Interests and Conversations

[Eckhart]

I tried to bring it up in a discussion with my mother, but not with great success (she seemed uninterested). Not that I really expected much from it in the first place. Didn't try it with other people yet, I don't think I will so soon anyway. I don't really know people who are interested in such things.

 

[Saslou]

Very rarely unless i ask someone to take the test.

Just before i finished work the CEO came in and said the words 'Sensing', 'Feeling' and 'Intuitive' so i asked her later if she used those words because she was familiar with MBTI. Apparently she used to test/mark people's type and she is an ENTx. She thought it may be a good idea to get all the staff to take the test but we've all taken the Belbin test and that ruffled some feathers so i don't know if that'll go down well. That is if the company doesn't sink first.

 

[Lark]

Do you guys discuss MBTI, enneagram, etc with your friends, people you meet, spouses? How open are they generally to discussing these topics?

I bring it up quite often. And honestly, a lot of the times I feel as though most people don't care enough, or only care enough to read a single description of their type and move on, or find it useless. A lot of the times, I wish I had more interests I were obsessed with outside of personality theory.

Typology is just one of a great, great many things which I find are unique interests to me, I got alienated from reading non-fiction a while back, which is something I really enjoy, because it dawned on me that the more I knew and the more I learned the greater distance there objectively was between myself and my friends or just random people, I'd talk to them about things and their eyes would glaze over or they'd get a distant look and just nod or shrug.

It happens, what would the alternative be?

 

[93JC]

I feel as though most people don't care enough, or only care enough to read a single description of their type and move on, or find it useless.

Described me to a tee.

 

[mujigay]

It was always frustrating to me that no one ever was interested, in well, anything.

They brushed on personality typology a bit in a psych class once. I was the only weirdo that went and researched it.

 

[OrangeAppled]

My ESFP sister had an MBTI book which introduced me to the whole typology thing, so on a few occasions I've tried to initiate conversation on it, but it lasts about 30 seconds before she gets bored & changes the topic. She acknowledges her type as ESFP though.

My ISFJ mom took the test on facebook (not a great one), but then brushed it off as another silly facebook test saying she "can always see herself in many of the profile results with these kinds of tests" & that "they always seem true because they are so vague & could apply to anyone". I think she gets a forer effect from them. However, I can engage my mom in conversations about introversion/extroversion because she believes in this & feels she is an introverted, although not as introverted as me (as she puts it).

I haven't broached the topic with others because I feel lame & nerdy about it . I also know that most won't be interested in it anyway. On facebook, a few friends took the quiz & I barely squeezed one comment from each of them about it. My aunt typed my INFJ & informed me she went to an MBTI seminar once & was typed INFJ herself; she shows no interest in talking about this seminar though. I should re-open that dialogue someday....

Instead of directly talking about MBTI, I do this sneaky thing where I get people to confirm types by comparing/contrasting individuals I suspect are the same type and using MBTI language to describe people ("he's the kind who is hands-on & down to earth"). We basically talk about certain "types of people", but not in terms of theory or exact labels.

This often gives people the impression I am insightful about others . Once I figure out someone's type I can "predict" stuff about them & others are impressed by it. Muwhaha!

 

[Tiltyred]

I rarely have any success if I bring it up. If anyone tries to go along with the subject, it's that they took the test once, but they can never remember more than one or two of their letters and have no idea what it all means.

 

[Southern Kross]

Instead of directly talking about MBTI, I do this sneaky thing where I get people to confirm types by comparing/contrasting individuals I suspect are the same type and using MBTI language to describe people ("he's the kind who is hands-on & down to earth"). We basically talk about certain "types of people", but not in terms of theory or exact labels.

This often gives people the impression I am insightful about others . Once I figure out someone's type I can "predict" stuff about them & others are impressed by it. Muwhaha!

I do this too . The few people I have tried to discuss MBTI with have next to no interest in it. But when I talk about particular people/behaviour and put the terminology in everyday language, everyone suddenly finds it incredibly interesting.

 

[Eric B]

Originally Posted by RevlisZero
I know what you mean. It's really frustrating that I think about it so much but I can't really talk about it with people because they don't seem to care. I wish I could talk to people about typology but they would probably think I'm weird for being so obsessed with it.

Ditto.

Double-ditto!

And the theory explains why. For me, it's being in such a heavy S environment. Everyone talks about more immediately "down to earth" stuff, such as day to day living, sports, stuff they buy, etc. So I mention something like type, and it's like "yeah, OK".

Well, just this week, I decided to visit my old college town, to see how it has changed in two decades. A couple of friends from N had moved down there, so I hooked up with them. They (especially the wife) had seemed to be among those totally uninterested in the type of stuff I talked about when they were still up here (and this way before I got into type). Since this was the first time I had spoken to them after getting into type and temperament, I nervously decided to mention it, and they were surprisingly interested. My wife and I (looking back on many people from the past and guessing their temperament) remembered her as yet another solid Melancholy, which would suggest ISTJ. The husband seemed very Phlegmatic.

They both had taken 16types tests, and she vaguely remembered I, F and J, and probably S. I ran the idea of a T preference by her, and she seemed to lean more towards F. At the same time, I am surprised by how accommodating she was being. She even wanted to tour the new light rail system that opened, which is what I went down there for in the first place; and offering to take me pretty much wherever I wanted to go. (I usually do that stuff alone, and swing by somewhere to see my old ESFP friend at her store, and she's not interested in this stuff either, and was away this time).
I always knew her as someone who seemed not to want to be bothered. So she did seem like an FJ. The ISTJ's we were comparing her with (including my mother, and my wife's best friend), would never had been that open and accommodating. They pretty much want to be left alone most of the time.
However, the way she barked orders at the boys did seem like the typical "directive" Melancholy parent. So all of this points to INFJ, who is Melancholy on the surface social area (Chart the Course). Her personality did overall greatly resemble Iwakar, who we met at our meetups, as well as a second-cousin in law whom I've speculated is INFJ, and was always different from the rest of this extremely T-heavy family.

This highlights what I was talking about in that "Enigmatic Types" thread. With certain temperament (i.e. temperament/Interaction Style) mixes, they look one way on the surface, but could be totally different on a deeper level.
It may also be a thing of having tertiary Ti, and being put off by all my Ti when she was younger, but better able to process it now. Also, perhaps, just fitting in with the heavy S clique in church we were in. (There were some people who seemed to be N's I could talk a lot with).

The husband remembered his type, which, surprisingly, was ENTJ, which would be the pure Choleric. Again, he always seemed so Phlegmatic. I had thought that he was probably the F of the couple. And P as well. He doesn't seem really expressive, but rather more moderate, though he insisted he was a solid E; but then I haven't been around him all that much. But talking to him, I guess I could see it (Especially briefly questioning my "linking all the theories together", which I see NTJ's often do). I'll bet he's probably Phlegmatic-Choleric, at least in Inclusion.

So I've found some previously unlikely people I could discuss this stuff with.