INFP vs. INFJ: A Functional Analysis

[Ghoulia Yelps]

Personally, I disagree with the concept of introverted and extroverted functions.
The reason being is that I commonly type on tests as both INFJ and ENFP.
For this theory to work, the function stack would be the same for both types, but in opposite orientation.
My dominant function is always N.
Where people split hairs about the difference between Ni and Ne, I just don't see the point.
Intuition has introverted components, which I perceive as spiritual and personal revelations and what's inside of me.
Ne is more to do with how I interact using my intuition, things like surreal jokes, art, music, however I express myself.
Both Ne and Ni co exist in me, because they are the same thing.

 

[DonTaushMe]

Oh no! I mistyped myself! Lol whoops...

 

[Ryanbutler]

Thanks for your distinctions. I find myself torn between Fe and Fi, because I often debate with people about group-level morality/behavior. I have my personal "ethic" about how others should or should not treat me. It seems I have taken a global value of "Treat others the way you want others to treat you" or "Treat others with kindness/nonjudgmentalism" and have used these global values to evaluate whether I or someone else has fulfilled this group-level value. I don't think I can violate group-level values, but I also have very subjective ideas of behavioral standards - what should or should not be allowed. I am uncomfortable, for example, violating the rights of others (as if these were group-level rights). I often get away from institutions when I feel that the institution's values have become unjust. Is this me imposing subjective values onto the "objective" institution? Or is it a sense of a larger, "more" global set of values that rules my judgment?

In my personal opinion your morality is very much Fe, as it is externally focused (on the environment). Both Fe and Fi, from my knowledge, can promote values and ideals to the same degree, only that Fe directly interacts with the world while Fi is irrelevant. (So you're probably an INFJ)

Fe is a man who can touch and see everything and talks to everyone himself, Fi is a blind man with a thing strapped to him that allows him to sense the situation around him and make up his own mind. When he does, Fi tells Ne (or your first extroverted function) about it and basically complains, but nobody hears it usually. That's why Fi dominants won't confront other people emotionally, and won't express emotion externally (like crying or seeking emotional support for instance - we do cry, but inside). But when the vibrations are loud enough and the Fi is stressed or disturbed enough, he can shout at the top of his lungs and scare everybody on the outside or at least unsettle them, because he's a crazy old blind guy who nobody can see.

That's Fi.

Anyway I think you are a Fe user because all your things you mentioned, - "I often get away from institutions when I feel that the institution's values have become unjust." relate to external things, ie. the values of society rather than your own values irrelevant to society. And also "I find myself torn between Fe and Fi, because I often debate with people about group-level morality/behavior. I have my personal "ethic" about how others should or should not treat me." As far as my own vales regarding people treating other people go, it's pretty much just "be nice, yo."

Also, a Fi user like an INFP would have a hard time or at least be uncomfortable debating moral issues that are important to them just as an INFJ would have a hard time divulging openly their Ni planning process. It's the same thing, really...

 

[knight in battle]

That's why Fi dominants won't confront other people emotionally, and won't express emotion externally (like crying or seeking emotional support for instance - we do cry, but inside).

I have seen Fi dominants cry inside.

 

[charlatan]

Personally, I disagree with the concept of introverted and extroverted functions.
The reason being is that I commonly type on tests as both INFJ and ENFP.
For this theory to work, the function stack would be the same for both types, but in opposite orientation.
My dominant function is always N.
Where people split hairs about the difference between Ni and Ne, I just don't see the point.

I think this is spot on. There IS a difference between introverted/extraverted intuition, but it doesn't always apply, and many times it is more important just to understand intuition by itself (same for other functions).

The point is that the modern typologies sort of turn the function-attitudes into something discretized: Ne, Si, Te, Fi, etc.
In reality, introversion and extraversion exist in a continuum -- you can be more of it or less of it, and relatively in-between on it (Jung thought so, and the modern psychometric research done into the Big 5 thinks so).

The idea that everyone should have a function-stack with the orders alternating is just overkill, and unrealistic. Jung only thought the superior personality is introverted and the inferior one extraverted, or vice versa.
If someone is ambiverted, then neither introversion nor extraversion represents the conscious personality.

So yeah, this idea that types exist in these sharply polarized terms like NeFiTeSi is just unrealistic.

In fact, going back to Jung, INFP would be closer overall to an irrational type than a rational type. The idea that INFPs are rational, and INFJs irrational really is one of the least supportable things. In fact, even among modern typologies, the main competitor to MBTI, called socionics, would say MBTI INFPs map closest to socionics IEI/INFps and that they are irrational types.
Not that socionics is right either -- it is very possible to be an INFJ and seek closure and certainty through one's intuitions. Jung was a little sloppy here, as on the one hand he said intuitions reveal possibilities, yet was also clear that a strong intuition can give one a sense of certainty. The latter would be what the more J types would strive for.

When Jung said introverted intuition and extraverted intuition look starkly different, he was emphasizing that someone who is very introverted, or very extraverted, with developed intuition, would deploy that intuition to perceive different things - vastly different things.

 

[charlatan]

To expand, the Myers-Briggs version of the functions is kind of twisted, due to straining and forcing the hypothesis that FJs have Fe, and FPs have Fi. In reality, there is no telling that someone with a strong J preference isn't equally structured, scrupulous, and exacting about their inner world. In the FFM, J items correlate with perfectionism, rationality, and many other such things, and that perfectionism does NOT just apply to the outer world.

I'd say many models are possible, but that's because people can be ambiverted. In a clear, strong introvert and clear, strong extravert, the functions that are developed will tend to be deployed in the extraverted or introverted attitude, depending on the dominant orientation, as Jung suggested.

Overall speaking, it is also not true that intuition in the extraverted attitude is necessarily more possibilities oriented than certainty oriented.