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The Novelty of Personality Types

Ghost of the dead horse

filling some space
Joined
Sep 7, 2007
Messages
3,553
MBTI Type
ENTJ
The big lesson of personality types - embracing our differences in a healthy manner - is a great eye-opener for anyone really understanding the concept the first time.

I guess there's many paths to follow upon learning the concept. Celebration of one's own type, perhaps? A celebration of previously personally misunderstood types upon learning they're okay? Arguing the merits of each stance to the point of not caring about it one bit anymore?

Where do you place yourself on the timeline? Are you relatively new to the concept, or a learned veteran?

What is your take on personality typing? Are you celebrating the differences in wonder, or are you just fed up with everyone and their dog being so unique?

Does personality typing excite you? Has it become as dull as a phone book?

Are you proud, ashamed or indifferent for being a member of your own type?

All questions can be answered in subtleties rather than either-or responses. How do you respond?
 

edcoaching

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
752
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
7
I'm in the very experienced category. Last summer at the international conference held by Association for Psychological Type International on type and creativity. Several attendees had used type for decades. Their comment? How can there be so much more to learn?

My work involves applying type and it never ceases to amaze me how the right approach can get sworn enemies in the workplace saying, "You mean you weren't doing that just to bug me?" or "That's actually a useful way to view this problem, isn't it?" or "Working with you would actually make for a stronger product..."

Let alone the self-discovery. Recently a female who prefers ENTJ told me that she cried for a half hour when she understood how being ENTJ had caused her to be misjudged all through her teen years. She's a highly competent adult nonprofit administrator and credits thorough understanding of type to helping her be effective.
 

proteanmix

Plumage and Moult
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
5,514
Enneagram
1w2
I think that I've moved away from MBTI and am more into Jungian psychoanalysis and archetypes at this point. MBTI the way it's commonly used is unexciting and predictable.

I'm at the point now where I can spot an ESFP who's not stripping, partying, or jumping off of cliffs or an INTJ who's charming, affable, and open and not mistype them as something else because I'm not relying on type descriptions I'm looking for function usage. I do enjoy typing people I know IRL and I like talking with them enough to start to figure out their type.

According to type descriptions I'm a crappy ESFJ and ENFJ so basically I ignore them. A good type description (like Linda Berens or Lenore Thomson's) are good rules of thumbs but nothing more. I remember the first time I was type I came out ENFP and I thought the sky had opened up. It makes me LOL now! I am not Ne-dominant. I think that a substantial amount of people discover MBTI in college when they are still trying to figure out who they are and some of us who have latched on to MBTI more tenaciously try to make it do what it don't. You can tell by the types of type specific threads that pop up so regularly here. As little experiments, I take thread topics to my majority Sensor coworkers and talk about them and all too often I get eerily similar responses from them to the responses here.
 

prplchknz

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
34,397
MBTI Type
yupp
I'm still not sure I'm INFP. I may never be 100% sure, I'm open to the possibility of different types. I am certaintly no expert.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Your Star Sign

At the bar I find it easier to ask for your star sign than your personality type.

I mean everyone knows their star sign but few know their type.

And when I ask your star sign at the bar, you know I am interested in you and want to hear more.

And hey, what's your star sign? Mine? I'm an Aries. Are we compatible? Would you like another drink? The more drink, the more compatible - it is written in the stars.
 

cascadeco

New member
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
9,083
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
9w1
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
The big lesson of personality types - embracing our differences in a healthy manner - is a great eye-opener for anyone really understanding the concept the first time.

Definitely agree. It is a really cool concept when you first learn about it. The danger is relying on it too much, and trying to push every facet of behavior onto a type or function.

But the 16 types are just a framework for categorization-- so in that sense the fact that it's the number 16 is kinda arbitrary. It could be more, or less, where the same principle applies. There are other typing systems/tests that I find much more provocative than mbti.

I start having problems when people view it as being a very closed system, without leaving room for much variance within type, or without a person conceivably changing over time (yes, that's a generalization too - not everyone thinks these things or views mbti this way). I also think the 16 types are mere caricatures -- I think a lot of people fall somewhere in the middle of one or more types. Even speaking of cognitive functions, I don't personally think one HAS to have a rigid ordering of functions. I think there could be far more than 16 function-orders, and I think there are. Finally, I think it's far too easy to use type as more of a 'crutch' - once one has decided they're a certain type, it's easy to mold to that type, or throw certain functions out the window because they are function number 7 or 8 -- or whatever.

I guess there's many paths to follow upon learning the concept. Celebration of one's own type, perhaps? A celebration of previously personally misunderstood types upon learning they're okay? Arguing the merits of each stance to the point of not caring about it one bit anymore?

I don't think I've ever celebrated my own type, or other types, really, or had huge issues with other types. But yeah, I certainly recognize numerous similarities between myself and other IN's, and many fewer similarities with, say, ES's.

Where do you place yourself on the timeline? Are you relatively new to the concept, or a learned veteran?

I think I'm somewhere in the middle. I know the basics, but I don't find the system useful enough for me to want to dig into it deeper. So yes - most of what I'm writing might come across as completely ignorant to those who do find a lot of usefulness when it comes to personality typing, but it's what I think.

The overall message of typing -- individual differences and each person approaching/processing/valuing things differently -- is the message that is ultimately helpful in the real world, and in relating to others.

What is your take on personality typing? Are you celebrating the differences in wonder, or are you just fed up with everyone and their dog being so unique?

I think there is so much about the human experience that goes beyond 16 types. And I think there are so many other factors that come into play, that it seems a bit silly to me to think billions of people can be pared down to just 16 types. The 16 types, looking at them generally, are helpful. But trying to pinpoint every single human behavior to one function or another...seems rather silly to me.

Does personality typing excite you? Has it become as dull as a phone book?

Personality excites me, but typing doesn't excite me a whole lot anymore.

Are you proud, ashamed or indifferent for being a member of your own type?

I've often posted on here that I'm not sure INFJ is my 'real type'. But taking everything into consideration, and taking my whole life into account, INFJ seems the best fit for me.

However, I can also relate to aspects of many of the other type descriptions, and there are pieces of the INFJ descriptions that don't hit home to me. So if I decided, well, maybe I'm an INFP, or INTJ, etc instead, well...I'd find just as many things about those descriptions that don't ring true for me. This is probably an unavoidable pitfall, though, in trying to classify everyone into one of 16 types -- one description is never going to fit everyone of that type to a T.
 
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