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Does the MBTI system downplay the importance of taking personal responsibility?

Ignorance is hate

New member
Joined
Jul 5, 2016
Messages
125
MBTI Type
intj
Enneagram
5
Does the MBTI system downplay the importance of taking personal responsibility for your actions? I just think that when you can easily blame your actions on your "primary extraverted thinking function" for example, it becomes all to easy to avoid taking personal responsibility by looking closely at your motives and intentions for acting in any given way. I could easily say, my primary introverted intuition is the reason for my general spaced-outedness, and in all likelihood it may be. But the mbti doesn't get into why one might come to rely on those functions in the first place. In this way it devalues the importance of life experience and personal choice in shaping who we are. What do you guys say, have any of you noticed this? What are your thoughts on the matter?
 

phoenix31

New member
Joined
Dec 11, 2015
Messages
290
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
9
I think MBTI is just a tool, and you can choose to use it in a positive or negative way, such as recognizing areas of weakness and improving yourself, or choosing not to take responsibility for yourself and your actions.


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gromit

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Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
6,508
I think MBTI is just a tool, and you can choose to use it in a positive or negative way, such as recognizing areas of weakness and improving yourself, or choosing not to take responsibility for yourself and your actions.


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Yeaqh some people use it as a crutch so they don't have to change, some people use it to pile on everything they dislike about so-and-so of type xxxx. But it can also be used for growth, understanding differences in information processing and dynamics.

But it's a fairly crude tool and needs to be taken as part of a greater context.
 

Bush

cute lil war dog
Joined
Nov 18, 2008
Messages
5,182
Enneagram
3w4
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
You've got a point. It can be a problem.

MBTI addresses it kinda sorta-ish, maybe, indirectly, in that it claims that one's tert and inferior functions serve to balance out the others, and as such they ought to be developed, and/or they're developed as one matures.

MBTI and all should be used as a starting point rather than as a crutch. "My extraverted thinking explains why I'm extremely brash." From here, one could say,"Welp, that's that." Alternatively, "Hey, now I know what to watch out for!"

So the "what do we do from here?" factor is mostly out of MBTI's scope. The Enneagram puts it front and center, though, with its types considered to be core neuroses that can be overcome.
 

kirsten

New member
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
20
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
1w9
Instinctual Variant
sp
MBTI describes your natural instincts, it doesn't say a whole lot about personal growth or development (unlike the Enneagram). Although typology communities on the internet seem to have to say about how each types can develop.

I know for me, I've come to try to balance out the dichotomies in my type... especially N and F. I don't worry too much about being an introvert or a judger, I think those are fine for me. But embracing the sensing and the thinking side of things has really helped me in life.

The person you grow to be is probably not going to be the same person you started out as... to the point where you might even score different on an MBTI test. But that doesn't change the type you started out as.
 

Trash Panda

Retired
Joined
Jun 7, 2016
Messages
415
It seems like for a lot of people, yes. I talked to an entp who was being an asshole and rather than tone it down, correct himself, or apologize he was just like "oh well this is what I'm like" Fsshhhh gtfo child.
 
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