Kelly777
New member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2016
- Messages
- 42
- MBTI Type
- Infj
- Enneagram
- 4w3
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/so
Hello!
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this. First of all, I don't mean to ruffle any feathers. But something has been bothering me lately, not only here but out in the world. I'm forty. When I was growing up there was a lot of stereotyping. It was the norm. Girls played with dolls. Dads went to work. I'm not even going to get into the cultural stereotypes because so much of it is offensive. It seems that there has been a social movement against stereotyping. I'm not sure when it began, exactly. And yes, I get it. You can't make general assumptions about whole groups of people because there are always exceptions to the rules. And people may be offended at stereotypes, even when they are true. Especially when they are true.
However, I think that fear of stereotyping can seriously cripple a person's ability to judge a situation. There is a difference in believing that all members in a group do X and believing there is a tendency of a majority of members to do X. If you can't judge what the pattern is you can't even begin to form a theory about what might happen next. An example; I told my daughter that I read about a study in which a gun was placed on a low table. Young children were told told not to touch the gun. They were told about the dangers of playing with guns. The adults left the room and watched the children through a two way mirror. All the boys played with the gun. All the girls looked for something else to do. I made a comment about how boys tend to be less cautious by nature than girls. My daughter was very upset. She said this is stereotyping. It was an experiment. We are all influenced by our hormones. Yes, there are probably some very daring girls out there as well as some very timid boys. But testosterone still influences us to be more assertive, less cautious, more aggressive, and to have higher libidos. Boys usually have more. To me this is just common sense.
As far as stereoptyping and personality types. Yeah, I know. Sensors can like poetry. Feelers can seem cold sometimes. Maybe all introverted intuitives aren't spacey, though I doubt that. Etc. But I've come across a number of people, here and elsewhere who are so anti stereotyping that I wonder why they bother to show an interest in typing at all. And it is typing. Not " Let's all pretend we're exactly the same."
So I have to throw this out there. I think there are some trouble areas in trying to type yourself. For one thing the online test questions can be too vague. The descriptions online don't go into enough detail about the exceptions to the rules or other influences such as instinctual variants or how our personalities change as we develope. But if we get too worried about stereotypes within MBTI It's not typing anymore.
Maybe what would be more helpful is to be mindful of black and white thinking. There are always going to be variations, exceptions, extenuating circumstances. MBTI is just a guideline.
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this. First of all, I don't mean to ruffle any feathers. But something has been bothering me lately, not only here but out in the world. I'm forty. When I was growing up there was a lot of stereotyping. It was the norm. Girls played with dolls. Dads went to work. I'm not even going to get into the cultural stereotypes because so much of it is offensive. It seems that there has been a social movement against stereotyping. I'm not sure when it began, exactly. And yes, I get it. You can't make general assumptions about whole groups of people because there are always exceptions to the rules. And people may be offended at stereotypes, even when they are true. Especially when they are true.
However, I think that fear of stereotyping can seriously cripple a person's ability to judge a situation. There is a difference in believing that all members in a group do X and believing there is a tendency of a majority of members to do X. If you can't judge what the pattern is you can't even begin to form a theory about what might happen next. An example; I told my daughter that I read about a study in which a gun was placed on a low table. Young children were told told not to touch the gun. They were told about the dangers of playing with guns. The adults left the room and watched the children through a two way mirror. All the boys played with the gun. All the girls looked for something else to do. I made a comment about how boys tend to be less cautious by nature than girls. My daughter was very upset. She said this is stereotyping. It was an experiment. We are all influenced by our hormones. Yes, there are probably some very daring girls out there as well as some very timid boys. But testosterone still influences us to be more assertive, less cautious, more aggressive, and to have higher libidos. Boys usually have more. To me this is just common sense.
As far as stereoptyping and personality types. Yeah, I know. Sensors can like poetry. Feelers can seem cold sometimes. Maybe all introverted intuitives aren't spacey, though I doubt that. Etc. But I've come across a number of people, here and elsewhere who are so anti stereotyping that I wonder why they bother to show an interest in typing at all. And it is typing. Not " Let's all pretend we're exactly the same."
So I have to throw this out there. I think there are some trouble areas in trying to type yourself. For one thing the online test questions can be too vague. The descriptions online don't go into enough detail about the exceptions to the rules or other influences such as instinctual variants or how our personalities change as we develope. But if we get too worried about stereotypes within MBTI It's not typing anymore.
Maybe what would be more helpful is to be mindful of black and white thinking. There are always going to be variations, exceptions, extenuating circumstances. MBTI is just a guideline.
