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[NT] Is it genetic?

Ignazio

New member
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
13
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5
I'm an INTJ from a family people who are almost all NT's of some kind. Another user told me that he's basically in the same boat. Is this typical? Is personality determined by DNA? You know, 'cause if it is, I'm going to rub it in the face of everyone that believes in Tabula Rasa (kidding! Seriously though, what's the deal?).
 

guesswho

Active member
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Messages
1,977
MBTI Type
ENTP
I though of this...but since I can't just examine a bunch of people and their family tree ..I can't really say...but it may be possible.
 

Andy

Supreme High Commander
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
Messages
1,211
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5w6
Type is exactly 31.3256232% genetic. OK, I admit I just made that up. I think it's a mix of both nature and nurture. In a family unit one will tend to reinforce the other. Genetics predisposed them to be of a particular type (or types) then the existance of people of that type creates an atmosphere that incourages children to adopt a similar type.

Of course, it's not absolute. I'm the only INTJ in my immediate family. The majority are SPs. Still, I AM an Se user, even if it is in the inferior position.
 

angelhair45

New member
Joined
Jun 15, 2010
Messages
307
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
7w6
Well, I'm and ENFP and there are no other NF's in my family as far as I can tell. Lots of STs, and a couple NTs and SFs. I think we may pass down traits, but not type.

I'm ENFP, my husband is ESTP and our son is ESFJ. I think it's interesting (and annoying as hell at times) that we are all Es, we all share one thing with each other, and we all have something different.
 
R

ReflecTcelfeR

Guest
I talked about genetics with my father yesturday and I do believe it's mostly nurture. I have two parents who are opposites. My mom is an ISFJ and my father an ISTP... due to the nature of living with them almost equally (they got divorced when I was young) I have an equally balanced view on the world. I have seen both sides of the coin and then due to my own life the only function that I believe is definitive is my N due to the lack of real world experience as well as video games and such. This is how I come to see how I came to be. The only difference now is I'm living with my father more so I'm getting a better grip on my P-ness (ha!) and T as well. At an earlier age I had lived with my mom which affected my F-ness and J-ness.
 

metasapiens

New member
Joined
Jul 17, 2010
Messages
70
MBTI Type
N>JI
N are a wide bulk of my family and INTP are quite common .. from my perspective, I don't think my family ever built a proper N or NT without innate attributes. IMO If they have a choice, children choose their influences and develop what they find naturally easy to be.
 

tcda

psicobolche
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
1,292
MBTI Type
intp
Enneagram
5
I don't think it's genetic. None of my close family NT's except for one grandparent and 1 or 2 out of 14 cousins, and 1 out of 4 uncles and aunts. Usually when these threads are made, no correlation is shown.

perhaps in the case of the OP you were raised in a way that encouraged you to develop as an NT?
 

Ignazio

New member
Joined
Jul 18, 2010
Messages
13
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
5
I don't think it's genetic. None of my close family NT's except for one grandparent and 1 or 2 out of 14 cousins, and 1 out of 4 uncles and aunts. Usually when these threads are made, no correlation is shown.

perhaps in the case of the OP you were raised in a way that encouraged you to develop as an NT?

I suppose that's quite likely. My parents divorced when I was young and I raised mostly by my INT mother, thought I still had regular contact with my ENTJ father. Both of these people value intellect a lot more than emotion (thus, they are a teacher and an engineer respectively). I guess my family puts a pretty big emphasis on using reason instead of emotion when making decisions.
 

Queen Kat

The Duchess of Oddity
Joined
Apr 3, 2009
Messages
3,053
MBTI Type
E.T.
Enneagram
7w8
I got my Ne from my ISTJ dad, who has a hidden stash of it and I got my secondary Fi from my ISFP mom, who is a Fi-bomb. Mystery solved.
 

Quinlan

Intriguing....
Joined
Apr 6, 2008
Messages
3,004
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
9w1
How are you typing your family members? Maybe there are other types that are just acting like NTs because that is the family culture and they don't know any other way to be.

MBTI is about natural inclination, there are a lot of reasons why someone would hide their natural inclinations (just look at homosexuality).
 

Tradewind

New member
Joined
Jun 30, 2010
Messages
32
MBTI Type
INFJ
I don't know. My family is full of xNFPs, ISxJs, a long with a few SPs. Maybe it is genetic but I don't think so. I'm the only NJ. However, my mom is an ESFJ and my dad is an INFP so maybe I double dipped and just took letters from both?
 

tcda

psicobolche
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
1,292
MBTI Type
intp
Enneagram
5
MBTI is about natural inclination

Where does it say this? :s

I'd imagine it's pretty hard to prove any "pure" personality which exists underneath all the social conditioning. A personality itself is something which develops in response to environment.
 

Valiant

Courage is immortality
Joined
Jul 7, 2007
Messages
3,895
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
8w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
My family:

Mother - INFJ
Father - ENTP

Older brother - ENTP (even looks exactly like my father minus 25 years)

Older sister - XXXX (Bipolar Disorder, so i'm not even gonna try. Sometimes some sort of ISFP, sometimes some sort of ENTJ). She's very nice and all, but extreme.

Me - INTJ

Younger sister - INTJ


Both of my parents value emotion and logic, not just either, and that's how they taught the rest of us.
I'd say that they're both close to the T/F divide. And that's how most of us turned out as well.
For instance, Fe isn't supposed to be one of my strong points, but it is in fact just as strong as my Te function in terms of how well-developed it is.
That says nothing about my preference to use it instead of Te, though.

I do believe that some traits are inherited. Most of us kids share a strange neurological thing called synesthesia.
My father and my big sister are the only ones who don't have it.
Mother, my older brother, me and my little sister all associate numbers, feelings, words, people and sound with colors.

I know that the brain isn't some ethereal heavenly thing that just occurs.
It's made out of flesh and blood, sort of a biological computer.
If you combine your parents inherent traits, you get a result.

I do believe that these results can be swayed to some degree with nurturing, but the apple usually falls within a few meters of the tree when it comes to personality.
For instance, I hardly ever met my paternal grandfather. Yet I look like him, sound like him, say things that he did, do gestures that he used etc.
We even share a couple of hobbies.
I have two memories of the guy. One where he serves me some strawberry ice cream and one from grandma's funeral, where he cried and I remember feeling sorry for him.
Grandpa was an INTJ as well.
I don't remember grandma much at all and dad doesn't talk much about her.

I do think my maternal grandfather was something like an INTJ as well. He and my older brother were and are, respectively, my closest family relationships in a way.
He was a bit harder to type, though. He was very introverted in that Zen way, almost.
Very kind and knowledgeable, but not very outwards with it all.
My maternal grandmother is some sort of hyperactive ExFJ. :D Definite Fe-dominant, though.

My uncle (mother's brother) is a definite INTP nerd. He designed a working engine at 15 and he wrote the system that controls most swedish hydro power dams when he was about 30 (I think), among other things.
His wife is an ESFJ, and my cousins are INTP and ESFJ. Both guys. Boy, do they fight...

To a large extent, I think it's genetical. This is just personal stuff, but I see it everywhere.
If we inherited diseases, pigments, voice, behaviors from dead relatives...
Isn't it then possible that we also inherit the basics on what makes us what we are?
 

guesswho

Active member
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Messages
1,977
MBTI Type
ENTP
My mother is INFP/ISFP/INFJ/ISFJ (I can't actually decide which)...and my father may have been an NT ..though I've never known him. But he was an N for sure. And since T is more likely in males...NT.
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
I'm an INTJ from a family people who are almost all NT's of some kind. Another user told me that he's basically in the same boat. Is this typical? Is personality determined by DNA? You know, 'cause if it is, I'm going to rub it in the face of everyone that believes in Tabula Rasa (kidding! Seriously though, what's the deal?).

No. If you're an NT raised by NTs that could have just as much impact on Tabula Rasa as genetics, see? Not only are your genes supposedly NT but your environment as well.

Environment is a large determining factor in personality development. I think that our personalities are part nature, part nuture.

In fact, I think who I am speaks loudly for nurture over nature, without going into personal details.
 

Quinlan

Intriguing....
Joined
Apr 6, 2008
Messages
3,004
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
9w1
Where does it say this? :s

I'd imagine it's pretty hard to prove any "pure" personality which exists underneath all the social conditioning. A personality itself is something which develops in response to environment.

"Since, in the light of these facts, the attitude-type regarded as a general phenomenon having an apparent random distribution, can be no affair of conscious judgment or intention, its existence must be due to some unconscious instinctive cause. The contrast of types, therefore, as a, universal psychological. phenomenon, must in some way or other have its biological precursor.

Although nothing would induce me to underestimate the well-nigh incalculable importance of parental influence, this experience compels me to conclude that the decisive factor must be looked for in the disposition of the child. The fact that, in spite of the greatest possible similarity of external conditions, one child will assume this type while another that, must, of course, in the last resort he ascribed to individual disposition.

Under abnormal conditions, i.e. when there is an extreme and, therefore, abnormal attitude in the mother, the children can also be coerced into a relatively similar attitude; but this entails a violation of their individual disposition, which quite possibly would have assumed another type if no abnormal and disturbing external influence had intervened. As a rule, whenever such a falsification of type takes place as a result of external [p. 416] influence, the individual becomes neurotic later, and a cur can successfully be sought only in a development of that attitude which corresponds with the individual's natural way.



-Jung

I assume MBTI follows on from that.
 
R

ReflecTcelfeR

Guest
Where does it say this? :s

I'd imagine it's pretty hard to prove any "pure" personality which exists underneath all the social conditioning. A personality itself is something which develops in response to environment.

It is absolutely unavoidable. The development your mind goes through as you grow up coupled directly with those you interact with while you are growing up seems to be where the answer of why people think the way they do.
 

Tallulah

Emerging
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
6,009
MBTI Type
INTP
I don't know, but I do have an INTP uncle and cousin. Seems kinda weird to have three of us in a couple of generations, given the rarity of the type.
 
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