How much do you identify with your type?

[TinyBubbles]

By that I mean, how much do you see your MBTI type as a true reflection of you?

Do you see it as integral to your personality, or just one of a million things that define you? How important is your type on the hierarchy of "things that define you"? Would it matter greatly if it turned out you weren't the type you believed you were? How would that change your perception of yourself?

 

[Gaze]

How important is your type on the hierarchy of "things that define you"?
- I think it is somewhat important because it offers something a little more organized or structured which I can use to understand myself better, allowing me to know how i function and can function more efficiently as an individual.

Would it matter greatly if it turned out you weren't the type you believed you were?
- No. I don't think I would mind at all. I think we don't always know or understand ourselves completely, and to argue that I KNOW for certain who I am, for me, would be ridiculous. Identity changes/evolves. And to use a label to define the complexity of the human "being" is a tricky endeavor. tbh, i see myself, as many people here do i think, as a mix of different types. We demonstrate different types in different situations so any inherent preference for one particular type may be lost in the many roles we play everyday.

How would that change your perception of yourself?
- I think it may reaffirm what i've always believed that we are not always one thing or another. We are more than the complex manipulation of 16 letters.

 

[Flavus Aquila]

Mbti is just a convenient, useful classification system which helps me organise and understand a complex personal dynamic.

I don't see how a classification system can be integral to a personality - unless it was one's life's work developing a system - but even then.

 

[rawr]

Mbti is just a convenient, useful classification system which helps me organise and understand a complex personal dynamic.

I don't see how a classification system can be integral to a personality - unless it was one's life's work developing a system - but even then.

^^this

 

[acd]

Not very important at all, really.. Especially since I know 5 infps in my personal life and we are all very very very I can't stress this enough--very different personalitywise.

 

[Puck]

How much do you identify with your type? I do identify myself as INFJ, although with a knowing smirk to one side of my mouth, with full awareness that it's not the only possible type for me, although it feels like the right fit, from my own perspective and understanding. Also, it's entirely someone else's classification system, and there was a time before there was such a thing as an INFJ, so whatever people like me were called back then, or whatever we're called in other current systems of classification, I'm that too. It's just that MBTI is the one that appeals to me, and the one I use as a guide. Is google or yahoo search engine better? I personally use google, and have no interest in using yahoo, but it doesn't mean yahoo or other search engines are invalid or useless. Same with personality typing. I use MBTI. I dont use the advanced features, either. Just the plain and simple stuff, and it works fine for me, but that also figures into how much I identify with my type. I'm well aware of my own ignorance of the more advanced elements of MBTI.

By that I mean, how much do you see your MBTI type as a true reflection of you?

I see it as a key to understanding, rather than just a piece of the puzzle. It is a whole mirror, rather than a fragment of one, but as with any mirror, there is of course some distortion.

Do you see it as integral to your personality, or just one of a million things that define you?

A million things? God, that would be a headache. I'd say it's fairly integral, as it's what I've chosen as a focal point for self-defintion. It helps to focus on one thing, at least for me. I'd be lost without some kind of North star to mark my way.

How important is your type on the hierarchy of "things that define you"?

I'm making this up on the fly, but it's probably something like this, from most important to least important: Inner world of thoughts/feelings, Books I have read, Personality, People in my life, Music, Life experience, My external environment(place), Current affairs (news, politics). Not a complete picture, but you get the idea.

Would it matter greatly if it turned out you weren't the type you believed you were?

No. I like to be wrong from time to time, especially when it's on my own terms, when there's the best chance of me learning and growing from the experience.

How would that change your perception of yourself?

I'd still be me, but clearly my perception of self would have shifted, to see myself in a different light. Changes in perception are always positive, because I never lose anything. My vision doesn't diminish - I don't suddenly stop seeing in colour - I just see a bigger picture, a larger spectrum of colours. So if suddenly I saw myself as something else, I would have grown in understanding, and would not feel bad about that.

 

[Wyst]

Hmm. Yeah, I'd say I'm definitely an INFJ and can certainly relate to many of the common things other INFJs experience.

However, my MBTI is merely a template to me. To put this an an RPG analogy (as any good INFJ would), the INFJ template is like an RPG character's level 1. Capable of much growth and development and full of things that need to be enchance (perhaps potential weaknesses even).

Are you happy with Level 1? I'm not.
I demand more from myself than what my MBTI gives me.

 

[Quinlan]

I think it's a rough indicator of how I generally approach/think about the world.

 

[Feelings]

Pretty sure I'm INTJ. My intense emotionality, particularly an incredibly high Fi (but low Fe, as is typical of our type) makes me different than most INTJs. Also, I'm the aggressive variety of INTJ. So I share some similarities with both ENTJs and INFJs. Maybe I'm iNtJ? LOL. Doesn't seem fitting though. Suppose I'm just a rare breed of INTJ.

 

[Norton]

From what I've read about INTP's, I'm classic. Some INTP's whose posts I've read on various forums (not the few INTP's here) seem different from me. Maybe it's a maturity or generational thing. INTPc in particular seems to have many immature and/or obnoxious, misanthropic people. INTP forum seems closer to my idea of what INTP's are really like. I've been an INTP for many years but didn't know I was one until only several years ago. It was an epiphany, but it made sense.

 

[IndigoSensor]

Many people here label me as a poster-boy of sorts for an INFJ. I do agree that I fit the type well. However, I tend to have some marked differences from most INFJ's out there, and this largely has to do with my odd cognitive function set. This has made me question my type on several occasions, as I often wonder if I am an ISFJ or INTJ. In the end, something or someone makes me come back to INFJ, so I identify with it well.

 

[randomsomeone]

I kinda got the whole thing backwards and lived most of my life not knowing about MBTI types at all. I developed along the path that seemed right, the most true, the most human for me. So, once I found out about MBTI, it was more of a ratification of all my inner processes. Now, I took that in a unique direction...others might express it differently...but the basic modalities are all there. At the moment I am learning more about the whole thing as one facet of how I work, but there is much, much more that makes me who I am. I still prefer to set the whole matter aside now and then...it might be like learning all about hammers as opposed to building a house with one. Each has it's proper time and place, but I prefer the latter long-term.

 

[Riven]

Like others I use my type as a way to help me understand my thoughts and behaviors; in the end it really does just end up being one of many ways that I define myself. I don't have much of an attachment to my type because it bounces inbetween INFJ and INFP depending on what situation I'm in as well as my mood.

 

[bamf]

I think it is a very rough indication of who I am, but it wouldn't bother me at all if someday I found out that I was something completely different. I don't fit a lot of the "descriptions" of INFJ, my I and E score are always very close as are my P and J scores. I know for certain that I'm N and F, but that could all change and I wouldn't really bat an eye at it.

I'm comfortable with who I am, whether or not "me" lines up with 4 letters.

 

[Simpleman]

I totally identify with My Type!
I had a 30 year addiction to Lorazepam (Ativan) because I did not understand that I was an INFJ.
When I was 16, I did not understand why I had all this anxiety over being gay, from a divorced family etc...
I am on the other side of this addiction now. Understanding that I was INFJ was key in helping me understand where this anxiety came from. Also it helped me in finding out why I had this addiction.
People around me when I was young, were mostly ISFJs, who did not understand me.
They wanted to change me, make me extroverted.
I met a counsellor, who understood and taught about Personality types, she first tested me, before I started getting off these pills, I tested as an ISFJ bordering on INFP, at this time I did not understand the different personalities.

After many years of anxiety, this drug use, seeing many other counsellors, physiatrists, physiologists, etc

 

[slant]

-381.38% x -infinity %

 

[rawr]

hey everybody, look at the INFJ posterboy, I.S. *takes photo for a poster *

 

[arbygil]

How much do you identify with your type?
By that I mean, how much do you see your MBTI type as a true reflection of you?


It's parts of me, but I don't believe that any of us are 100% our type. We can't be; not one of us will line up completely with it because we're all individuals and not clones or robots. Those who feel that they are 100% their type are probably forcing themselves into the MBTI box rather than exploring all of who they are.

Do you see it as integral to your personality, or just one of a million things that define you?


I was me before the MBTI, and I'll continue to be me with or without it. I like that there's something that let me know I wasn't completely crazy at times, and I liked having a system that helped map out much of my strengths and weaknesses, but I don't gauge my life by looking at the magical MBTI crystal ball and using it to guide my decisions. Sometimes I won't act like my type at all, and that's ok too. It doesn't make me any less me.

How important is your type on the hierarchy of "things that define you"?

Not very. See above.

Would it matter greatly if it turned out you weren't the type you believed you were?

Nope. I actually did all that soul-searching. INFJ wasn't my first choice, actually. I took an MBTI "official" test ages ago and ended up an INTJ, but as I investigated INTJ more in depth it didn't quite feel right. I tried it on for size and I matched with some of it, but then I dated one...and knew I wasn't an INTJ. Then I experimented with ISFJ for a bit, which seemed close as well...but I realized I wasn't after a few really, really bad job situations showed me that I was not detail oriented enough (and I was too long-term thinking and too slow) to keep the jobs I had.

Then my life kind of imploded for a few years and I went on the hunt (again) to find out who I was so I could make changes. I tried Ansir which worked for a while, but I was still unsure of different aspects. So I tried Enneagram. On one of those websites, I met another person who was a well-rounded, beautiful INFP and we shared similar interests, so I thought maybe I was an INFP. But she was the first to suggest that maybe I was an INFJ, and to explore the possibility. So I found another website that talked about INFJs, and joined a Yahoo INFJ webgroup, but something about it really irritated me (the group was a total drama fest and kept flooding my mailbox with tripe), so I left it.

But by process of elimination I slowly came back to INFJ. My decision wasn't arbitrary, and it was more of a decade long search for self. But I finally got to the point where I had to say, "yes. I'm an INFJ and I don't need to search anymore." Once I got to that point everything else sort of came together, and I didn't need to look at another type.

In truth I'm probably closest to an INFJ/TJ hybrid, but that slight "F" makes far more sense than the slight "T".

How would that change your perception of yourself?

Already did it. I think the exploration helped me find myself, and be comfortable with myself as is.

 

[futuresound7]

How important is your type on the hierarchy of "things that define you"?

MBTI type is not our personality, it's the way our brains work. It's true that people
with the same personality type remind each other because their mind processes
information similarly and people within the same type have similar mannerisms
and ways to react on issues. We filter everything through that inborn system and
for INFJ's that is Ni Fe Ti and Se. Everyone have their personality type already
when they come into the world. We start to build up our unique personality upon it.

But our MBTI type is not thing that define us, it's the way we define things.
Our personality consists of many things that we absorb during our lifetime, the values
of our parents, our background, friends and soulmates we have or had, our
surroundings and every experience we've had fine tunes our personality to be something
that no one else has.

There exist almost 7 billion different personalities and it's pretty mind blowing
that MBTI divides them into 16 groups. They are not similar humanbeings they
are humanbeings that filter information through similar system.

Would it matter greatly if it turned out you weren't the type you believed you were?

I don't think it would matter greatly. My way of seeing myself would change
littlebit but it would not change me in any way. If I was some other type it would
be an ENFJ but I'm pretty certain I'm an INFJ : )

How would that change your perception of yourself?

I've gone through periods when I thought I was an ENFJ. I began to observe
how my ENFJ friends use their Fe, Ni, Se and Ti and contrasted it on how I behave.
Function behaves slightly differently in each position. Secondary Fe has littlebit
different qualities than Dominant Fe, and same goes for tertiary and inferior.
Each position have distinctly different roles. And the fact that I enjoy and appreciate
my alonetime so much tells it's own story about my introvertedness.

 

[VH]

By that I mean, how much do you see your MBTI type as a true reflection of you?

Type is only ever the core of someone's thought process, but in that regard, it is mostly, but not perfectly accurate because everyone is an exception to the rule.

Do you see it as integral to your personality, or just one of a million things that define you?

I see it as one of the things that define the most basic part of me, my initial thought processes - but not my thoughts, and certainly not the more advanced parts of my personality.

How important is your type on the hierarchy of "things that define you"?

Type is an inherently basic thing that draws everyone together in commonality through cognitive functions, so I'd have to say that of all the things that define people, type is the most important to me. But, I still look at everyone as individuals.

Would it matter greatly if it turned out you weren't the type you believed you were?

Not at all. I'm constantly second guessing my type. I'd rather have the most accurate type for my personality, regardless of what it is.

How would that change your perception of yourself?

It would probably change my perspective on how I order my thought processes, but it would also change the way I associate my own thought processes with those of other people. For example, if it turned out that I was an INFP, then I'd probably orient my self perception by watching and analyzing INFPs to gain a better grasp of my own processes and how they appear to others.