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How long have you been studying/interested in MBTI or Personality Theory?

How long have you been studying MBTI?

  • <6 months

    Votes: 6 13.6%
  • 6 months - 1 year

    Votes: 6 13.6%
  • 1 - 2 years

    Votes: 9 20.5%
  • 2 years or more

    Votes: 23 52.3%

  • Total voters
    44

dnivera

New member
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
165
MBTI Type
ISTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp
I took my first casual online personality test around 2000 or so. Been reading personality psychology (Gifts Differing, Don Riso's enneagram books, etc) since 2003. I joined this forum several months ago, which has catapulted the level of seriousness of my thinking about MBTI. In the past few months I've absorbed so much about the types from this forum.

I still don't feel anywhere close to mastering either MBTI or enneagram, but I feel like I understand people a little better. Make that: I understand personality types a little better. How about you?
 

heart

heart on fire
Joined
May 19, 2007
Messages
8,456
Only really studying it for about two years. Knew about it over 15 years.
 

Perseus

New member
Joined
Aug 13, 2008
Messages
79
MBTI Type
INTP
I only heard of it a couple of months ago. Crash course.

I still can't find anything about the strong NPs, anti-Guardians, which I call Dragons (confirmed by Terry Pratchett). Or how to deal with a multiple Guardian persecution. There are just too many Guardians around holding on to their property and riches. They will not dish it out to the struggling architect.

I have not got any treasure.
 

edcoaching

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
752
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
7
16 years.

Dealing with Guardians...that's why I started my own company. Seriously if you can figure out their quirks (I had one who walked around at 8 am to make sure we were all at our desks...you could do anything you wanted at 8:15) they really do keep things ticking. If you feed them what they want (like charts to show where to get the info you're not including) they calm down...
 

Valiant

Courage is immortality
Joined
Jul 7, 2007
Messages
3,895
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
8w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Took my first MBTI test like 2003 or 2004. Been hooked ever since.
 

dnivera

New member
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
165
MBTI Type
ISTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp
16 years.

Dealing with Guardians...that's why I started my own company. Seriously if you can figure out their quirks (I had one who walked around at 8 am to make sure we were all at our desks...you could do anything you wanted at 8:15) they really do keep things ticking. If you feed them what they want (like charts to show where to get the info you're not including) they calm down...

edcoaching, that's pretty awesome!

Basically, I'm just wondering how long it took everyone to get to a level of mastery of MB type theory - to get to a point where you can type people after knowing them for just a short time, and to be able to phototype people. (I'm still pretty bad at this, and I've been studying MBTI for 5 years now.) I think it's because my social circles aren't big enough. With more time, I'll meet more types and understand more people.
 

Littlelostnf

New member
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
645
MBTI Type
ENFJ
I borrowed Please Understand Me (the first one) back in 1990. I had a friend who said he loved the book and he wanted me to read it. Because I love reading I said sure why not..but he told me first take the test and then read the book. So before I read the book or talked to him about anything I took the test. I had no prior knowledge of Kiersey's theory or I. Myers or anything about personality. I tested as an ENFJ back in 1990 and have been interested ever since. The interest became greater still in college when I studied psychology and took a personality class. I was hooked...still am.
 

Flush

New member
Joined
May 19, 2008
Messages
203
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
5w4
Heard about it and began studying it in April this year.
 

runvardh

にゃん
Joined
Jun 23, 2007
Messages
8,541
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
It started with taking a short test in college back in '02, I've been off and on since then.
 

01011010

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2008
Messages
3,916
MBTI Type
INxJ
Not very long. I had to take a test at college once, and didn't pay much attention to it for a long time. Then I came to a point where I needed to understand how to interact with certain people more efficiently.

Hence, why I'm here now.
 

Negative_

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2008
Messages
204
a week or two before my join date. i'd heard of it before then but wasn't too interested.
 

colmena

señor member
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
1,549
MBTI Type
INXP
This might not work

'The snapshot of your selections made on 25 Nov 07 at 05.22 has now been loaded.'

socionics results.

I'll have to do that one again.

I last did it on the 24th of April and got INTx.

I StumbledUpon the socionics test.

So where the esfps at?
 

Jeffster

veteran attention whore
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
6,743
MBTI Type
ESFP
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sx
In terms of actually being interested in applying it in any useful way, then it was around the beginning of June. I had heard of it, even taken a couple of tests, first time I was still a teenager, my mom got the book "Please Understand Me" and tested me and my brothers all at the same time. Then I remember I took an online test, somewhere around 2003 or so, and i printed it out and made 3 of my co-workers/friends take it, but of course I did it all wrong because I had 2 of them take the test together so they influenced each other's answers and stuff. And that was probably about it until a couple months ago, and I'm still not sure what got me into it, the only thing I've been able to come up with is it might have come from a "what Ninja turtle are you?" test that linked me to something about mbti or personality tests. I can't remember for sure.
 

ygolo

My termites win
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,986
I'm not really studying it anymore, and I have been aware of it for a long time.

I did some intensive study, a little over a year ago.
 

edcoaching

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
752
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
7
Basically, I'm just wondering how long it took everyone to get to a level of mastery of MB type theory - to get to a point where you can type people after knowing them for just a short time, and to be able to phototype people. (I'm still pretty bad at this, and I've been studying MBTI for 5 years now.) I think it's because my social circles aren't big enough. With more time, I'll meet more types and understand more people.

While some of my best friends think they can type people quickly, I find it really hard to do unless I actually work with them on something and see firsthand how their minds work. All you have to do is go out to politicaltypes.com - Home and take a look at how much type experts differ on Obama's type to get a flavor for how hard it is! (The poll had some filters so you had to have a handle on type theory to participate).

On the other hand, if someone WANTS me to help figure out their type, give me 10 minutes and we'll have it unless they also need psychiatric help. And, if I'm just trying to communicate better and change my style to meet theirs, I'm probably close enough on the code if we've interacted a few times.

How long did it take to get there...right after I was introduced to type I got asked to edit a book with a type expert so I had to learn really quick. Probably a year.
 
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