So I had this thought the other day, I was thinking about MBTI and my type being enfp, and how the more I remain true to myself the more I consistently score as an enfp.
Yet so often I hear that as we age we develop more and more of the selected personality types. So then how actuate is our scoring, especially if we discover MBTI later in life?
How then do we know what we are naturally like and what we are developed like.
Well I've been testing as an INTP for about 10 years, no correction 12 years (damn this ageing malarkey!), and despite having developed some aspects of other types my preference remains very much INTP.
I think your development adds to your repertoire and enables you to do other things without really changing who you are and what type you are. A good example is my father.
As an ENTJ he's spent a lot of his life organising people and making sure things are done correctly according to his design. These days he's still very much an ENTJ but he's not so harsh as before. He's mellowed now to the point where I am often more meticulous than he and it is usually my design that we are working to and not his because he really isn't that bothered about it and would much rather just have a nice time. His workspace for modelling (that's making models and not prancing around in dresses as we always used to accuse him of) has degraded into a very INTP mess of tools and material with the work in the middle being whatever caught his eye when he sat down. In fact now instead of painstakingly finishing the last job before starting the new model he'll now have about five or six on the go and chop and change when he gets bored. Compared to the previous habit of being that meticulous he'd model tiles so that the edge of each tile could be picked out, I reckon he's learned something from us Ps
There are those who lose definition as they age I guess. They'd be the one's who never were really one side or the other of one of the divides (like someone with a balanced T & F). I'd expect as they develop, both sides would increase in strength and perhaps even level out more, that could cloud their typing somewhat.
Edit (Just thought).
My Gran is an ENFP. She's still quite ENFPy even though she's over 80. I'm not sure as to how balanced she is (For some reason I never analyse people over a certain age...it just never occurs to me) but I'm guessing she's not too bad. A bit addled but that's more age than an underdeveloped T I think. Mind you though she can really bug the hell out of my father. Usually by phoning to ask him some really important question, get's an answer and then phones back twenty minutes later having totally forgotten she'd asked before and going through the same conversation from the top. Personally I don't find it that difficult to deal with but I think that's P vs J, though my Great Aunt who's an ESFJ is a pain to both of us
