The changing of MBTI types over a lifespan

[Saru Inc]

Do you believe MBTI types can change? Can someone be born as an INTP but when they grow up be an ESTP? (Provided it isn't just a mistyping to begin with.)


- My ENFP sister says we're born a type, and remain that type our entire lives.


- My ENTP mom says we can naturally change, but it's hard to tell whats MBTI changing, and what is simply humanity maturing.

- Your thoughts?

 

[88chaz88]

Yes, I think so.

 

[poshlost]

I think we're born with very strong characteristics that we maintain throughout our lives and other characteristcs that we gain or lose depending on circumstances and experience.
For example I'm pretty sure I was born NP but I've had prolonged INTP periods and prolonged INFP periods, and the occasional ENTP periods.

 

[Gaze]

I think we're born with very strong characteristics that we maintain throughout our lives and other characteristcs that we gain or lose depending on circumstances and experience.
For example I'm pretty sure I was born NP but I've had prolonged INTP periods and prolonged INFP periods, and the occasional ENTP periods.

+1

I think many don't agree that we can change types but life experience proves otherwise. We may still maintain elements of our type but we can evolve by developing less dominant functions. Someone who is introverted may later become more extroverted and feel fairly comfortable. While others will maintain the same traits they do tomorrow as they did in the past or today.

 

[Peppermint]

Depends who you ask...

Lenore Thomson asserts it's more-or less a product of the environment that isn't physiologically rooted or innate.

"I think I'd like to start with what a psychological type isn't. I want to be up front about how I understand type theory, because otherwise what I say about it won't make much sense.

I don't believe that type refers to a person's innate personality characteristics. It isn't the causal source of a person's needs or the behaviors designed to meet them.

Rather, type is the outcome of habituated choices -- our accustomed orientation to incoming information. Of course, some of our choices are going to favor our temperament, in so far as temperament means our basic chemistry, but knowing our type won't tell us what job we're best suited to do or what kind of marriage partner we ought to seek. Type tells us how we generally adapt, particularly when a situation is unfamiliar. It tells us what we're most likely to recognize as important about a situation, what that means to us, and what strategies we use to manage it.

The universe, after all, is a blooming, buzzing, ever-changing field of information. We can't take in everything that exists. Every situation requires that we make choices. If we recognize something as important, we're setting aside other things as less important, or screening them out altogether. This isn't a sign of dysfunction. It's the way we're made. The very purpose of having a nervous system is to narrow our receptive capacity to data that ensures our comfort and survival.

From time immemorial, various temperament theories have attempted to classify human personality in these terms, assuming that people have different kinds of nervous systems, which give rise to different kinds of emotional dispositions. For example, some people enjoy risk, others seek harmony; some people want responsibility, others enjoy change. The validity of these classification systems, however, is undermined by the corollary assumption that people's behaviors issue directly from their affective needs, reflecting the natural way such needs can be met.

C. G. Jung, the analyst who came up with the theory of psychological types, objected to this assumption. He was loathe to credit people's choices entirely to affective disposition, as though people could be pegged by a label, and consciousness were an expedient illusion. He pointed out, in fact, that when our behaviors do issue from immediate needs outside our conscious control, we don't identify these actions with preference or authenticity. Rather, we feel precisely as though we're out of control. Therefore, Jung focused on the part of the psyche that is making this judgment -- the "I" that results from making free-will decisions, the choices that make us feel like "ourselves."

This is what I mean by type reflecting an accustomed adaptive orientation, even when it's not entirely compatible with a self-image or a genuine issue of temperament. To ascribe this to type falsification implies that one has an innately determined type, but I believe that type results at odds with habituated strategies can give one a very good idea of what a person is doing, right now, to adapt to a particular environment. That kind of adaptation isn't necessarily false; it may reflect choices made for the sake of an authentic ideal or principle, whose price has become too high.

As far as I'm concerned, the only aspect of type likely to reflect a person's innate disposition is what Jung referred to as the attitudes, Extraversion and Introversion. Our dominant standpoint will always reflect the attitude that comes naturally to us. However, Jung contended that the vast majority of people have only a slight preference for either, and, for these types, cultural influence plays a greater role.

I also believe that we're likely to innately prefer a left- or right-brain approach to information, which implicates the J and P attitudes in the MBTI system. [1] [2] "
​

The proponent of the above mentioned type falsification Katherine Benzinger proposes that type is an innate energy efficient preference which correlates with which parts of the brain we prefer to use(because they are the most energy efficient for a given individual).

Personally, I agree with both views. I think type is innate, but also subject to environment and development. This development however follows a pattern that isn't entirely subject to the whims of the environment, as I explained

in the following post

INTP - or any other type, is not a personality.

The 16 personality types are a MBTI idea, you can just disregard that.

The four letter codes, are in this instance borrowed just as a system of nomenclature for certain arrangements of cognitive functions.

Type, in this case, means your cognitive function hierarchy, from dominant to inferior.

Inherently, any type has access to their feeling, thinking, sensing and intuitive functions, despite what the 4 letter code looks like. The difference is only in the hierarchy of their ordering.

The hierarchy shows the order in which you'd, under ideal conditions inherently* prefer to use your functions as well as the most probable linear course of development and usage that is expected for any type.

Dominant - Auxiliary - Tertiary - Inferior
​

However, the functions do not exist as separate elements, they interact constantly, which they in fact have to do, otherwise they would have no productive functionality.

The individual begins from the dominant, which resides as the most prominent part of the psyche, and uses the dominant to access other processes further down the line. Sometimes, so it happens the dominant will rather join the forces with the Tertiary rather than the Auxiliary, sometimes the Inferior will come into play in order to satisfy the demands of the environment before it's time.

Humans are not static, neither is their psyche, a fixed pattern exist (cognitive hierarchy), but it's inner workings are flexible.

I'll illustrate it with a metaphor.

• The cognitive hierarchy is akin to Genotype.

That is, the underlying cognitive constitution of an individual.

• The personality is akin to Phenotype.

A phenotype is any observable characteristic or trait of an organism: such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, behavior, and products of behavior. Phenotypes result from the expression of an organism's genes as well as the influence of environmental factors and the interactions between the two.

Personality is a product, the emergent traits, behaviors that manifest in an individual as a result of interaction not only of their functions but a huge number of influencing factors and stimuli we are exposed to every second of our lives that shape and prompt us.

There are no 16 personalities on the planet, but there are 16 distinct patterns that their individual personalities can be traced back to.

----

* There is some argument over what exactly makes such and such functional ordering inherent for an individual. It is often explained by the fact that they are the most energy efficient in a physiological and consequently psychological sense. There is some research to confirm this, but it is not conclusive yet.

My views quoted from another forum.

 

[ontheroadtohope]

From personal experience, I would also agree that types can change. Our environment can certainly influence us (positively and negatively) in a lot of ways. I don't view people who have learned to be more comfortable and natural extroverts, for example, as introverts who are just going through an extrovert "phase". I've witnessed people truly change what characteristics they're comfortable with expressing and are naturally good at using.

 

[Free Mind]

Do you believe MBTI types can change?

Yes.

 

[anica]

The changing o fMBTI Types over a lifespan

I don't know. Possibly, but I want to know a lot more about cognitive functioning, whih I've put off far too long. Anyone have a good link?

 

[Arsal]

Do you mean consciously or unconsciously?

To the former: no.
To the latter: no. Though there's not enough evidence to suggest either way.

 

[bs98r3kjf]

I don't think your MBTI necessarily stays the same your whole life. Technically, we're each a blend of at least two types and with the build-up of different life experiences, our types are bound to evolve to a certain extent.

 

[IndigoSensor]

My opinion is that MBTI is static and does not change throughout ones lifetime. The only time it "appears" to change is during the teenage years, and perhaps one's early 20's. However it is more that they are still realising who they are, and aspects that more easily determine ones personality shift. Typing them might be harder, but it's still the same personality type at the core.

So no, MBTI doesn't change.

 

[Jana]

No, we can adjust ourselves or become better in using other functions than main ones, but it is way of healthy growing.
Type is not person, it is specific way of functioning, we can't change that...

 

[44sunsets]

My opinion is that MBTI is static and does not change throughout ones lifetime. The only time it "appears" to change is during the teenage years, and perhaps one's early 20's. However it is more that they are still realising who they are, and aspects that more easily determine ones personality shift. Typing them might be harder, but it's still the same personality type at the core.

So no, MBTI doesn't change.

I agree with everything you said. I think one's MBTI type is innate and I find the idea of changing types completely absurd.

People go through different phases in their lives, this is normal. For example, at the moment I'm finding myself going through the auxiliary function phase where I seem to be using my introverted Thinking a lot. In my later years I'll probably go through the inferior function phase (extraverted Sensing) where I'll be doing lots of outdoorsy stuff, skydiving, risk-taking etc.

In my teens and early 20s I'd gone through the secondary function, extraverted Feeling phase which was pretty horrible, in retrospect. Way too mushy and touchy-feely.

 

[NiennaLadyOfTears]

I think we're born with the two middle letters set in stone for us and then life experiences determine whether we're E/I or J/P, but that once we've matured into a full adult that the MBTI doesn't change. It's just not accurate under 30 IMO.

 

[Saru Inc]

I am agreeance with Nienna a bit.


I believe that actually the J/P is the most flexible of all four letters. I do believe however as well, that the E/I, S/N, T/F, J/P, can fluctuate, and such at different parts of our lives can be different for a vast amount of time. But if it was to boil down, the 4 letter code would still be the same as a child.

 

[Diana]

My opinion is that MBTI is static and does not change throughout ones lifetime. The only time it "appears" to change is during the teenage years, and perhaps one's early 20's. However it is more that they are still realising who they are, and aspects that more easily determine ones personality shift. Typing them might be harder, but it's still the same personality type at the core.

So no, MBTI doesn't change.

+1

 

[Majesty]

There are many things in our personality that can change, but I don't think type is one of them.

I think we're born with the two middle letters set in stone for us and then life experiences determine whether we're E/I or J/P, but that once we've matured into a full adult that the MBTI doesn't change. It's just not accurate under 30 IMO.

J/P easily changing doesn't really make sense, because it would change everything. ENTPs and ENTJs are extremly different, more than let's say ENTP and ENFPs, since it changes all the functions

As for I/E it could be possible, even though I had everything to become an introvert in my childhood, and got extrovert. o_o

 

[Saru Inc]

There are many things in our personality that can change, but I don't think type is one of them.


J/P easily changing doesn't really make sense, because it would change everything. ENTPs and ENTJs are extremly different, more than let's say ENTP and ENFPs, since it changes all the functions

As for I/E it could be possible, even though I had everything to become an introvert in my childhood, and got extrovert. o_o

What I believe she meant is not that it can completely change, but that one can become vehemently more stringent to one side, vs the other. But all the while still remaining the original letter. (That is at least what i meant, and what I inferred from her)

 

[88chaz88]

I swear my type has changed drastically over the years.

 

[arbygil]

I don't think type changes, but I do think we can have one process stronger than another for a bit. You're settling on who you are, but you're basically using the same processes. You may be using them in a different order for a time because you're "testing" them out for size. So auxiliary may switch with tertiary or dominant switching with auxiliary. Or tertiary switching with inferior as you really test who you are and who you aren't.

But one it's settled in you, the type stays the type. Really in the end, it's what part's vying for the top spot.

You are who you are and that doesn't change...but as you begin understanding who you are and understanding how to be an adult and an individual, the letters get muddled for a bit until you finally agree with who you are. And then you become stronger than ever before.