buy the whole genetics idea
Me: like my dad on the outside but like my mom on the inside. i have nice things to say about her too ... uh ... m ...
I've often wondered why somebody is the type they are. Like, why am I an INFP? Why am I not ESTJ or ISTP?
My thoughts are:
1) Genetics: My father is INTP while my mother is INFJ. Therefore I believe it is natural that I be an INxx because both of my parents are. If I had siblings, one would probably be INTP, INFJ, INTJ, or, like myself, INFP.
2) Nurture, how you are raised I think can factor your personality type. I don't know how...but...maybe... :/
3) Choice. We simply choose to be a certain type of person because that personality is what we find attractive.
What do you guys think? Environmental, emotional or genetic factors? Or just pure coincidence?
I think there's alot of things which contribute, but mostly I think it fits with my theory that yeu start off built from the ground up genetically to be predisposed towards several different paths in life; yeur nurture and choice allow yeu to pick which one yeu want to go with, but yeu don't have all options open from the start.
For myself, personally? I'm not sure why I am the type I am. Partly preference, but if that were the only reason, then I'd have probably have ended up ENFP instead due to an idol at a younger age =3
I'm not really sure though, to be honest. Do we actively know why these things occur? XD
i think it's genetically how our brain turns out, but this does not imply it has to be similar to our parents brain. So maybe Ns have a compartment in the brain that is more efficient with abstract thoughts in contrast with literal. And so an N could try and work on being an S but it would take work like writing with your left hand.
The idea of Jung, I personally think is a good idea, is that we are not tabula rasa (clean slate) but there is an outline of our personality when we are born. That we have archetypes which to a certain degree affect how we are going to develope like a "generalized aim" that allows change in function developement but still has a focus. We try on different ways of finding our personality, whether that is affected by our enviroment I dont that much about. But I would still agree that there is some enviromental developement, like if you have been affected by strong influences from your enviroment. Like if you where brought up with abusive parents your archetype might be emphasized more by the child or completely disbanded. Thats why its difficult to say 100% that its like described above. But if you have had a protective childhood there is a big chance the above is true.
Look at twins. I know two pair of twins that are very much different from eachother because they are not identical twins. I dont know much about identical twins, but i would speculate that in mbti terms they have a close if not the same personality. Like one is esfp other is isfp. Or one is isfj one is infj. Since their archetype and genetic material would be the same but they might mirror eachother but still use functions that are in close to eachothers.