[NF] NFs, how long have you been learning / studying about MBTI?

[Crescent Fresh]

I'm just curious as I'm fairly new to this.

And here are the two questions:

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?

 

[Anew Leaf]

I first learned about it 15 years ago.

1- It helped me feel less weird/out of place. It has enabled me to work better with other people and to understand them.
2- Trying to type everyone you meet.

 

[BAJ]

how long have you been studying about the MBTI?

I have been strongly interested since 1990. I came from a somewhat difficult childhood, and I went into my college counseling office when I was a freshman. They administered the MBTI. I tested as INTP with very weak T, so I read the profile. Then I started getting books on it, including "please understand me" and "gifts differing". I guess I've had about seven different books on the theory, as well as reading online.

I'm just curious as I'm fairly new to this.

And here are the two questions:

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?

Discovering the MBTI was a sort of watershed even for me. All my life I'd been told that I wasn't normal, among many other things. Normal people polish their car every week. Normal boys don't cry. Normal people, etc.

My father constantly ridiculed me in the most derogatory ways. Never did I receive the slightest crumb of approval or praise until I was about 28 years old. My gifts were not recognized or developed. He was sort of like the father in "Dead Poet's Society", and he is probably ISTJ.

The MBTI was seen as positive feedback. Here was something which described me as different, but not pathological. It was a puzzle piece which helped me to love myself.

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?

This is difficult to answer. After much searching and reading and starting threads, I came to believe I'm really INFP with strong "T."

Yet, I'm more like the....well...some kind of ghost, predominantly devoid of relationships, especially intimate ones. I crave intimacy, but I NEED my alone time, so I'll sabotage all my relationships if they seem to be forming.

Personal note:

This may be independent of typology. I mean, I never mean to represent myself as a spokesperson for a particular type.

In my case, I had my longest hospitalization for depression when I was 29, like over three months. At the verge of it, I'd just discovered typology "forums" or discussion online in 1998, but I was required to go into the hospital anyway. If I'd discovered them earlier, it might have...maybe...just pulled me out of becoming so depressed.

Since that time, I've had many learning experiences and things to overcome, but these may be "me" and not my type. One thing, since the second grade, I've felt compelled to write people notes. Some are good, and some are bad, but for the most part, people don't respond well if you hand them a note.

One summer, two years out of major depression, I was obsessed with some girl, so I wrote her emails up to 10 times per day. I wrote her over 200 emails in that summer. I'd write one, then I send another to fix that one, etc. Fortunately she was a genius and a prolific reader who was able to turn my angst into comedy. She's still a friend today, at least on facebook.

Although it was an amazingly painful unrequited love, I think it allowed me to burn up a lot of my obsessive tendencies.

So thus, my life improves, sometimes painfully...actually usually painfully. It's not like my first hospitalization for depression when I was 17, when I was ripping rubber rooms to shreds and then crying in the fetal position. I don't think it could ever get that bad again.

I guess I'm saying, I'm still growing and improving. If anyone thinks I'm not very mature or evolved, then should have seen me 25 years ago or even two years ago.

Edit:
Of course, during this the MBTI helped me to understand, and re-affirm myself.

I found these forums when I was having a very difficult time in 2008 with a roommate very different than me, which threatened my job and housing. So I sought help via typology discussion. These forums have helped me to get through some tough spots.

 

[OrangeAppled]

I've only really studied it the past 3 years or so. I first encountered it some 10 years ago, but I did not go beyond taking a test for fun until 3 years ago. I think it really caught my interest when I first began testing as an INFx on occasion. Previously, I tested as INTP always, and it never resonated with me, so I brushed the system off.

My interest started slow, then the obsession took hold of me & I began to devour as much as I could get my hands on (as is often the case with my "interests", which I go through phases with).

This knowledge has changed me by further helping me realize that people think differently. I have always known that in a way, but knowing HOW & WHY has been useful. It highlights a lot about my dynamic with others & their dynamics with each other & so one & so forth.

More than being useful in a practical sense, it has simply been a tool to understand people as a whole better (as opposed to real life individuals). It has also helped me re-frame my own identity. Acknowledging myself as a "feeling" type has allowed me to be comfortable with certain aspects of myself; I think this process was happening naturally, but it allowed me to clarify what it even was. Mainly, that's what MBTI has done - allowed me to clarify & articulate these aspects of people & myself that I had a sense of before but no language to describe it with.

The most difficult thing I need to overcome is probably personal bias, and whatever limits my own intelligence gives me.

 

[Tiltyred]

I was best friends with a grad student in psychology and he tested me in about 1978. I can't think of anything I've had to overcome regarding it. It's opened my eyes in many ways and I've always seen it as a useful tool.

 

[BAJ]

I can't think of anything I've had to overcome regarding it. It's opened my eyes in many ways and I've always seen it as a useful tool.

I guess this is why have trouble answering this one. I can think of lots of problems I overcame since taking it, where it either re-affirmed myself or assisted in understanding, but it's difficult think of a problem it created.

I guess this may qualify. Nobody in my family will take even a short questionnaire. I think, maybe, they are S-types. They iron their bedsheets and pillow cases, for example. To put it mildly, my father tends to think all of psychology is a waste of time.

 

[OrangeAppled]

I think I took "overcome" to mean something different. I thought it meant "what do you need to overcome to understand the theory more accurately". I didn't take it to mean "what problematic views has it caused you to develop that you need to overcome" nor "how has it helped you to identify personal problems you need to overcome".

 

[BAJ]

Ah, I sort of answered that way too. I guess I read lots of personal descriptions both on forums and in books like "life types." I kept trying to ask if I'm F or T, and I may still be a "hybrid", but I had to read personal stories and more deeply reflect upon whether I was F or T. Eventually I realized that receiving approval and praise was a greater motivator than being interested knowledge for knowledge sake. I am WAY more influenced by personal anecdotes than data.

 

[gandalf]

I am not actually a real NF but I my Fi is such strong that I can relate to INFPs and there is a strong idealist in me.

I've been studying the MBTI and the Jungian cognitive functions for two years now.

It has really opened a new world in front of me. First of all, it gave me a theoretical (and, for me, thus reasonable) explanation for why I have felt myself so different from others for all my life. Second, it has also given me a whole new perspective to how other people think and "work". For me, understanding the MBTI is a way to grasp how profoundly different people can be and to still understand also the people who are not like me.

 

[King sns]

I'm just curious as I'm fairly new to this.

And here are the two questions:

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?

I have been fascinated with personality theory (along with some other choice things that are along similar lines) since childhood. I think I took my first MBTI test maybe at 11 or 12 years old. (The result was enfp I think, it may have been infp.) I'm 26 now. I don't learn intensely as much as just pick it up here and there. It helps me understand almost everyone around me, even if it's not type related stuff, some personality theory combined with other things helps you to just understand human nature in general. It must have changed my perspective on things, since I started so young. Multiple other uses but I won't list them on and on.

 

[SRT]

I'm just curious as I'm fairly new to this.

And here are the two questions:

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?

I've been reading/studying mbti and other personality theories for about 4 years now. Not fervently though. I use it more as a fun thing to do with characters in stories, so its more of a recreational studying.

1) Its allowed me to be more accepting of myself and others for the odd little quirks that we exhibit. As a result, I've calmed down more when I deal with other people, since I could put a clearer reasoning for why people think differently than me. This also goes hand in hand with just naturally maturing, but I feel that reading about personality helped expedite the process.

2) I think the biggest challenge is understanding the fluidity of the traits that the types represent. What typically determines someone type is the prevalence of traits when viewed against other people and the traits they exhibit. Its culturally derived, in other words, so there really is no clear base line for behavior.

 

[CuriousFeeling]

I'm just curious as I'm fairly new to this.

And here are the two questions:

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?

I've been learning/ studying MBTI since 2006.

1. Attaining this knowledge has been quite useful in understanding others better as well as understanding myself. Knowing how people think differently helps me to understand how to accommodate them better, as well as figuring out how they can work better with other people. It's also given me deeper insight to how I think, my value system, and I must admit, it has put me more at ease with myself. Knowing my blind spots as well as my strengths helps me to figure out areas of growth and improvement.

2. The most difficult thing I needed to overcome upon learning more about typology was actually figuring out just what my personality type really was. I flipped back and forth between INFJ and INTJ, and after taking several tests, I scored INTJ more times than I did INFJ. As analytical and logical as I am, whenever I'd notice someone I cared about being mistreated, or if my ideas were discredited before giving them a chance, I'd end up responding to such things based upon my values. So I thought that I was more likely an INFJ rather than INTJ. It's still a challenge to this day, even. I make decisions based on both Fe based objectives as well as Te and Ti based objectives. It tends to end up resulting in an inner battle between which side is going to win.. values or logic. Figuring my true self seems to be quite a puzzle in itself, and I still haven't explored all of it yet.

 

[Glycerine]

1. 3 years ago.
2. Not to take the MBTI Nazis who oversimplify the system to fit their own goals and biases too seriously and not to take it too seriously in general.

 

[cfs1992]

1. Since I was 14 (now I'm 19).
2. Stop putting types into stereotypes (I see it happens a lot with people who just started learning about this).

 

[Stanton Moore]

I read Psychological Types in high school, but didn't enjoy it as much as other Jung stuff.

I discovered MBTI a few years ago, but since that time, I've learned a lot more about psychology and other related studies, and now feel that typology is pretty weak. People are constantly trying to relate things like procrastination or shyness to type, and I really think those are unrelated to type; they are related to experiences in life and especially childhood, and typology is unable to address them. It's interesting in some ways, but it tells me nearly nothing of real importance about an individual. For instance ISFP is supposed to the ' the artist' type, but I know a lot of artists, and they are all different in temperament, style, intelligence, drive, etc... I see more dissimilarity than similarity.
I just think that typology errs by fallling on the side of static nature, and leaving out the fluid and dynamic effects of experience and nurture.

 

[animenagai]

I'm just curious as I'm fairly new to this.

And here are the two questions:

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?

1. Depends on what you mean. I don't like putting a price on knowledge; it's important/interesting to understand things for their own sake. My INTJ 5w6 father has taught me that much.

2. Not much really, I do well with theories. Understanding Ni probably took me the longest. All the different aspects of this function seemed separate and only loosely related. Right now I think of Ni as a conclusive function, trying to find a single conclusion from many different clues. I think it's a decent definition so far.

 

[alcea rosea]

I've been learning/studying MBTI around ... hmmmm... about six or seven years now.

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?
No, but it has certainly helped for me to understand myself better and to accept myself (the personality) when I understood how/what I am. But MBTI doesn't tell everything, that has to be remembered.

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?
I had the most difficult time to accept my strong Fi...

 

[Lily flower]

I've read about it for about 15-20 years. I don't spend a lot of time learning new things now. It has helped me tremendously to understand other people and why they are different, and to also help me get along with other people. I really don't understand the functions well (Fe, Ni, etc.), but I haven't found that I need to.

My main frustration with MBTI is that I really love to talk about it and I can't really find other people that are interested. A lot of people are kind of freaked out by it, like I am going to use it to read their minds or something. That's why it's nice to get on here.

 

[Guy V. Malaxia]

1. How has attaining this knowledge changed you?

I'm much more accepting of myself and don't deem many of my quirks and differences as "flaws."

2. What's the most difficult thing you need to overcome upon learning more about typology?

Realizing that, at the end of the day, it's just a theory trying to tackle the complexity of humans. Putting too much stock into the system--especially for those who don't seem to "fit" -- can be destructive and stressful.

 

[SilkRoad]

I took the test around 2005-2006 (my manager at work asked us to do so) and got interested in INFJ-ness then. I think it was in 2008 that I started looking into other types and the system generally.

I also think I may have taken a test when much younger but it wouldn't have meant much to me then.

It's certainly altered my perspective in the last few years about my own personality, why there can sometimes seem to be such a disconnect with other people, and how to work on my human relationships.