[MBTI General] ISFPs/ENFPS

[craigensa]

A LOT of the guys I knew at my school are ENFP, but maybe that's just the character my school likes to foster...charming and willing to discover new things in the world.

Some of them could be extraordinarily obnoxious, loud and generally uncomfortable to be around, and others were less wild and people you could really talk to, without any worry of having a conversation consisting of jokes. So it varied a lot...

 

[You]

After reading your post I sort of realized how joking can be extremely obnoxious. I'm going to have to cut back.

 

[craigensa]

After reading your post I sort of realized how joking can be extremely obnoxious. I'm going to have to cut back.

Lol sorry I meant pisstaking...sometimes you can't have a serious conversation because people decide to make jokes out of everything you say or convert it into poking fun at you.

Maybe I just spent time around rubbish people!

 

[Vamp]

Lol sorry I meant pisstaking...sometimes you can't have a serious conversation because people decide to make jokes out of everything you say or convert it into poking fun at you.

Maybe I just spent time around rubbish people!

That sounds like ESFP. Some ENFPs tend to be more respectful of the social space and less comfortable doing that, unless they know you well enough. ENFPs style of pisstaking just makes you think they're high on something because it's so sporadic.

ISFP/ENFP Idk. ...I think FPs can be more alike than NFs. But I think the ENFPs that can seem like ISFPs are nearly I's and not too high on E. Extroversion seems to make a noticeable difference sort of like craigensa is getting at up there.

 

[You]

I think I've leveled out over the years and nowhere near as extroverted as I use to be.

 

[skylights]

I know an enfp in real life, similar interests and stuff. Different temperament.

S is much more down-to-earth than N in general...

ENFPs style of pisstaking just makes you think they're high on something because it's so sporadic.

[...]

But I think the ENFPs that can seem like ISFPs are nearly I's and not too high on E. Extroversion seems to make a noticeable difference sort of like craigensa is getting at up there.

yeah, i'm pretty shit at it. i don't think i'd even have the courage to mock someone to their face unless we were very good friends, lol. unless i'm really, really pissed off, but that's a complete difference, and would never be mistaken for joking, lol... i need to meet these loud obnoxious male ENFPs i keep hearing about. they are foreign to me

anyway, i think ENFPs and ISFPs can seem alike especially because Ne makes ENFP a little more spacey, which can appear I-ish, and then Se can make ISFP intensely into environmental things, which can appear E-ish. and of course we share Fi. like petra pan said, if i was S, i would be ISFP

 

[Sunny Ghost]

Ne indicates ENTPs and ENFP are more alike. I beg to differ. I think in action, in mannerisms, and in lifestyle, ENFPs are more likely to be comparable to ISFPs.

What do you think?

Agreed. Mentally, the two are completely different. However, I've found myself amongst many ENFP's and do see some similarities. Artsy, creative... stylish... calm/cool exterior, sensitive.

I swore a girl I knew was an ISFP, however she turned out to be an ENFP. The longer I got to know her, the more I could see her Ne versus Se. But I suppose her attraction to fashion and art made me think ISFP at first.

 

[Killjoy]

I initially had my Ex pegged as an ENFP, but giving her a more thorough analysis concluded ISFP was a far better fit. She was an unusual ISFP, in that she was quite manipulative, outgoing, opinionated and at times, an insufferable bitch. She also had a fairly pronounced Ni, though I believe many of her "intuitive insights" derived from the fact she was high half of the time.

I should also mention she's Bipolar.

 

[ilovereeses]

I'm ENFP and my best friend is ISFP. For the longest time I thought that she was an ENFP too until she took the test and I read more into it.

I realize now that the only reason I felt that way is because she'd feed off of my energy and become much more outgoing around me. She just generally acted a lot like me. I think that's because she has a tendency to mold to the type of person her friends want her to be, though. As she's grown older she has become much more independent and even started becoming somewhat controlling. I think she was just tired of being the quiet, follower. Now she have a tendency to boss people around and like she's their mother (because she babysits so much), but at the end of the day she'll hide in her room to have her emo time. It's pretty weird to see her change so much and I wonder if she's really acting the way she would naturally, or if she's trying to change herself to appear stronger. She's always been really protective of me and everyone close to her, as a mother would be, so maybe she's just finally expressing that part in herself?

I do notice big differences in us now. I'm much more flexible than her, and she uses much more Fi than me. I also have a tendency to be much more blunt and say things without thinking, speaking very casually to anyone, even adults and authority figures. She's more likely to be very polite and professional whenever she is around adults, and always thinks before she speaks so that she doesn't offend anyone.

 

[Vamp]

Since originally posting, I've met someone I believe is an ISFP. "similar function (Fi) in a totally different realm".

 

[gigicat]

I currently have an Enfp housemate (she tested and is definitely and Enfp). We're a lot alike in a lot of ways: we both value freedom as others have said, quirkiness (we're not followers), off beat sense of humor, and we both like to keep pretty busy with fun activities. Also we're both into cooking good meals and she is a phenomenal baker, so feeding friends and making a meal special is something we both enjoy doing.

Some of the differences I've noticed: She can go on and on about something she's researched or finds interesting in connection with something else that she saw or heard, and while I think it might be interesting as well, I find myself at some point in the conversation getting a little bored with all the information she's giving me, maybe because a lot of it is opinion or subjective?

Another difference is that she is not always aware of her physical surroundings. She trips, she bangs into things that have been there awhile, she is physically kind of sporadic in her movements. Even she admits to this tendency, that it takes her awhile to adjust to a new environment.

I can see how the two types could be seen as very similar, especially if one type, like my housemate is a low E.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

 

[Thalassa]

I initially had my Ex pegged as an ENFP, but giving her a more thorough analysis concluded ISFP was a far better fit. She was an unusual ISFP, in that she was quite manipulative, outgoing, opinionated and at times, an insufferable bitch. She also had a fairly pronounced Ni, though I believe many of her "intuitive insights" derived from the fact she was high half of the time.

I should also mention she's Bipolar.

Well, that was a flattering dipiction of what you think an ENFP is: an ISFP with bipolar disorder.

*is suddenly concerned*

 

[OrangeAppled]

I think being Se-aux, ISFPs are somewhat more intouch with the external in a way that can be associated with extroversion. Conversely, being Ne-dom, ENFPs can be out of touch in a way that's associated with introversion. This seems to make some ISFPs test E and ENFPs test I.

Also, ISFPs like a lot of the abstract, theoretical stuff that MBTI tests mention, probably as a result of Fi & Ni, and Se tends to like new stuff as much as Ne, maybe more for the experience it provides than the ideas it inspires though.

One of my ISFP friends tests ENFP, despite not acting/talking like he's coming from a NeFi mindset at all. On paper, he sounds similar to an ENFP based on his interests & social life, but in reality, he displays the ISFP functions.

 

[KDude]

I still occassionally wonder if I'm just a high Ni ISFP myself. I don't think it need be just an ENFP confusion. For me, the confusion is: What's more likely, a high Ni ISFP or a respectable Se INFJ (which is possible.. even Lenore Thomson, an INTJ, talks about INJs doing SP activities)? The sociability of SP could be mistaken for Fe even.

Sorry, this probably doesn't have much place here. If anything, I think I speak more than Fi doms though. I also think an ENFP would do that more than an ISFP too. It might come down to something as simple as interaction style.

 

[Thalassa]

I still occassionally wonder if I'm just a high Ni ISFP myself. I don't think it need be just an ENFP confusion. For me, the confusion is: What's more likely, a high Ni ISFP or a respectable Se INFJ (which is possible.. even Lenore Thomson, an INTJ, talks about INJs doing SP activities)? The sociability of SP could be mistaken for Fe even.

Sorry, this probably doesn't have much place here. If anything, I think I speak more than Fi doms though. I also think an ENFP would do that more than an ISFP too. It might come down to something as simple as interaction style.

Quite frankly I think an ISFP might want to kick someone's ass more than an INFJ would.

One of the things I think that made me start questioning my association with NF is that I have a more aggressive personality - not that ENFPs can't use Te a lot, but I kept hearing feeler types saying "you're using so much Te!!" and several INTJs saying "um...no...that's not Te." I have this quick temper too that can be dissolved pretty easily - like I feel things, then I move on from it. I only begin to "dwell" if there's some kind of on-going abuse. I can be pissed as hell or butthurt one day, and be friends with the person two days later. I've seen several people on this forum express a kind of astonishment at this aspect of my personality, and I think it may be the SP spontaneity of expression combined with "being in the moment" and therefore MOVING ON FROM IT (also see: ISFP rage).

I also felt myself getting annoyed with some of the idealism of some NFs in certain threads, like COME ON THIS DOES NOT MEASURE UP AGAINST LIFE AT ALL, and even sometimes when I watch movies I have be able to surpass a certain suspension of disbelief, if I find something realistically prepoterous and it's painted as realism, I get annoyed and don't want to watch it. Like 'that couldn't or wouldn't happen.' I love biographies and documentaries about real people and real events. While I love horror, and certainly like some unrealistic romanticized things, I can't deal with the Fantasy genre at all.

And maybe the sensation of "collecting things" with Ne is actually just Se collecting experience then processing with Fi/Ni when I'm alone. I am a very experential person, to the point of when I was younger doing incredibly stupid things for the experience. I got a tattoo "for the experience" for example, and I find myself saying things like this a lot (and I was also pickier about the color - I picked the artist who did mine specifically for his excellence with color, and the color has remained intact far past the fade date on many people's tats).

I remember being 18 or 19 and being convinced that in order to be a good writer I had to experience as much as possible, that quality writing couldn't come straight from the imagination.

Gah ... I don't know, but from my understanding INFJs in particular are pretty self-controlled.

 

[Thalassa]

Also I think I might have downplayed my Se over an Fi value that "things" should not be important to me, that I should feel guilty for wanting physical things, and this may be something that was impressed upon my morality from a Christian upbringing.

 

[OrangeAppled]

^ That sounds more like an ESFP to me than ISFP... I have yet to know an "aggressive" ISFP in real life. I get accused of aggression more than they do (although I see them as quite passive-aggressive).

If it adds to the discussion any, my older ESFP sister had many "intellectual" interests as a teen. She loved Poe and Kerouac. She liked avant-garde fashion and "smart" counter-culture as opposed to pop culture - a lot of my own art & music taste was influenced by her taste. Then she fell in with this party crowd and discovered an airhead routine got her more attention, and so her Blond Bimbo persona emerged. She developed interests along the lines of what could connect her to others (she HATES not knowing what is trendy/popular, even if it's just to make fun of it), but I still notice the things that truly interest her are not the shallow stuff she partakes in to relate to her friends. Attention, relating and connecting to people is more important to her than her inner world of interests. However, even now she is an avid reader & has a quick mind & can grasp anything she is interested in; but she has little patience for anything that is not "real", and I don't mean in a fantasy aspect so much as in a conceptual aspect. She often tests borderline S/N also. She's the one who brought home the first MBTI book I had ever seen, but it had a "practical" use (to find a romantic match) and beyond that she has no interest in the theory.

 

[Thalassa]

^ That sounds more like an ESFP to me than ISFP... I have yet to know an "aggressive" ISFP in real life. I get accused of aggression more than they do (although I see them as quite passive-aggressive).

If it adds to the discussion any, my older ESFP sister had many "intellectual" interests as a teen. She loved Poe and Kerouac. She liked avant-garde fashion and "smart" counter-culture as opposed to pop culture - a lot of my own art & music taste was influenced by her taste. Then she fell in with this party crowd and discovered an airhead routine got her more attention, and so her Blond Bimbo persona emerged. She developed interests along the lines of what could connect her to others (she HATES not knowing what is trendy/popular, even if it's just to make fun of it), but I still notice the things that truly interest her are not the shallow stuff she partakes in to relate to her friends. Attention, relating and connecting to people is more important to her than her inner world of interests. However, even now she is an avid reader & has a quick mind & can grasp anything she is interested in; but she has little patience for anything that is not "real", and I don't mean in a fantasy aspect so much as in a conceptual aspect. She often tests borderline S/N also. She's the one who brought home the first MBTI book I had ever seen, but it had a "practical" use (to find a romantic match) and beyond that she has no interest in the theory.

Interesting. Your sister sounds cool.

Thing is, I don't think I'm extroverted enough to be ESxx, and when I say I have an aggression to my personality, it's 99% of the time more of a verbal aggression that's centered around "fighting back" as opposed to being oppositional or defiant IRL. People who are around me every day at this point use words like quiet, sweet, and even innocent to describe me. It comes out under particular circumstances like this: http://www.typologycentral.com/forums/sp-arthouse/34470-isfp-anger-maybe-even-rage.html


I think it bears pointing out that some people believe Eminem is ISFP.

Oh - I'd also like to add here that it's something that came with age. As a child I was extremely sensitive, shy, quiet, and afraid to even fight back.

 

[KDude]

Quite frankly I think an ISFP might want to kick someone's ass more than an INFJ would.

One of the things I think that made me start questioning my association with NF is that I have a more aggressive personality - not that ENFPs can't use Te a lot, but I kept hearing feeler types saying "you're using so much Te!!" and several INTJs saying "um...no...that's not Te." I have this quick temper too that can be dissolved pretty easily - like I feel things, then I move on from it. I only begin to "dwell" if there's some kind of on-going abuse. I can be pissed as hell or butthurt one day, and be friends with the person two days later. I've seen several people on this forum express a kind of astonishment at this aspect of my personality, and I think it may be the SP spontaneity of expression combined with "being in the moment" and therefore MOVING ON FROM IT (also see: ISFP rage).

I also felt myself getting annoyed with some of the idealism of some NFs in certain threads, like COME ON THIS DOES NOT MEASURE UP AGAINST LIFE AT ALL, and even sometimes when I watch movies I have be able to surpass a certain suspension of disbelief, if I find something realistically prepoterous and it's painted as realism, I get annoyed and don't want to watch it. Like 'that couldn't or wouldn't happen.' I love biographies and documentaries about real people and real events. While I love horror, and certainly like some unrealistic romanticized things, I can't deal with the Fantasy genre at all.

And maybe the sensation of "collecting things" with Ne is actually just Se collecting experience then processing with Fi/Ni when I'm alone. I am a very experential person, to the point of when I was younger doing incredibly stupid things for the experience. I got a tattoo "for the experience" for example, and I find myself saying things like this a lot.

I remember being 18 or 19 and being convinced that in order to be a good writer I had to experience as much as possible, that quality writing couldn't come straight from the imagination.

Gah ... I don't know, but from my understanding INFJs in particular are pretty self-controlled.

I love fantasy

I don't think too much about suspension of belief so much as logical consistency within a story.. Does it work within it's own little "bubble"? If so, then I'm completely fine with it.

If not, I'll bring it up.. Like the other night my friends rented that new Nightmare on Elm Street. At the end, I started wondering why Freddy even had those powers over people's dreams to begin with. At first, I thought.. maybe he was rewarded with them because he got screwed in life.. But then, the writer threw that completely out the window when it came out that Freddy wasn't justified at all. He was a child rapist.

It could have made sense in some far fetched way if he wasn't.. like I could suspend my belief enough to believe some unknown entity gave him the power so he could enact vengeance. But seeing that that he wasn't innocent, none of it made sense. And it's not like he sold his soul or partook in some "evil" ritual to get that way either. He was just some random creep who got burned by the people in that town... and all of the sudden, he becomes this unstoppable force, with like.. 13 sequels to his name. Wtf is up that?

As for INFJ, the thing that made me put it on the "backburner" is the whole door-slamming thing. Simply put. I've dealt with that before, and it sucks. I'm the complete opposite. I like putting things out on the table with people and communicating. Sometimes arguing if necessary.

 

[Thalassa]

I love fantasy

I don't think too much about suspension of belief so much as logical consistency within a story.. Does it work within it's own little "bubble"? If so, then I'm completely fine with it.

If not, I'll bring it up.. Like the other night my friends rented that new Nightmare on Elm Street. At the end, I started wondering why Freddy even had those powers over people's dreams to begin with. At first, I thought.. maybe he was rewarded with them because he got screwed in life.. But then, the writer threw that completely out the window when it came out that Freddy wasn't justified at all. He was a child rapist.

It could have made sense in some far fetched way if he wasn't.. like I could suspend my belief enough to believe some unknown entity gave him the power so he could enact vengeance. But seeing that that he wasn't innocent, none of it made sense. And it's not like he sold his soul or partook in some "evil" ritual to get that way either. He was just some random creep who got burned by the people in that town... and all of the sudden, he becomes this unstoppable force, with like.. 13 sequels to his name. Wtf is up that?

Well, I don't need logical consistency in horror. For me, horror is about aesthetics and atmosphere and fun over everything else. Horror is its own "bubble" as you said.

I also don't need factual accuracy if a movie is extremely cool in cinematography and soundtrack, like Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. So I tend to sacrifice fact and realism if I can get aesthetic rewards in return, so to speak.

However, if a show or movie is supposed to be 'realistic' but the characters do really unbelievable things, then I get annoyed. I'm not even explaining this well, but it's something that has happened to me repeatedly, the thought of "oh yeah right" and totally losing interest.