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"Typology helps me understand people better"--or does it?

Pessimistic Hippie

New member
Joined
Jul 2, 2020
Messages
454
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
469
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Even though it's more scientific than astrology, I think that studying someone's type's traits to understand them better is not too far off from doing research on their sign (after being told that that person 'relates to their sign'....doesn't mean diddly squat) and making assumptions based off of said research.

I do think it helps me understand people in the sense that it explains some behaviors I have ALREADY seen from them. But I wouldn't make predictions about what someone's going to do based off of it. If someone said 'ESTPs will never become librarians!,' I wouldn't believe them lol.
 

Saturnal Snowqueen

Solastalgia 𓍊𓋼𓍊𓋼𓍊
Joined
Jan 9, 2019
Messages
6,125
MBTI Type
FELV
Enneagram
974
Instinctual Variant
so/sp
[MENTION=33903]Red Memories[/MENTION] I don't get how you get typed as 4 besides maybe your current avi. You are one of the most compliant people ever. x3

For me, not really. It's definitely fun to type people, but it's more like I'm breaking their psychological code rather than really learning anything new about them. It's like, a Se dom, I already know that you live in the present and are action oriented and that your weakness is seeing things through. It's just with typology, I have a more technical layout of how your brain works. It's funny how dominant and inferior functions are the obvious strengths and weakness we see in a person(not paying attention to sensitivity in favor of being blunt and unapologetic, being grounded and comfort oriented instead of seeing what's really out there). It's funny how the "charming" functions in people(like the softer Fi side of a Te dom) are what we giggle at in a person. Shows how much of a pseudo science it really is.

It's way more helpful in understanding myself than others. Enneagram wise, it's like, "Do you really know why you're doing this?", and it's like, "Thanks for digging my mind." Which, is like an acceptance of my feelings because I thought for the longest time that my 4 fears were so strange. As much as type 4 is glamorized, despite my fears not being all that strange getting to know the typology community they don't seem all that common in the folks I see everyday so it's like, "Hey personality test, what's up with me?". MBTI isn't as much about the whys, but I think my dominant and inferior function definitely explain some of the "whys" of why I act the way I do and why I have so many internal conflicts with myself(which fits in with enneagram too).
 
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Bacopa

New member
Joined
Feb 13, 2021
Messages
55
MBTI Type
intj
It does unless you understand it dogmatically. When I know somebody tested INTJ, it's the shortest possible way to say a lot a about a person.
 

Mind Maverick

ENTP 8w7 845 Sp/Sx
Joined
Jan 17, 2018
Messages
4,785
[MENTION=33903]Red Memories[/MENTION] I don't get how you get typed as 4 besides maybe your current avi.
I think people just don't understand the actual type tbh.

- - - Updated - - -

It does unless you understand it dogmatically. When I know somebody tested INTJ, it's the shortest possible way to say a lot a about a person.
Have to disagree.
 

Fluffywolf

Nips away your dignity
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
9,581
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
9
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
If you want to get to know someone, you have to put in the work to get to know someone.

Knowing someones type doesn't mean you know them, but knowing their type can help in getting to know someone more 'smoothly' (By avoiding certain pitfalls and recognize the root of a person's actions and reactions). But you still have to put in the work. MBTI is superficial.
 
Joined
Feb 4, 2021
Messages
139
I personally use MBTI as a means of understanding someone, but I wouldn't reduce someone to their type. Typology is a framework to understand someone with, to explain how some of their inner workings work.

I also think that even if you know a lot about a person, you can't really type someone accurately without a lot of imput from that person on their type. The person should know themselves better than you do, since you're not living in their head.

Even if you know the type of a person, that is pretty much all you know. MBTI doesn't seem to predict much as a system, that's why it's not considered as scientific as the Big 5. MBTI also doesn't evaluate other values pertaining to a person such as EQ or IQ. What you're left with is alleged correlations, which is a very fuzzy way of thinking.

I use MBTI to type characters as entertainment, but I don't use them as much for real people. Real people tend to be much more complicated than the functions would suggest. When I do use for real people, it is usually for people that I generally don't get along with and need a clutch to help explain how they might possibly think. It brings back the possibility that they may be thinking something I'm not into my considerations. In some sense, it does help me understand them better, in a more organized sort of way. But that kind of typing arises from what they've said and done, and the extrapolations on what their thoughts could be, not what I imagine them to be based on their type.

I think the problem with misunderstanding people comes from having rigid perceptions of a type, and expecting someone to think and act a certain way because of an initial typing. The process of typing someone should be the other way around, based off strict evidence, with possibility for revision.
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2019
Messages
775
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
-
Short answer Yes. But not for every type. Only the type I have the opportunity to interact in person for quite a long with like my families: mother, Father, sister or my closest friends since this gives me the chance to observe them very carefully. I am quite confident that I am to some extent able to tell their general traits, interest, habits, when I meet ENFJ, ESTP, ESFJ, ENTJ.
I am going to explain this more by comparing myself who study typology and my sister who doesn't when interacting with our mother (ESFJ).
I notice that She doesn't like cancelled plan.
She often gets mad with mysister who cancel plan of exercising when the scheduled time has come. one event that reminds me this was The other day she told our mother that she was going to have some physical exercise in the afternoon, but when it was already afternoon, mysister (ISTP) easily cancelled it. My mother got upset.

In order not to make her upset, I try not to do what mysister does. When I have already told my mother my plan to exercise whether in the afternoon or the next day, and I am already at the scheduled time, I ' ll go for it, although I might be lazy. This is one case of how typology theory helps me understand my mother type.
 
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