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Can my type tell me anything I did not already know about myself?

bobby

New member
Joined
Aug 9, 2009
Messages
29
If when taking a test I disagree with the statement that my thinking is abstract, but I am in spite of that evaluated as a type with a preference for intuition, which way is it? - is my thinking abstract or is it not? Where lies the authority?


(A) If we suppose that I am correct in my assessment, and that my thinking is not abstract, then those parts of type descriptions which imply and are implied by the statement that my thinking is abstract, must not apply to me. A consequence of this would be that an outside observer could not, with the knowledge of my type, conclude that I have any specific trait of the particular type, but only that more traits of that type fit me than do those of any other type. This would also mean that an outside observer could not, based on a few traits which he has observed in me, conclude with certainty that I am a specific type.

This possibility implies that in all cases, my own judgement overrules any authority which my type would have to describe me, and it leaves us with the question of what possible knowledge I can gain about myself from finding out what my type is. (This is discounting any knowledge gained in the process of finding the type out). If, in the case of a test, the only knowledge about myself it can give me I had already provided in answering the test's questions, what is the added value of knowing my type, in terms of self-knowledge?


(B) If I was not correct in my assessment, and my thinking is in fact abstract (because this is what my type dictates), this would imply that all the answers I gave which were not in line with the type I ended up as were also incorrect and that the answers which happened to be in line with the type were correct. For example, if I take a test and in the questions asked to determine whether I have a preference of iNtuition of Sensing, 7 out of 10 of my answers point to me having a preference for Sensing, three of my answers (the ones pointing to iNtuition) must have been incorrect. This would mean that my self perception is correct 7 times out of 10. But how does the test know which answers are right and which aren't? If the 3 answers which were incorrect instead were all answers indicating a preference for Sensing, then in reality I would have a net preference for iNtuition.

In any case, how could the type ever have authority over one's self-perception when it is only accessible through that very self-perception?




So which is it? Is it A or B, or perhaps some combination of the two? Or am I just completely not getting this stuff?
 
G

garbage

Guest
I'm just gonna go ahead and freely admit that the OP was too long for me to quickly digest, so I'll just answer the question in the topic line.

Knowing your type can make you aware of your potential strengths and weaknesses, in relation to other people; it's immensely useful to have all of that spelled out in front of you. If, however, you read something in your description that doesn't apply to you, don't let it apply to you. But be honest with yourself about who you are in any case, and really think about the parts that do or do not apply.

Allow the MBTI to serve you; don't allow yourself to serve it.
 

highlander

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
26,562
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I'm just gonna go ahead and freely admit that the OP was too long for me to quickly digest, so I'll just answer the question in the topic line.

Knowing your type can make you aware of your potential strengths and weaknesses, in relation to other people; it's immensely useful to have all of that spelled out in front of you. If, however, you read something in your description that doesn't apply to you, don't let it apply to you. But be honest with yourself about who you are in any case, and really think about the parts that do or do not apply.

Allow the MBTI to serve you; don't allow yourself to serve it.

+1

Can my type tell me anything I did not already know about myself?

Yes

A few questions:
- What assessment did you take and what were the results?
- What do you think the word "abstract" means?
 

Little_Sticks

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
1,358
I'm not making much sense, am I?

Less Thought-Out Answer: Yes, you're not making sense.
More Thought-Out Answer: Maybe you're making sense.
Overly Thought-Out Answer: No, you make sense.

Shall I put that on your tab?
 

bobby

New member
Joined
Aug 9, 2009
Messages
29
+1

Can my type tell me anything I did not already know about myself?

Yes

A few questions:
- What assessment did you take and what were the results?

When I'm faced with a question in an MBTI test (in the example I chose it was "is your thinking abstract?") I have to make some kind of assessment of myself in order to be able to answer the question. A number of things go into this assessment. First of all, I generally get a sort of feeling right away about which alternative fits me best, which I'm not at all sure where it's coming from. If I'm not satisfied with just that feeling (which is almost always), then I will bring up a number of different situations in my mind which relate to the question and I will think about how I usually act in those situations. After I've done this for some time, one of the alternatives will have more support than the other(s) and that will be the alternative I go with in answering the question.

What the results were here is really irrelevant because I was only using the question about abstract thinking as an example. This could be about any trait or characteristic.
 

Poki

New member
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
10,436
MBTI Type
STP
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
When I'm faced with a question in an MBTI test (in the example I chose it was "is your thinking abstract?") I have to make some kind of assessment of myself in order to be able to answer the question. A number of things go into this assessment. First of all, I generally get a sort of feeling right away about which alternative fits me best, which I'm not at all sure where it's coming from. If I'm not satisfied with just that feeling (which is almost always), then I will bring up a number of different situations in my mind which relate to the question and I will think about how I usually act in those situations. After I've done this for some time, one of the alternatives will have more support than the other(s) and that will be the alternative I go with in answering the question.

What the results were here is really irrelevant because I was only using the question about abstract thinking as an example. This could be about any trait or characteristic.

What did you test as?
 
G

garbage

Guest
It doesn't matter. I didn't even take a test. It's a hypothetical situation. If I were to take a test.... etc etc

So maybe take an online test and see whether it tells you something you don't already know about yourself. .. ?
 

Laurie

Was E.laur
Joined
Jan 3, 2009
Messages
6,072
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
7w6
It doesn't matter. I didn't even take a test. It's a hypothetical situation. If I were to take a test.... etc etc

No, it matters. Some types don't care much about personality types, some types enjoy finding their type and trying prove it wrong. Depends what you want out of it.

Do you want more input about yourself and how you interact with others?
Do you think that "tests" about people usually don't show anything worth while?
Do you care if people are similar to you?

You get out of it what you want, just like everything else.
 
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