• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Does social typology enlighten or obscure?

BlueScreen

Fail 2.0
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
2,668
MBTI Type
YMCA
Obviously it does both, but which does it do more? If you look at a social situation using typology and you look at a social situation without it, in which case do you usually gain more understanding of the situation and its dynamics?

Does knowing a person's type assist you in any way? Or does it often create preconceptions which catch you out later? Does it stop you looking deeper and seeing the individual or seeing yourself?
 

Lucas

New member
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Messages
108
MBTI Type
INTP
Social typology is a tool. It can enlighten or obscure, depending on how it is used.

If you treat people solely as products of their types, then it will probably obscure.

On the other hand, if it is used as a guide to behavior, but by no means an absolute, then it can assist understanding.

I don't think it does either one inherently.
 

Coriolis

Si vis pacem, para bellum
Staff member
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
27,230
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Lucas is correct. Typology is a tool, and like all tools, is not right for every job, and must be used correctly to obtain optimal results.
 

Redbone

Orisha
Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
2,882
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
9w8
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
For myself, it has helped. I have been able to reach an understanding of what drives the behavior of other people and try to appreciate that it takes all types to run a railroad (well...sorta ;))

I can see that it may be a hindrance for some, "Hey, you can't do ________ because you're type _____________."

It should be taken as it is, a rough--sometimes very rough--blueprint.
 

Siúil a Rúin

when the colors fade
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
14,037
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
496
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
People who use MBTI to oversimplify people and make prejudicial observations probably have a tendency to do this any way. Having lived in a couple dozen places in my life, I encountered people at times to were self-described as intuitive (not in MBTI terminology), who had understanding of the dynamics of their small-town environment. I think they might have been good at predicting behaviors from within the town and with known individuals. When they applied that "intuition" outwardly, they tended to be quite mixed up and wrong in their assumptions.

Because MBTI proposes universal application, it can by its nature cause confusions when the small world-view of assumptions is overlaid onto it. In many cases we see a variety of projections of those smaller-set assumptions into this larger system and as a result the meaning of each category breaks down and becomes a bit incoherent. That is because each system being overlaid onto it is quite different in its assumptions. I think you have to be especially open-minded and able to let go of your own experiences as a references point in order to work with a system that is supposed to be universally applicable.
 

Lucas

New member
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Messages
108
MBTI Type
INTP
^
That's basically what I mean.

Social typology can enlighten when it is used as a rough guide to behavior, so long as it is acknowledged that people can an often do act outside of type, and in particular that one action does not represent temperament as a whole.

For me, typology is useful in understanding different paradigms; before discovering it, I had a very hard time believing that there were people who did not think in what I now know to be an INT manner.

In showing different thought processes, it typology gives me a sketch of others motivations and methods of interpretation which can help in predicting (roughly) how others will act or interpret actions.
 

Katsuni

Priestess Of Syrinx
Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Messages
1,238
MBTI Type
ENTP
Enneagram
3w4?
Both, depending on how much yeu emphasize it.

If yeu put iron faith in it as being absolutely accurate to all individuals without deviation, then yeah, yeu're going to have major problems. People will invariably drift outside its' boundries, do the opposite of whot it claims they should, and so on. Obviously, we're not just 16 clones with no differences past that point. Cultural differences, gender issues, various neurological disorders, etc, etc, can all affect a person's overall behaviour.

As such, if yeu use it as a LOOSE GUIDE, and just as a vague generalization, a base to work from in understanding why people do whot they do... just a starting point, rather than the whole person, then yes, it can help considerably. I get along with my BF much better due to understanding how he thinks a little better; there's differences from how MBTI describes his type, as there is in everyone, but it gives a good enough basic understanding that it's easier to accept and comprehend why he does some of the things he does, which would otherwise just be "well I wouldn't've done that... I don't get it". Instead, I can look at it and go "Oh, well he thinks in this manner, so I suppose it makes sense that he would come to that conclusion, even if I came to a different one". Understanding, allows for far more tolerance to things that are different to us.

There are those who would abuse such, like those who refuse to associate AT ALL with people of a certain type, or employers who only hire certain types because they prefer them. These practices are silly, and completely negate human individuality.

Don't put much faith in victor's rantings; he tends to assume everyone will abuse it and take it as 100% face value and strictly absolute fact.

If yeu use it as a loose guide/starting point for understanding, as it should be, rather than a strictly enforced set of laws with no deviation, it can be quite beneficial. Just don't run off the end of the world with it is all, or it'll be more hazardous than were yeu to not have used it at all.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Don't put much faith in victor's rantings; he tends to assume everyone will abuse it and take it as 100% face value and strictly absolute fact.

Placebos are surprisingly powerful, but if you question them they lose their power.

And it is the loss of power that hurts.

And in their hurt, they lash out with ad hominem attacks.
 

BlueScreen

Fail 2.0
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
2,668
MBTI Type
YMCA
As such, if yeu use it as a LOOSE GUIDE, and just as a vague generalization, a base to work from in understanding why people do whot they do... just a starting point, rather than the whole person, then yes, it can help considerably. I get along with my BF much better due to understanding how he thinks a little better; there's differences from how MBTI describes his type, as there is in everyone, but it gives a good enough basic understanding that it's easier to accept and comprehend why he does some of the things he does, which would otherwise just be "well I wouldn't've done that... I don't get it". Instead, I can look at it and go "Oh, well he thinks in this manner, so I suppose it makes sense that he would come to that conclusion, even if I came to a different one". Understanding, allows for far more tolerance to things that are different to us.

It might be useful in some senses to realise that not everyone is the same. It gives a structure for people to understand difference within. ie. replace one misconception with another. But how is giving a person a type beneficial when understanding them? To benefit at all from the knowledge of a person's type one must generalise the characteristics of the type and apply them to the person. If the person has taken the test this is probably of benefit statistically (because you get them to privately tick boxes then guess which boxes they ticked from their four letter result), if the person has not taken a test I'm not sure it has any value at all. Someone who hasn't taken the test has been typed by studying their characteristics, hence you know those characteristics without typology, and any new characteristics you assume as a result of this typing are a generalisation based on the typing. I don't see any gain in knowledge, only an assumed one as part of the generalisation.

The only way I see MBTi as being beneficial is that it creates a game where we try to look at ourselves and others in more depth. You aren't really understanding types, you're understanding people.
 
Top