Is it possible to confuse an intuitive with a sensor?

[Billy]

Depending on the sensor, I guess I look for specific traits.

I find Si users will be more traditional but will generally adhere to whatever information they were fed as children and growing up. They dont like to depart from that.

Se users... are usually not hard to pick up on, they have an unnatural ability with reflexes and their physical environment. They make the best athletes from what I have experienced.

So an Si person will usually spend a lot of time thinking oh how better shit used to be but not see the future the same way I do especially, where as an Se person is busy doing stuff or being active in some way. I know an ESTP and an ISFP one works in a machine shop and is an awesome athlete the other works as a wood worker carpenter (the best I know) who delves into the details and has a penchant for riding his dirtbike in the woods.

the Si's I know are an ISTJ and an ISFJ

they are all about tradition, the good ole days and making things like they used to be. They have a hard time of accepting alternate points of view that compete with that.

 

[VH]

Well the tests suck, so they are bound to get much more than N/S wrong.

But yes, it is very possible to get the N/S dichotomy wrong, in fact, it is probably the most common to have an error.

This is not a product of function combinations, but the fact that all people have conscious use over both a Sensing and Intuitive functions. Our environment is not always validating or nurturing of our natural function preferences, in fact it is often quite the opposite. Because of this, many intuitive downplay their intuitive functions, and over use their sensing functions, because they have been conditioned by the world because using their sensing functions gave them better results. This does not make them a sensor, and you can certainly tell that something is off, because they won't actually have high energy levels like a true sensor who uses their abilities as they are naturally supposed to be used. Over use of lower cognitive functions creates this stress lock, or chronic grip state as Naomi Quenk put it, and this is the cause of many a mistyping.

I think this is good advice, seeing as Thinking and Feeling tend to be more distinct than N and S.

However, ambiguity between the secondary and tertiary functions of any type can also lead to ambiguity. On this subject, keep in mind that four of the Intuitive types have N as secondary and S as tertiary functions. ENFJs, ENTJs, INTPs, and INFPs, all have an even greater connection with their S functions and often use them in a blend with their N functions. The people of these types that I know generally have much more ambiguity with respect to S and N than the others (INFJ, INTJ, ENTP, ENFP).

Lastly, INFJs (and from what I can tell INTJs) tend to really develop their Se around their mid to later 20s, seeming to suddenly come out of their shells and focus on the world around them. This could cause some confusion between S and N in these types as well as confusion between INFJ and ENFJ (possibly ESFJ), as they are also developing an extroverted function.

It's perfectly understandable for both of you to be in that spot if you're INFJs, ENFJs, or even ESFJ. Sorry this doesn't help solve the confusion, but hopefully it will help explain it, and from there you can draw your own conclusions.

Edit: Also, for the record, my Se is probably the biggest reason why I keep considering that I'm an ENFJ. I'm much more in tune with my surroundings and environment than the few INFJs and INTJs I know in real life. I'm often finding myself pointing things out to them that I spot or notice on a sensory level, because they're often much more lost in their heads than I am. Meanwhile, the ENFJ and ENTJ, and even ISTP, friends I have almost always notice these things at the exact same time I do. The tandem use of Ni and Se as secondary and tertiary functions seems to be a very potent mix for observational skills.

 

[klutzo]

I may be totally missing your point here, but I find differentiating between N and S to be easier than any of the other functions.

I simply watch to see if the person is able to pick up the constant lying and hidden agendas of the other people we are both interacting with. If they miss it = S.

I also agree there are far more S types than N types. I am constantly amazed by the obvious (to me) deceptions that good S people buy whole hog, and I get angry and want to protect them. I often have to fight myself internally to restrain myself from interfering in that which is not any of my business. One of the biggest shocks of my adult life was learning the hard way that many people want to be deceived.

I have far more trouble telling the T from the F, because accepted sex roles interfere in their true expression, at least in my age group.

klutzo

 

[88chaz88]

I may be totally missing your point here, but I find differentiating between N and S to be easier than any of the other functions.

I simply watch to see if the person is able to pick up the constant lying and hidden agendas of the other people we are both interacting with. If they miss it = S.

That's such a bullshit N reply.

If anything N's tend to make up hidden agendas in S's that simply aren't there. We say what we see, nothing more. Creating an agenda uses N rather than S. I've also never known S's to be bad at reading people, or at least not worse than anyone else.

This is in jest before you take it the wrong way. In fact if you did I guess you'd prove what I'm saying.

 

[sassafras]

That's such a bullshit N reply.

If anything N's tend to make up hidden agendas in S's that simply aren't there. We say what we see, nothing more. Creating an agenda uses N rather than S. I've also never known S's to be bad at reading people, or at least not worse than anyone else.

This is in jest before you take it the wrong way. In fact if you did I guess you'd prove what I'm saying.

I'm going to have to go with Chaz on this one. S-types can be rather perceptive too; it's not as simple of a divide as taking things at face value vs. seeing the deeper meaning of things. I'm sure there are dense enough people who are S types that see things this way, but I'm pretty certain that most people are capable of seeing things from either perspective. It's telling which one they have a preference for that's the issue.

 

[klutzo]

I promise not to take it the wrong way, whatever that means. Maybe I just know a lot of dense, gullible people. In fact, I know I do, since I have to deal with my husband's family. (That would be funny, if it weren't so tragic).

Maybe I should be differentiating more between N function and my psi abilities. So, your point is well taken.

But, I don't think I am seeing things that are not there.... I have had it with B.S. at this stage of my life and I no longer care if people like me or not. So, I now confront people who lie, and they are astonished and sometimes afraid of me, because I am right about their lies and what they were really thinking, which I pull from their minds and repeat to them, word for word. I have had people literally run away from me, after blurting out "how did you do that?"

I always thought of this ability as being an N function, but obviously it is not related to that. I am over-ruled. So be it. I don't claim to be an expert at this typing stuff, and most of you seem to know a lot more about it than I do.

klutzo

 

[Billy]

Its true and I know N types who lay around all day and meditate and smoke weed and talk about energy and never do anything in life... they dont seem to always be the msot attuned to reality which is where reading people tends to come in handy.

 

[deadred]

Don't you have to sense something before you can be intuitive about it? Maybe this can happen silmutaneously. It would seem to me that the more integrated your personality, the more balance you would have in any of these functions. Wouldn't the goal then be to try to figure out how to use all of your functions equally well so that your perspective could be both broad and deep? We all parallel process to one degree or another...

 

[magister343]

I was suspected my dad would come up ISTJ, but instead he tested as an INTJ with strong N and only a slight preference for thinking.


I could have sworn that this one girl I knew 5 years ago was an extremely strong N, but from a facebook app I can see she came up as an ISFJ. She is not as strongly S as she is I and F (she is the only person I've seen on MyType with stronger introversion than me, and her F is almost the same), but it is not like she's borderline.

(Actually, this is the 5 year anniversary of the last day I saw her in person. We met at a summer program between our junior and senior years, and quickly became rather close. She was the closest I've ever ad to a real girlfriend, and I'm pretty sure that the attraction between us was both strong and mutual, but I was nowhere near over my first unrequited love at the time and not really ready to move on. I took too long to contact her, and she has never responded to my messages, althouh she did accept my facebook friend request a year ago. I can see from that that it was only a couple days before I sent her the first email that she met the guy she ended up marrying. Her persona on facebook is not much like I remember her in person, perhaps because being a mother to her one and a half year old son is such a part of her identity now. Could the practical concern of early motherhood force more Si development? )

 

[athenian200]

It's possible, but it doesn't seem likely if you know the person well. If you're just judging the person superficially, it could happen easily.

I really think that T/F are LESS distinct than N/S. After all, I can get along better with NTs than with SFs.

Here's the main difference I would note. Intuitive types are more curious about abstractions and abstract concepts, and tend to look for patterns. Their speech tends to be more generalized, and often talks about ideas rather than anything tangible.

Sensors tend to focus in on details, and are more comfortable when they can draw an analogy between something concrete, and something abstract. They tend to compare things to their personal experience rather than just looking for patterns. Their speech tends to be more direct, detailed, literal, and unambiguous. It usually ties an idea down to a specific tangible point, if it's discussed.

It's a very different way of looking at the world... how you judge the world is messier and less obvious, at least for people who aren't dominant Ti, Fi, Fe, or Te.

 

[slant]

Anything is possible, my dear child.