Adaptability

[Trifoilum]

Part 2 of 2. (This topic...has been made, although I would like to think I'm looking within a different spin. Nevertheless, feel free to lock this if it's too overlapping?)
What do you think about adaptability, as a personal trait?

Personally speaking, I consider both resilience and adaptability (or, as @Cedar put it, flexibility) as a trait overlapping/part of/connecting with mental toughness as a trait, but it's also a different entity on its own.

Do you believe you have this particular trait? How do you develop it-- or how does one develop it?
What is important to develop this particular trait?

And if talking about MBTI, do you think INFJs in particular (or maybe IFs) are having a disadvantage in learning to be adaptable / flexible?
Is this one trait of Se?

And do you have any solutions?

 

[Nixie]

I think of it in terms of rigidity rather than adaptability. Adaptability is influenced by rigidity, so rigidity is the trait that is more important to understand/know about yourself.

How rigid you are determines how willing you are to adapt/change. I think this what the P and J functions relate to (rigidity--internal)--I think the I and E function relate to openness (conformity--external) (if I were to give them one word definitions).

Whereas the N/S is how you observe/relate to the world and N/T is how you express yourself and they are relatively fixed--meaning that they are internally driven and more based on one's own personal way of understanding. I also think the J/P and I/E are more fluid in nature and more heavily influenced by upbringing and social interactions/experience.

I think that the impact Fi or Fe has on rigidity (thereby adapatabilty) is not so much whether one can/is willing to change as much as WHAT someone is willing to adapt.

 

[Gaze]

People often confuse flexibility (ability to make different choices or change directions with little personal difficulty) with adaptability (adjusting thinking or attitude to new, unfamiliar, or unusual situations) without considering the reasons why those actions are taken. Coming into a new culture requires adapting, but there are still some beliefs or values which some chose not to accept or compromise, and so someone may be inflexible when it comes to accepting those beliefs which conflict with their own. If a culture has a particular set of beliefs it feels should not be compromised, and someone refuses to accept those beliefs, that person would be described as rigid or inflexible. But this person may also decide or choose to follow the rules or expectations of that culture although they do not support or accept their beliefs. So, on the one hand, they are inflexible, but on the other hand, they adapt.

 

[ImpureHedonism]

So, on the one hand, they are inflexible, but on the other hand, they adapt.

Adaptation doesn't have to mean conformity. Even a person who rejects a culture's values must adapt to their condition as separate from the culture. Adaptability is really just a matter of how. Introverted judgers tend to adapt by altering their own ideas, while extroverted judgers tend to alter their environment.

 

[Tin Man]

All humans have an adaptable nature, some more than others of course. We can adapt to the most horrific circumstances, accept the reality of a situation that would have once seemed alien.

I'm not sure if MBTI has anything to do with adaptability, but I would think people with Se would be the quickest to acclimatize.

 

[Nixie]

All humans have an adaptable nature, some more than others of course. We can adapt to the most horrific circumstances, accept the reality of a situation that would have once seemed alien.

I'm not sure if MBTI has anything to do with adaptability, but I would think people with Se would be the quickest to acclimatize.

But it isn't just a physical thing--there are emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects to adaptation as well. Each type would be stronger or weaker in certain aspects.

 

[Trifoilum]

People often confuse flexibility (ability to make different choices or change directions with little personal difficulty) with adaptability (adjusting thinking or attitude to new, unfamiliar, or unusual situations) without considering the reasons why those actions are taken. Coming into a new culture requires adapting, but there are still some beliefs or values which some chose not to accept or compromise, and so someone may be inflexible when it comes to accepting those beliefs which conflict with their own. If a culture has a particular set of beliefs it feels should not be compromised, and someone refuses to accept those beliefs, that person would be described as rigid or inflexible. But this person may also decide or choose to follow the rules or expectations of that culture although they do not support or accept their beliefs. So, on the one hand, they are inflexible, but on the other hand, they adapt.

But it isn't just a physical thing--there are emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects to adaptation as well. Each type would be stronger or weaker in certain aspects.

Ah, nice points. I agreed.

First of all, @Stormy1 : true; its element was actually 'rigidity' -- whether emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, or physical. And entering that facets gives even more questions-- which aspect tend to be emphasized? Which tend to be ignored / developed?
And yes, in that case, the question is not so much CAN as much as it is WHAT. What about you yourself?
@ImpureHedonism : yep. I personally agreed; I see conformity as one possible effect of adapting-- but under certain circumstances.

However, in the case of the above, it is a complex case. One may choose to not directly follow, but also not directly oppose the new culture. But even that is adaptation-- the difference is how much.
@Jacobi : yeah, I'm just shooting that out.
We can, but some people have it harder than others. Some whine, some resist, some fight back-- for better or worse. Why is that?