Thanks for all the feedback, everyone.
These are the "Sociability Temperament" grouping (one of the forgotten "other combinations" of type letters). These are also the letters that develop first before a definite dominant function is chosen, according to PersonalityPage.
Haven't seen much analysis done of them, though.
So this sounds like it makes sense, though I have to think about IP's wanting to minimize the impact of self on the environment. Since this group encompasses three of the "Behind the Scenes" types, it would seem to match them not wanting to stir the pot too much, though I think that they would like to see the conclusions of their introverted judgment recognized by others.
Sociability temperament, huh? I haven't come across that - I'll have to look into it. I was actually thinking about how these groupings might be described, and came up with something like 'energy/lifestyle' groupings, which sounds similar.
Its not that we dont interfere, we just figure out how to do it smoothly with the least amount of interuptions. We get under it all to make our changes.
I see - that makes sense. It's not that IPs don't want to change their environment at all; they just seek to do so in the least intrusive way. That would be the more detailed qualification of their description, then. Thanks!
I'm not sure...EPs seem to like having an impact on the environment, too, sometimes much more than me (esp. the Se dominant EPs).
Quite true. Although, I'm wondering - do EPs make an impact because that's their primary intention, or to they make an impact as a side effect of their enthusiastically seeking to be impacted? Is making an impact the
way they get impacted?
I'm imagining and EP and an EJ who each start, say, an argument intentionally. With EJs, it seems to me that their goal is frequently to implement change in the external world in some way - they might have started the argument hoping to change people's minds, hoping they'll come around to a certain point of view. The EP might have started the argument instead because they wanted to see what would happen when certain people got angry, or because they felt like participating in a good debate.
All of that's just speculative, though. I'd be interested to hear from some EPs on this.
I think you are essentially correct because extraversion is inherently optimistic, while introversion is inherently pessimistic. Extraversion actively seeks positive experiences, while introversion actively avoids negative experiences. Then the P/J aspect describes how a person interacts with their environment. So an EJ expects they will be able to make positive things happen, while an EP searches out positive things to happen to them. An IJ expects that they can prevent negative things from happening, while an IP identifies negative things and avoids them.
Very interesting - I was wondering, after I made the qualifications to the first formulations, if perhaps there was a better way to phrase them to the effect of something like seeking to maximise positive/minimise negative impacts of the environment/self on the self/environment.
I like your formulation - tying it in with optimism and pessimism works well. As an IJ, I would avoid an ambiguous impact that might have proven positive so as to eliminate the risk of a negative impact - and even though I don't really think of myself as a pessimist, that
is a pessimistic attitude to take.
Hmmm that's a really Ni way of looking at it. I like it.
I still say EP/IP/EJ/IJ are by far the most reasonable "temperaments."
You can rephrase this according to functional attitudes...so Je maximizes impact of self on environment, and so on for Ji, Pe, and Pi. (Remember IPs = Ji dom and IJs = Pi dom.)
Ji minimises the impact of self on the environment, Pi minimises the impact of the environment on the self, and Pe maximises the impact of environment on self.
That makes a
lot of sense. Because Pe
is the reception of information from outside, Ji processes and draw conclusions internally, Je concludes and acts accordingly, and Pi obtains information from an internal source.
I also like the EP/IP/EJ/IJ temperaments - I've used them for a long time in typing people. This time, I tried to find a common thread that could be used to understand the set as a whole.
Sounds accurate to me. That would explain my pessimism a bit, too, Liquid Laser. I think I understand what you mean by minimizing the impact of the environment....as in, I plan things in such a manner that I don't have much "exposure" in the "extroverted world" that we live in.
Like Chosen One said, I don't require a lot of impact, or stimulation, from the environment, so therefore I avoid "extroverted stimulation" when I can. Not to say that I don't need stimulation in that form, but I get plenty of it just doing things I have to do, like work and college. I don't need more than that.
Interesting stuff. I've grown to prefer this type of grouping as opposed to Keirsey's.
Yes, it's similar for me. I think IJs can feel a bit overwhelmed by the external world at times - perhaps because they are compelled to try to monitor everything so as to minimise what they perceive as risks. Minimising contact is a way of ensuring that the input you have to deal with is manageable.