Can your MBTI change as you mature/grow older?
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ruji said:
I think it depends how we define "type" -- if we mean it's a certain interval of comfort on the various scales, then yes, people generally stay within that range-of-comfort. There's no reason the comfort zone should be a rigidly fixed point on a dimension rather than an interval -- an interval seems much, much more realistic and also reflects the fuzzy nature of measuring personality, not something we can claim to pinpoint to a dot on a scale.
Jung would say the type is nothing static/changes through life, and some prominent Jungians have even written of how extensively they changed type. And the modern Big 5 views of personality are obviously open to change, because they situate personality on continuous dimensions along which one can move, not discrete types, with types being if anything a shorthand/averaged account of someone's personality.
When someone reports a really volatile personality, though, it's true most likely there's something to suspect about how they're analyzing themselves. I definitely believe in the idea of an interval-of-comfort.
There are so many pressures on someone's personality that when we take the test at various, we can get different results because our mind or focus may be in a different place. The person I was when I first took the MBTI about 9 or 10 years ago, feels quite different from the person I am today, even if there are some consistencies. Back then I got INFP and INFJ
There are three types I connect with the most, and although I'm supposedly INFP, that's not what I get on recent tests. In person, I was typed INTP by an MBTI practitioner, and I am tempted to agree with that (although I don't fit the INTP prototype). INFP has always been the consensus here on the site. I express too much Fi it seems.
I can relate to this. I tested as an INFP from 21 to 25, but I don't know if it was a mistype or not. I used to be rather high-strung on the inside, which sometimes translated on the outside. I definitely didn't fit the stereotypical profile of an INFP, though. I wasn't too poetic or concerned about romantic ideals. I also don't connect to a lot of music by many INFP artists, but I also know that doesn't necessarily mean I'm non-INFP. I was more enamored by the idea of traveling around the world and experiencing frivolous pleasures. I would daydream and have fantasies about meeting a stranger or two in a different country, and then having adventures of a folly nature with him or them. My self-tested INFP friend who is probably a core 4w3 is very different. She seems in love with love. It's almost like she lives to experience it for feeling all the emotions that come with a relationship, but I can't really speak for her.
Recently, I have been only testing as INTP. My ENTJ 8w7 best friend feels like I am more likely an INTP than anything else, too. I'm not 100% confident about whether I'm an INTP, but I'm going with it for now. I am definitely atypical for the type, given my passion for metaphysics and frivolous habits. I don't struggle too much with connecting to others when I'm in the mood to open up, so I feel like I might be more sociable than the average INTP in that sense. Also, sometimes I feel like I have so much passion and electricity running through all over my mind and body, which makes me wonder if that is Fi, and not Ti, but who knows...
I used to be far more chameleonic than I am today. My chameleonism is very subtle nowadays and I often don't engage in it, now.
Neuroplasticity needs to be taken into account, since the mind is impressively malleable. MBTI theory lacks too many variables to be valued as an entirely sound concept. I like it for fun, but I don't put too much stock in it.
Oh I didn't think they were harsh. Fe sucks - we need to hear it. You're the best person to deliver the news
adding to an old discussion, but there are instances that are sort of viewed as a somewhat changing of type. These are strictly correlated to trauma though. I think for many in our younger years our type has not fully developed. In this sense we may identify deeply with a type only to grow up and find we are nothing of it.
i.e. from 14 to early adulthood I typed as ESFJ. I am definitely not an ESFJ at this point.
i.e. from 14 to early adulthood I typed as ESFJ. I am definitely not an ESFJ at this point.
The pre-frontal cortex doesn't fully develop until the age of 25 in most normative adults. That is to say, that whatever core personality you have is not likely going to change once you've reached that age, unless you suffer some catastrophic brain damage, significant hormonal changes (due to illness/accident), or severe traumas (which could force you to develop alters or even suppress aspects of personality as a defense mechanism).
I think there are characteristics that are likened to personality that are really just an adherence to values. People often confuse them. For example, one might have a natural inclination to be more outspoken in a critical way, but due to a particular value or virtue that they are working on, they might mask that inclination unless if in the midst of a visceral experience which makes them 'forget' those values and revert back to their natural mode of 'being'. That doesn't mean that their natural mode of 'being' isn't underlying and present at their core, but that their values are changing.
I don't think we can change our personality type, but I also don't think 'type' is a comprehensive or definitive labeling on any human that is satisfactory enough to say, "This is who I am". I'm not just an INFJ or a 9w8 sx. I'm a woman, a daughter, a sister, a dreamer, a thinker, a teacher, an innovator, a business owner, etc. We are multi-faceted, and I think this is why it is easy to 'mistype' or to think we're changing personalities, when we've really just preferred utilizing a particular function when necessary. We forget that everyone has the same functions of N, F, T, and S. The order of said functions, and the orientation of introversion or extroversion of each, aren't as integral as understanding how these functions manifest and why we develop a certain preference to them to better understand ourselves, our world, and others.
I think there are characteristics that are likened to personality that are really just an adherence to values. People often confuse them. For example, one might have a natural inclination to be more outspoken in a critical way, but due to a particular value or virtue that they are working on, they might mask that inclination unless if in the midst of a visceral experience which makes them 'forget' those values and revert back to their natural mode of 'being'. That doesn't mean that their natural mode of 'being' isn't underlying and present at their core, but that their values are changing.
I don't think we can change our personality type, but I also don't think 'type' is a comprehensive or definitive labeling on any human that is satisfactory enough to say, "This is who I am". I'm not just an INFJ or a 9w8 sx. I'm a woman, a daughter, a sister, a dreamer, a thinker, a teacher, an innovator, a business owner, etc. We are multi-faceted, and I think this is why it is easy to 'mistype' or to think we're changing personalities, when we've really just preferred utilizing a particular function when necessary. We forget that everyone has the same functions of N, F, T, and S. The order of said functions, and the orientation of introversion or extroversion of each, aren't as integral as understanding how these functions manifest and why we develop a certain preference to them to better understand ourselves, our world, and others.
