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How did you decide upon your type?

Poki

New member
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
10,436
MBTI Type
STP
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Test pinned me as ISTP/INTP. Headed over to INTP and here. Noticed a distinct difference in analysis over at INTP. Read more and settled on ISTP. Wife read ISTP profile and said it was kinda like reading a high level biography of me.
 

chickpea

perfect person
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
5,729
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
i took a free test online (i think similarminds) for the first time when i was about 14. i tested as ENXP, and went back and forth between the two before i decided on ENFP. i forgot about mbti for a while, and then retook it and realized that i was in denial about being an introvert. i was answering questions as an extrovert because that's how i'd rather be, but not how i really am. i also think i mistook feeling for Fe (which isn't my strong point) over Fi, which is why i thought i could be a T (i'm definitely not).
 
P

Phantonym

Guest
I took a test, read the description, reached Jesus and LOL'd. A couple of months later I found out they were being serious. I haven't decided on anything yet. Meh...
 

disregard

mrs
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
7,826
MBTI Type
INFP
i took a free test online (i think similarminds) for the first time when i was about 14. i tested as ENXP, and went back and forth between the two before i decided on ENFP. i forgot about mbti for a while, and then retook it and realized that i was in denial about being an introvert. i was answering questions as an extrovert because that's how i'd rather be, but not how i really am. i also think i mistook feeling for Fe (which isn't my strong point) over Fi, which is why i thought i could be a T (i'm definitely not).

I had a similar experience, but flipped.

I always assumed I was an introvert.

Not being a social butterfly or loving everyone you meet does not an introvert make.
 

d4mselfly

New member
Joined
Jan 3, 2010
Messages
107
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5
Lots of typology tests and a general interest in why my mother and I often clash pretty spectacularly (she's ENFJ). We both instantly typed me as INTJ by reading the descriptions, though I occasionally test as ISTJ online because the intuitive/sensing questions can throw me off in that I don't go for hunches at all unless they have some grounding in logic or reason, but the questions aren't usually phrased in such a manner...

We've definitely been able to get along more harmoniously now that she understands my general lack of emotion and tendency to avoid outward expression of feelings, and I've tried to compensate to appeal to her strong NFness as well, but it still makes for interesting differences in opinion and the occasional logic vs. emotion argument. She still calls me an alien, but more fondly, now. :p
 
G

garbage

Guest
I approached this from pretty much every possible angle, but the main indicators were:
  • I prefer the Te approach over Ti, to the point of thinking myself to be Te-dominant for a pretty long time.
  • I identify with many of the other ENFPs on the forum over every other type.
  • I'm a definite ENFP in the more robust Socionics system.
  • I thought that many T descriptions or answers to test questions were insensitive views.. it's safe to say that I really didn't identify with them.
  • Another look at my own motivations through the lens of the type made pretty good sense.

Things that threw me off or aren't stereotypical:
  • I've got some propensity and skill for logical analysis. I'm often told that I come across as NT.
  • I was withdrawn early on, due to my own hypersensitivity.
  • I didn't even conceive that I could be a feeling type.
  • I identified with pretty much every description in a way.


and I could start to really think about "what made me, feel like a happy me".

Basically, this in general. I just found the mindset that made me the happiest and stuck with it.

With the logic craze gone, I realized that in actuality, I have very "F" behavior. I'm expressive, I'm "invested" (in ways that the T's are often detached)

And this specifically. "Invested" is a pretty good word to use.
 

Lady_X

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 27, 2008
Messages
18,235
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
784
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
i took a free test online (i think similarminds) for the first time when i was about 14. i tested as ENXP, and went back and forth between the two before i decided on ENFP. i forgot about mbti for a while, and then retook it and realized that i was in denial about being an introvert. i was answering questions as an extrovert because that's how i'd rather be, but not how i really am. i also think i mistook feeling for Fe (which isn't my strong point) over Fi, which is why i thought i could be a T (i'm definitely not).

haha...i think my experience was the opposite kinda. i think i somehow associate certain typically extroverted behaviors as annoying and dislike them about myself...i tested infp at first....but being really honest with myself...i couldn't be anything other than enfp.

i'm okay with it though...i realized i had some wrong ideas of what being an extravert means.
 

527468

deleted
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
1,945
I said to myself I am INTJ, then I looked online to find out what INTJ is.
 

something boring

New member
Joined
Feb 9, 2009
Messages
278
MBTI Type
nnja
Enneagram
4w5
I was professionally typed and agreed with the professionals. Admittedly, it was more than once, and I stubbornly resisted a few times before reading the descriptions. I remember the first time I was typed, I felt like a lot of things made more sense, like it was ok to be me. Childhood can be strange for an INJ child. I was relieved to be told that I wasn't an alien or switched at birth or something. Stress, dark circumstances, stubbornness, and adolescence took over for a while, though. A professional once discovered me in shadow mode. Anyway, despite taking the test in childhood, I wasn't incredibly informed as an adult. Once I sought out the information on my own (here included), things made more sense. Sometimes, I have trouble answering questions that center on my own behavior because I tend to be focused on other people most of the time, and the lens that I examine them with doesn't look inward so well (I can give excellent advice, but I have no idea what's good for *me*), so I did have some questions at first. I can relate to absolutely everyone on some level, too, which muddied up the waters further. Knowing that someone who was actually trained in MBTI as a science, reading a billion different descriptions, and personally knowing another individual of my type very closely were huge factors.
 
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Synapse

New member
Joined
Dec 29, 2007
Messages
3,359
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
4
of course after a book told me in organisational behaviour class I dismissed it and years later started to over analyse it to ad nauseum, what turned out in seeking thy self ended up being an exercise in amusement. unless i am secretly hoping for teh J in teh P.
 

Katsuni

Priestess Of Syrinx
Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Messages
1,238
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
3w4?
I knew nothing about it when I first took the tests; first one was INTP, but that was due to the test not knowing the difference between E and I... and ENTP's are supposedly the most introverted of all the extroverts so that probably didn't help any. It was mostly asking questions about how many friends, how much I love being in social environments and so on, not exactly the most accurate for that.

Every test since then I got ENTP hit pretty much every time without fail. After going through function order, same thing, come out ne/ti by far, pretty much evenly matched on those two.

Reading through the different types later on, ENTP fit me the best of the choices available; nothing is a 100% fit, nor would I expect it to be, but ENTP does match me much much more closely than anything else even comes near to.

Flat out ExxP no matter whot, T is more a preference for me though I think; something trained and focused on due to life conditions prior to this point. N's fairly strong as well but the E/P are guaranteed. I am flat out not I or J XD

So yeah, figure I'm heavy E/P from birth, N is probably slight favour from birth and further emphasis throughout life afterwards, I think the T/F split was likely 50/50 early on and T just developed more due to how I've lived my life so far.

So yeah! There yeu go, hopes yeu enjoyed.
 

miss fortune

not to be trusted
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
20,589
Enneagram
827
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
I don't rely on tests, because tests LIE! :yes: I have concluded this and view them, especially the very basic E/I, T/F, S/N and J/P tests, with a healthy dose of suspicion... they lie about my type :thelook:

I base my type on association with others... who's posts feel the most similar to mine and somehow resonate correctly in a way... and who I don't really fit in with because I'm rather stylistically different (like the fact that I really don't care to argue about things most of the time... it's a waste of my time... as if I have something better to do :blush:).

I also base it on knowlege of the cognitive functions upon which type is built... I get a tossup almost, but Se wins by an edge because the very idea of not living with all of my senses alive and awake makes me want to curl up and die :yes: The fact that my Fi sucks dreadfully is also an indicator of type :dry:

I go where I enjoy being and associate with those who hassle me the least... more laid back, less being spinier than a durian! :holy:
 

King sns

New member
Joined
Nov 4, 2008
Messages
6,714
MBTI Type
enfp
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Testing puts me all over the place. In the beginning it was always xnfp, but now usually xsfp. The NFP descriptions are off, especially the INFP ones. Only some things can be applied. Like, "cheerful" and broad things. ISFP descriptions have some general accuracies- (The love description, and the fact that I don't like criticism, subjective, gentle, messy.)
But some of the ESFP descriptions say creepily accurate things. (Other's are a bit off still.) I remember reading one and it was as if they had followed me around for the day taking notes and then posted it online under "ESFP" descriptions. Type descriptions are actually more accurate than the stuff I see here, thank goodness.

Function wise, my Te is pretty strong, which makes me less stereotypical of ESFP. I test "ESTP" a lot for this reason.
I think my function lineup is something like se-te-fi-si-ni-fe-ti-ne (If I had to guess.)
 

Little_Sticks

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
1,358
How does someone explain something like this? I guess, if it has to be in words, then the simple reasons follow.

I reflected upon what I really feel inside and what emotions and expressions I have learned to suppress to survive and get along with people in this world; as well as understanding the shadow types that I show.

I decided to throw all that endless senseless logic about everything away from this and be honest with myself instead of trying to rationalize that I can be anything that I need to be and make that alone a reason not to regret anything I do...except I always feel paralyzed to some degree when I do this and something doesn't jive with me even if it does with everyone else. I'm very wary of people and their endless pushing of their own agendas without any consideration of what constitutes another persons being and own sense of fulfillment. I am very much an INFJ at the core. But I am not very overtly friendly or very trusting like the stereotype, nor do I care much to attend to social niceties and commonalities when 'it is so boringly obvious' that most of it is forced and fake. I'm not misanthropic, I just know when I'm hearing and being forced to deal with 'plain shit'. Why most stereotypical INFJs seem to be so fine with this, I don't know. Maybe their environments feel much more honest so they don't feel the need to be so defensive. Or maybe most are endlessly naive unless they end up learning all the harder truths and frustrations about human beings. I don't know. Or maybe I have ingrained some kind of cold negative XSTP mentality into my being and don't have much energy left to risk being drained by caring for someone only to find out I don't get enough back. I don't know, but no more analyzing. Oh, and this is the only type that doesn't feel like a lie, or even a mask I'm projecting or wearing, out of stress, or out of determination to make myself another type and not have to rely on anyone.
 

King sns

New member
Joined
Nov 4, 2008
Messages
6,714
MBTI Type
enfp
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
How does someone explain something like this? I guess, if it has to be in words, then the simple reasons follow.

I reflected upon what I really feel inside and what emotions and expressions I have learned to suppress to survive and get along with people in this world; as well as understanding the shadow types that I show.

I decided to throw all that endless senseless logic about everything away from this and be honest with myself instead of trying to rationalize that I can be anything that I need to be and make that alone a reason not to regret anything I do...except I always feel paralyzed to some degree when I do this and something doesn't jive with me even if it does with everyone else. I'm very wary of people and their endless pushing of their own agendas without any consideration of what constitutes another persons being and own sense of fulfillment. I am very much an INFJ at the core. But I am not very overtly friendly or very trusting like the stereotype, nor do I care much to attend to social niceties and commonalities when 'it is so boringly obvious' that most of it is forced and fake. I'm not misanthropic, I just know when I'm hearing and being forced to deal with 'plain shit'. Why most stereotypical INFJs seem to be so fine with this, I don't know. Maybe their environments feel much more honest so they don't feel the need to be so defensive. Or maybe most are endlessly naive unless they end up learning all the harder truths and frustrations about human beings. I don't know. Or maybe I have ingrained some kind of cold negative XSTP mentality into my being and don't have much energy left to risk being drained by caring for someone only to find out I don't get enough back. I don't know, but no more analyzing. Oh, and this is the only type that doesn't feel like a lie, or even a mask I'm projecting or wearing, out of stress, or out of determination to make myself another type and not have to rely on anyone.


Well said!!
 

KDude

New member
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
8,243
agreed... it's something i can relate to (although not in terms of infj specifically). i just think when i try to be some other way than i really am, i feel discomfort (at seemingly innocent behavior too.. nothing out of line).
 

Super Nova

New member
Joined
Apr 25, 2010
Messages
48
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
4w5
If anyone isn't sure of his/her type, the worst thing to do is to keep taking more assessments, whether they're free or normed instruments. ALL of them are self-reporting instruments, not diagnostic tools, and the more you know about the theory, the harder it is to report your preferences as opposed to what you should/have to/want to be.

Ahhh...there's my problem! I have taken all of the online assessments I could find since I started studying MBTI. Practically all of the assessments I've taken have typed me as INFP. I'm not sure I'm an INFP, but I have left the door open to that being my possible type by listing myself as xNxP here and "unknown personality" at Personality Cafe. I need to re-read the descriptions of the various types that I still think I might be (INFP, ENFP, INTP, ENTP) and decide from what I read and *not* decide from the online assessments!
 

Edgar

Nerd King Usurper
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
4,266
MBTI Type
INTJ
Instinctual Variant
sx
I'm going to go ahead and take the liberty of answering for about 25% of people on TypoC:

"I figured ISFJ was too boring so I picked something else."
 
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