[INFJ] Am I an INFJ or Have I Mistyped Myself?

[Lord Xephere]

I've been obsessed over the MBTI for a few years now and after learning about the cognitive functions, I have a much better understanding of them than I did when I first started. Over the years I've mistyped as INTP, INTJ, and INFP. I decided to type myself as INFJ for the time being because I can relate to Fe. I also thought I was an intuitive because I've always spent most of my time in my head daydreaming. However, after trying to observe my behavior in everyday situations, I have no idea what cognitive functions I'm using. It seems like I'm using all of them but extremely poorly.

Sometimes I have serious doubts about being INFJ when I think about how I've acted and things I've said throughout my life. For example, when I was very little, I was very observant of the world and would absorb facts about things I was interested in like radio stations, (I knew pretty much all of them). I remember being told by my parents that I was very good at anything involving memory and how I would see something I liked on television and act it out again, perfectly recreating it. I don't see much of this in myself now, but that makes me wonder if I'm really an Si user instead of Ni. However, at the same time, throughout my childhood I was very creative and imaginative, and was very big on playing make believe. I wrote articles, made up stories, and went on adventures with my brother and my stuffed animals (before he was born). Is this Ni or Ne? I also remember watching old home videos of myself and I use to do and say very random abstract things that made no sense, (is this dom-Ni in childhood). But then again my parents always tell me to this day, how I'm good at remembering names, dates, and past experiences. I have done this accurately a few times, but not very often. Again, I wonder if this is Si.

I also noticed that I get hunches about things that always end up being right, but I almost always second guess them at first. However, I'm wondering if this is because of my low self confidence and fear of making mistakes that is leading me to not trust myself. I think that when I was a kid, I probably went with these, because I was more free and uninhibited.

I also think of myself as being very immature and I have the feeling that I come off as dimwitted, and simple minded to people. I feel as though I've gotten the reputation of saying and doing stupid things. For example, recently I had a discussion about whether or not there is such thing as love at first sight. I know that real romantic love is a very poetic, deep and intense caring for another person where you want to be together forever and you care about them to the point that you would die for them. I said that I did believe in love at first sight and it isn't just physical attraction, but when you have a conversation with that person and you feel that you resonate with them and you know that they are right for you. The other person disagreed and told me that this would just be a simple friendship, which of course not love. I don't know why I thought this, especially being as old as I am, but it made me wonder if I'm truly an INFJ. If I were, I would have never have even thought this. Everything is deep for INFJs and I felt that this reminded me of how superficial I am in comparison.

There have been many times also where my parents have had to get after me to do things that I should have been self motivated to do like homework, driving and applying to college. At 26 years old this still continues to this day. I'm severely struggling with my self confidence, so as a result I only expect to screw things up for myself. As a result I have a horrible anxiety about going out into the world on my own, so now I still live with my mother, and I don't even have a drivers license. I am currently in college full time, but I'm extremely nervous when it comes to getting a job. I've done freelance writing gigs but they don't really pay much, but I fear working for someone else because I severely lack practical common sense and I know I would be fired in an instant because of some idiotic mistake that I made. For this reason I've put this off, and have been sort of living off of my student loans and grants. Again, I feel that if I were actually an INFJ, I would have just said, screw it, I need to get off my ass and support my family and I would have just gone out and done it. I seem to be interested more in avoiding things that make me feel insecure and incompetent and that's gotten me in even more trouble than anything else, but I don't know how to stop this behavior.

Am I really an INFJ or have I managed to mistype myself? To be honest, my self esteem issues don't help me much with finding my type. It's made me look at myself as inferior in relation to everyone else, so I'm constantly trying to imagine myself as a different person and the MBTI has just given me another opportunity to do that. When I read the stereotypical descriptions of INFJs, I think to myself "I wish I were like that, it sounds so cool". But instead I just see myself as too passive, shallow, simple, and wishy-washy. For this reason, I feel that people see me as worthless and insignificant. If I knew for sure that I was INFJ, I would feel my existence would be a bit more meaningful, knowing that I have the potential to be so much more. It's almost like it would strangely give me a major boost to my self-confidence.

Sorry about my long rambling, but I would really appreciate some help with this issue. Thanks!

 

[charlatan]

There is no 100% validity to any of the many competing models out there, so the idea that Si is INFJs last function is heavily speculative. In socionics, for example, the NiFe type's order goes NiFeSiTe. In myers, INFJ was NiFeTeSe. In Jung's original idea, it was more like NiFiTeSe, or NiFiTiSe (or, he also allowed for the Myers possibility, but in his version, if that were the order, Fe would be more unconscious than conscious -- whereas Myers thought you have two developed functions in opposite attitudes -- a totally speculative hypothesis BTW).

So I'd really suggest that if you want a raw sense of what your strength of functions are, let them fall in any order, or better yet don't put them in order and just observe yourself in various states of consciousness. I think the models are getting at certain important core patterns, rather than an exhaustive depiction of every last aspect of your states of consciousness. For instance, some states of consciousness are very relevant to your core philosophical worldview. Others are more quirks of yours that are nonetheless significant. Still others may be more related to how you manage aspects of your life not very related to your core informational needs. Putting these in the same model is really an apples/oranges thing.

If accuracy and coverage is your aim, please look up the Singer and Loomis inventory and the surrounding research -- that should convince you serious Jungian analysts have tested out whether people's function orders turn up in any purported order, and that there's very low to no support for this being consistently the case.

If you'd like to apply the models you need to figure out what they're saying - what core patterns they're describing. They are NOT describing the totality of your every aspect of consciousness. If you think you have good Si you might very well. But your best fit type might be INFJ or NiFe or etc.

Another great inventory for sheer exhaustive coverage is the Big 5's NEO-PI-R. The advantage of this sort of inventory is it reports back lots of things about you. The disadvantage is it's more or less spitting back what you put in, rather than modeling something truly strange. To get much insight out of it you need to read various academic journals about statistical correlations between the various dimensions and subdimensions and various other psychological aspects.

 

[VH]

You're an INFJ.

But, because you're an INFJ, I'm sure you want me to explain why.

Over the years I've mistyped as INTP, INTJ, and INFP.

You are male. You're going to self identify with questions that litmus T more than F, at times, even if you're an F. This is because for INFJs, F and T are pretty much equal. However, your N is stronger than your T and F, as witnessed by your graph here. N is actually a P function, so it's not uncommon for INFJs to mistype as P.

I've always spent most of my time in my head daydreaming.

This is classic Ni. Ne spends most of its time engaging and expressing possibilities.

Sometimes I have serious doubts about being INFJ when I think about how I've acted and things I've said throughout my life.

This is classic Ni + Ti. Ni sees the pattern. Ti needs it to be precise and fit a definition. The pattern doesn't perfectly fit the definition. Ni and Ti go around and around trying to resolve. Normally, Fe can break the tie, but Fe only operates externally. It feels how external things should be, and how external things should be applied to the self. Fe can't break the tie when it's trying to resolve the self.

This is why INFJs can read other people reflexively, but tend to have a lot of difficulty reading themselves.

If you were an INFP, you'd start at knowing exactly who you are, and then work toward finding the description that was closest.
If you were an INTJ, determining your type would be as simple as putting information into the test and getting a result. The description would neither define you nor change you.
If you were an INTP, you wouldn't be questioning how this worked. You'd already know, and the debate would be over whether or not you agreed with how it should work, not who you are.

throughout my childhood I was very creative and imaginative, and was very big on playing make believe. I wrote articles, made up stories, and went on adventures with my brother and my stuffed animals (before he was born). Is this Ni or Ne?

This is Enneagram 4 and 9, probably 7.

I also noticed that I get hunches about things that always end up being right, but I almost always second guess them at first.

Again Ni and Ti fighting.

To be honest, my self esteem issues don't help me much with finding my type.

This, and all of the other comments like it, are the realm of Enneagram, not MBTI or cognitive functions. You have a lot of 4 and 9 going on in there.

Sorry about my long rambling, but I would really appreciate some help with this issue. Thanks!

The classic Ni + Ti wall of text proves yet again that you're an INFJ.

 

[illogical]

i read the whole content of this thread. For myself i doubted wether i was infj or something else. been trying my whole life to adapt and be a different person from who i really am, just to get accepted by classmates. I would often sit in my own little bubble not really engaging in conversations with others. Didnt really have many friends, and those i had turned thier back against me cause i was thinking and acting different. I have always beem very supportive towards others and willingly giving advice out trying to help whereever i could. Yet i would feel very much alone in the big world, and cry myself to sleep. I never went to normal school, cause i would feel like shutting down if sitting with a normal class. So i went to special school from the age of 8 year old.
I am left handed and would get so fustrated cause i couldnt write like my classmates who were right handed. That was only until i got in special class and had a teacher who were left handed who tought me how to hold a pencil right.

Still to this day i find it hard understanding why i was put on this planet. I dont interact in social activities, when i venture outside i often go for long walks in the nature thinking of life, and finding solutions of unanswered questions in my mind.
But since i discovered this forum i dont feel that much alone anymore. it almost makes me feel like normal, and accepted because in here there are INFJs with similar struggles and state of mind.

 

[MegaPixelMusic]

I relate to what you say Lord Xephere. I have no real mbti type input to add but I sort of deduced that I am INFJ because I am introverted and primarily intuitive... This I know for sure. It just fits best, I am not thinking or judging... I am just intuitive and introverted... That is me. And then I relate to the ti and fe axis of being... This is more me than te and fi... So from that I think I'm infj.

Also reading the peeps here I relate to them more than the intps, infps or intjs I've read. The sort of well meaning detached philosopher vibe I get here works for me. INFJs always seem to be with working with their frameworks and how stuff works but in a humanistic way... Just seems to fit.